Under Down Under

By Maxine Bates

As part of a month long trip to Australia in December 2015/January 2016 my partner and I booked a backpackers tour of Tasmania with a company called Under Down Under. Correspondence was minimal. Just one email confirming receipt of payment back in April and another confirming our pick up time and location when I chased for that information prior to leaving the UK. However, the tour itself was well organised and we had an informative driver/guide.

Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake

As the last night of the tour was spent at the Hobart YHA we booked the same accommodation for our pre-departure night as we knew pick up would be around 7am. The staff were helpful and friendly, the rooms clean, but it was quite noisy with street cleaners and bin men at all times of night plus the nearby town hall clock chiming on the hour. But Hobart is as busy as it gets in Tasmania. 
 
Having picked up our group of 24 travellers originating from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, France, Germany, Switzerland, Malaysia, Japan and China – we were the only Britons – our first stop was Mt Field National Park. We took our first one of Tasmania’s “60 great short walks” which was a 30 minute easy walk to Russell Falls. We also strolled by Lake St Clair taking note of the sign saying “snakes will not readily attack unless accidentally trodden on, cornered or threatened, so simply watch where you put your feet.” Tiger snakes are active on warm and sunny days and this was one of them. Despite Tasmania usually experiencing six days of rain out of seven we didn’t see any rain during our week long stay on the island. (Though Sydney had a tornado whilst we were there and enough rain one day to make the news headlines so topsy turvy weather!)

Our first and second nights on tour we stayed in the pretty town of Strahan (pronounced strawn) on the west coast. Despite being another YHA, because we had booked a private room rather than places in a dorm we were given one of the six small wooden lodges all named after wildlife. Thus our home became “Platypus Lodge”, quite appropriate considering a stream ran through the hostel grounds and a wild platypus lived there. Unfortunately there were no sightings of it during our stay despite us sitting quietly on the viewing platform for a while.
 
Next day we were given the choice of a long hike or an optional boat trip. I opted for the latter which sailed through the narrow “Hell’s Gate” channel and past a salmon fishing farm to Sarah Island. The island was a penal settlement between 1822 and 1833 and housed convicts who re-offended upon arrival on mainland Australia. Despite having a surgeon and nurses living on the island and convicts being taught shipbuilding, conditions were the harshest of all the penal settlements and many tried unsuccessfully to make their escape. Our guide was the highly entertaining Kaya whose father had researched and devised the tours and since his death three years ago she has continued running the tours in his memory. During the hour long walk around the island she brought to life the ruins with some audience participation.

Back on board our ship a buffet lunch was served including Tasmanian smoked salmon (as seen earlier!), Tasmanian cheese (similar to Brie) and Tasmanian wine (served in their standard 150ml size). It was all yummy so guess who was quick off the mark once seconds were offered!? We then sailed along the Gordon River which is part of the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park to Heritage Landing. This is a landing stage with boardwalk around the small island to view the flora and fauna. Highlights were seeing a tiger snake and the tall huan pine trees. Back at the dock in Strahan there was a pine processing demonstration in a mill narrated by Kaya.

Rejoining the rest of our group we drove the short distance to Henty Dunes. These 30 metre high sand dunes are growing year by year and our guide suggested a walk. Well, it was two steps up and one step back as the gradient was steep and the sand fine. After a stroll across the top we “sand skied” down an even steeper gradient. All good fun once we had got over the shock of the descent and getting covered in sand!

There was just time for a quick change before some of us opted to watch The Ship That Never Was in the Richard Davey Amphitheatre in Strahan. This is Australia’s longest running play and is staged at 5.30pm every day from September to May currently tallying over 5,000 performances over 20 years. The play is based on a true story about convicts who built ships on Sarah Island with just two actors – one was Kaya - and much audience participation. A great laugh from start to finish and the best 75 minutes entertainment you can get for AUS$10. If you’re in Strahan don’t miss it!

Next stop was beautiful Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park where once again we were given varying walk options. Half of our group chose to walk the two hour circuit around Dove Lake whilst others attempted a steep climb at Marion’s Lookout. Cradle Mountain itself is 1,545 metres high so a little too high for the time we had available. Those doing the easier route also had time to ride the shuttle bus around the park and could hop off/on at any of the five stops. Ronny Creek made the ideal picnic stop next to a babbling brook. Although that area of the park is known for wombats we actually saw echidnas instead. Before this trip I’d never heard of echidnas, let alone seen one, but they are native to Australia and look like an overgrown hedgehog. The visitor centre contained exhibits and a film show about the park. There are all types of trails including the “enchanted walk” for families with very young children. Just take your own food and drink as the one café is crowded and overpriced!

