Rob, Heath, and Nina
Originally uploaded by Heather and Rob.
At the end of March, mom came to Australia to visit!! She arrived sick and tired, after a bout of food poisoning on the flight over - poor momma! But was such a trooper, and was up and raring to go by the next day when we flew off to Launceston, Tasmania. We arrived late afternoon, picked up our rental car, and booked in to the Launceston Arthouse Hostel. Launceston has a very sea-oriented feel, it's located on the Tamar River and our first walk in Tasmania was along the Cataract Gorge, where the river is cut into dolerite cliffs. Climbers, bathers, and joggers abound along the Tamar River here. Our dinner the first night was at a classic Australian pub, with the local Boags beer (brewed in Launceston and much tastier than much of the Aussie beer) on tap.
The next day, we headed northwest...and stopped at a raspberry farm, a cheese-making farm, and a distillery. But the highlight of the day was a visit at duck to a little creek-side park called Fern Glade. Here, at the park, a local population of intrepid platypuses. Rob, with his keen eye, spotted the first one from a viewing platform. And I missed it! But... with persistent (read: stubborn) continued observation further down the creek, we spotted another one. Yay! We got to follow the cute little platypus make its way down the creek: swimming on the surface for several seconds, and then diving down to look for shrimp, yabbies, insects, or other delicious dinner foods. Platypuses are gorgeous critters. Together with echidnas, they are the only egg-laying mammals (monotremes) that exist today. They have long duck-like bills and furry bodies, with a particularly venomous hind claw that prevents these guys from being cuddly creatures. They're nocturnal, so this was a real treat. Unfortunately, a dusk-time forest walk meant the drive to Stanley was in the dark - a dangerous task when Tassie wildlife comes to life at dark! We somehow managed to escape adding to the absolutely massive Tasmanian roadkill count and arrived safely in northwestern Tas late that night.
The next day we hiked up the "Nut", an old volcanic neck that forms a promontory above the town of the Stanley and the ocean to the north. Stanley was the headquarters for the Van Diemen's Land Company, a wool sheep venture in the 19th century. Stanley's claim to fame these days is as the "tidiest town in Tasmania", and tidy it is. From Stanley, you can just make out the islands that lie within Bass Straight to the north. But our view to the south was a bit obscured by a brown haze from several wildfires - making us nervous about the days to come.
We drove southeast from Stanley, stopping at Dip Falls, a two-tiered waterfall that flows over a columnar-jointed basaltic lava flow. The columns are stepped, where portions have eroded and fallen down into the pool below (check out our pictures on flickr!) and we had a great climb around on the columns before returning to the road toward Cradle Mountain.
Rob and I headed off the next morning for trip up Cradle Mountain and planned to meet back with mom at the end of the day. The morning was brisk and clouds covered the mountain top. The rangers suggested we alter our plan to make a loop around Dove lake and Cradle Mountain because rain was likely. So, we began a beautiful brisk morning walk up the mountain. The track is beautiful, reminiscent of the boardwalk portions of the Appalachian Trail in Maine. Glacial lakes and U-shaped valleys are surrounded by beech trees and buttongrass plains. And... the clouds cleared up enough to have a view of the Cradle Mountain monolith. At lunchtime, we ran into a group of people who had just begun a week long trek along the Overland Track. Their walk would take them from Dove Lake south to Lake St. Claire... but this popular hike is known to have a chance of nasty weather at any time of year. And, as our luck would have it, the weather began to take a turn for the worse. As we stepped out of the shelter after our lunch break, hail began to fall and a horizontal wind blew the hail, slapping against our bare legs as we walked back downhill! I would have to say, it was the most painful, least enjoyable hike I've ever been on. For the following hour, I basically ran downhill... yelling to Rob that he should try to save himself, but neglecting to look back to see if he had or had not been blown off the mountain by the hail. I'm not sure where all of the trees decided to run to at that exact moment, but there wasn't even any shelter to hide behind as the hail pummeled down on us. :) So, when we arrived at the bottom, we jumped into the car, cranked up the heat (those poor saps just beginning their week-long hike!), and thought about heading back to our warm Cosy Cabin... we realized that mom had the only key, and we weren't due to meet her for hours. Classic. We managed to finagle a spare key from the main office and joyously the sun then came out for the rest of the afternoon. Isn't that always the way?
