Melbourne and Tasmania

14 Mar 2007 06:05 - Australië

Hello again,

As soon as I'd had enough of peaches and nectarines I bought a ticket for the ferry to Tasmania and left Cobram to go to Melbourne. But only after I had said good-bye to my neighbours Alex and Markus (a German couple I met in Cobram) by having a few beers together.

After driving trough Melbourne's CBD and getting used to all the trams and Hook-turns I picked up Simon (an Aussie I met during my sailing trip on the Whitsundays) at the train station and we drove to his place in Bacchus Marsh. Simon lives there with a mate and they were kind enough to let me crash there for the night. After diner we went to pick up another mate (Watto) in Ballarat and together we went on a pub crawl. The following day I visited the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) and had lunch in the botanical gardens where I visited the Vietnam Memorial. At 6pm I boarded the "Spirit of Tasmania" at station pier. My impressions of Melbourne are very nice and I promised myself to come back and take a long walk trough the CBD to explore the city a little better.
The actual trip across Bass Strait took 10 hours and the weather was reasonably calm. There was a restaurant on board, but being a true backpacker, I had brought some sandwiches with me. At night passengers could watch a movie (Garfield 2), but even though this was incredibly boring, sleeping was pretty much impossible because passengers travelling economy class only get a seat to sleep in. Since I couldn't sleep in my seat I went to the upper deck where I found several other passengers sleeping on benches and decided to sleep on a bench as well.
After arriving in Devonport I drove to the east coast where I visited the Freycinet NP. In this park I spent a couple of hours walking and met a small group of German people. Together we spent the day on the beach where I discovered that you can body surf in jeans (I left my swimmers in the car...) Near the parking area in this park I saw a Tiger snake. That evening I drove to a camping area near the beach and the next day I went to the Tasman Peninsula where I enjoyed the scenery and drove to the old convict town of Port Arthur before driving to Hobart. In Hobart I visited the Harbour and had lunch in the botanical gardens. After spending the night in a small village north west of Hobart I drove the the Cradle Mountain Lake St.Clair NP. It had been raining all morning but that did not stop me from taking a 5 hour walk trough this beautiful park. When I was about to drive to the northern part of the park I met Ben (another German :) ) at the Visitor Centre. He had just finished the overland track (a 5-8 day walk from Cradle Mountain to Lake St.Clair). After enjoying a cup of coffee I gave Ben a lift to Cradle Mountain where his car was parked. As we approached Cradle Mountain I nearly hit a kangaroo that jumped on to the road in front of us. That night we went on a "wildlife safari" in Ben's car and I saw my first wombat in the wild. :)
The next day we got up early and to my surprise there was ice on my window. No wonder I had use my blanket for the first time in Australia! we drove to Dove Lake where we started our 7 hour trip to the summit of Cradle Mountain, 1545 metres above sea level. The climb was pretty difficult (especially the last part) but the view from the top was absolutely breathtaking. The weather had changed again and we had a beautiful, sunny day without wind.
On our way to the summit we met Jasmina (another German backpacker :) ) and we ended up spending the rest of the day together. When we were walking back to the car we visited two more lakes and I almost stepped on a white lipped whip snake. At 8pm we were finally back at the parking area where we had diner and just relaxed for the rest of the evening.
The next day Ben and I left for Mole Creek Karst NP where we visited a glow worm cave. The next stop was Sheffield (Town of murals) and finally Devonport. In Devonport we went to see the penguins return to the beach to feed their chicks.
Thursday would be my last day in Tassie, we went to the art gallery and the Tiagarra Aboriginal Cultural Centre before I boarded the ferry at 7pm.

Well, that's my trip to Tassie... One week is definitely not enough time to see everything.
I'm now back in Melbourne and it's about time for that stroll trough the CBD I promised myself a week ago so see you all later!

Greetz,

Bart

P.S. I know I'm cheating a bit by posting this translation this late and acting like I'm still in Melbourne (I am currently in Millicent) but there's nothing you can do about it is there.... :P