We continued to our overnight stop in Launceston (pronounced lorn-cess-ton rather than our British lorn-ston). They both have the Tamar River flowing through them! We did find that Tasmanians are not very original when it comes to place names – Derby (pronounced der-bee rather than the British dar-bee), Bracknell, Beaconsfield, Exeter, Sheffield… The latter is known as the “town of murals” as the locals have painted most buildings as a way of putting themselves on the map and attracting visitors. Our guide recommended the British “Cock And Bull” pub as a good place to meet and eat, so some of our group went there in the evening. In my opinion Launceston YHA was the worst place we stayed on tour as rooms had no wifi, no towels, no plug sockets and no mirrors. Guests sat in pyjamas in the corridors charging phones!

Next day we said goodbye to a few of our group who were flying from Launceston to Sydney to watch the New Year’s Eve fireworks. After a pleasant walk along Launceston Gorge we  continued to the east coast with various scenic stops en route to Bay Of Fires. We had a couple of hours at the beach with its gorgeous sand and clear blue water, although no facilities and not much shade. The arrival of our small group made the beach as busy as it ever gets. Then it was onward to Bicheno on the Freycinet Peninsula. A seaside town with a population of just over 800 people, so we weren’t anticipating a wild and exciting New Year’s Eve! We arrived just in time to grab pizzas before the take-away closed for the year as there weren’t many other food options. Our itinerary was supposed to include a visit to watch the little penguins come ashore to nest but, because it was New Year’s Eve, the visitor attraction was closed. However, we were told some penguins came ashore at other places than this rookery, so we wandered down to the beach for some penguin spotting and to watch the last sunset of 2015. When the wind picked up and we started getting cold most of us headed back to our accommodation to hold an impromptu party. It was only the next day we discovered the few people who had remained on the beach had seen penguins arrive! We welcomed the New Year with wine, beer, nibbles, chatting, card games and watching the Melbourne fireworks on TV.     
 
We were up at 6am on 1 January as our driver wanted to beat the rush to Wineglass Bay. Being New Year’s Day there was no rush and we were just about the only idiots up at that time and walking another of the “60 great short walks” to a viewpoint over Wineglass Bay! As compensation we stopped at a lavender farm selling homemade lavender ice cream that many of us sampled. Very purple!

In the afternoon we visited Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary which was one of my personal highlights. The staff clearly cared for their animals and we were given talks at the wombat and koala enclosures and allowed to do some petting. Koalas sleep for 20 hours a day and spend the rest eating only eucalyptus leaves. Very cute but also very lazy! We also had a talk at the Tasmanian devil enclosure but no petting allowed as these creatures can be quite vicious. Their lunch included a whole dead chick so we were told to look away if squeamish. Unfortunately the Tasmanian devil is in danger of extinction due to a contagious facial cancer that is spreading amongst the species. Unfortunately too around one third of Tasmanian devils that are rehabilitated at the sanctuary and released back to the wild then become road kill, due to their lack of road safety and being black in colour, not being easily spotted by motorists at night. Research is taking place into this new form of cancer but it may be too late. We were then given a bag of feed – compressed grass pellets – and allowed to enter the kangaroo enclosure to hand feed these lovely marsupials. A wonderful experience! The gift shop sold “kangapoo”, a combination of kangaroo poo and leaf mulch for AUS$3.00 per bag with all proceeds going to assist wildlife conservation projects. The perfect present!?

We then returned to the capital of Hobart where more of our group departed whilst some stayed an extra day to visit Port Arthur, 100km south east of Hobart. This is another penal settlement and actually replaced Sarah Island when that closed. We had several hours here to take a 40 minute guided tour, then a self-guided tour of the rest of the site including ruins of the penitentiary, hospital, surgeon’s house, churches, dockyard, etc, and finally a boat cruise around Isle Of The Dead and Point Puer. Both these places – a cemetery for convicts and prison for boys respectively - were disembarkation stops for anyone booking additional guided tours. En route to Port Arthur we had a brief stop in Richmond to see the oldest bridge in Australia built by convicts in 1823 and still in excellent condition. 
 
Back in Hobart the “Taste Of Tasmania” food festival was in full swing. In addition to a huge wharf shed and gazebos full of stalls selling a variety of food and drink there was free musical (bagpipes) and family film (Shaun The Sheep) entertainment on the lawns with large beanbags provided to sit on. Unfortunately we missed the arrival of the yachts taking part in the Sydney to Hobart race by one day. 

In my opinion Tasmania is nothing like any of the other Australian states or territories. More wild and rugged and far less densely populated. If you like the outdoors and ever get the chance to visit, then please do so.