Tasmania

The South Coast Track

We happily received our first family visitor this month!  My dad, Buzz, flew in from Boulder on January 30 for a 3 week visit to Australia.  After a week of trundling around Sydney, he and I left for an adventure together in Tasmania.  It had been eight years since he and I joined up on a trip like this (we traveled to Patagonia and Peru together in 2001-02), and it was good to be on an overseas trip together again.

He left Sydney a day before I did so that he could participate in the Cradle Mountain Run; an 85 km race on Tasmania’s most well known trail (he finished as the first non-Australian – an awesome effort).  I met him the next day in the capital city of Hobart, from where we commenced our backpacking trip on the fabled South Coast Track, one of Tasmania’s most rugged and remote tracks.

I will not attempt to match the detailed description my dad already provided on his blog, but will elaborate this much:

By remote I mean no road crossings, shelters or plumbing of any kind, and you have to take a tiny 6-seat bush plane to get to the start.  After it drops you off in the middle of the wilderness, it’s an 84-km walk through eucalyptus forests, coastal hills, mud pits, and isolated beaches to the edge of the Park, which is also in the middle of nowhere (a once-a-day bus picks you up and brings you 2 hours back to Hobart).

By rugged I mean the gnarliest track I’ve ever set foot on: steep descents,  ankle grabbing roots, thigh deep mud pits, leeches, tiger snakes (one of the 10 deadliest snakes in the world – we saw a couple lurking in the bush).  And the weather was anything but mild: a cold snap kept temps in the 40-50 F range  and constant rain saturated our clothes and sleeping bags with water.

It was not a comfy stroll in the park.

But it was incredible being out there in such a remote region of an already remote land… we saw only a couple  hearty souls  during our 10-14 hours of walking each of the three days we were out, and I could ask for no better company than my dad on such a memorable adventure.

If nothing else, our experience in the wild and wet south coast set us up to really appreciate our next experience in Tasmania: the beaches of the east coast.    The day after completing the track, we cruised up the east coast and visited the Bay of Fires with little expectation other than feeling the warmth of the sun on our wary faces.  What we discovered was so much more: this was one of the most visually stunning beach-lined coasts we’ve ever seen.  Crystal clear turquoise water gently lapping on impossibly white sandy beaches, pink granite rock outcroppings covered in orange lichen, and hardly another set of footprints other than our own.  It was delightful.  That night we stumbled upon a quiet, open-air restaurant overlooking the beach and popped in for a bite to eat as the sun set.  To say this dinner was an upgrade from our diet of salami and brick-o-cheese we enjoyed on our backpacking trip would be an unforgivable understatement.  Crispy skinned Tasmanian hapuka fish with pureed pumpkin and julienned snow peas and several glasses of chilled Bay of Fires Sauvignon Blanc… it was good to step off the dirtbag trail for one night (we would find out after dinner that this restaurant was voted by some as the best in the country – no joke).

After a good night’s sleep in the back of our rented station wagon, we cruised down the coast to Freycinet National Park.  Feeling fortified by our previous nights meal, we set off on a beautiful 32-km run around the headlands of the beach studded peninsula.  What a difference the sun and a  dry trail makes!  We were like kids in a playground, gliding down the cruisy single track, stopping for dips in the ocean, and taking in broad vistas of white sand beaches and the sparkling ocean.  It was enjoyable beyond belief.

What an incredible place Tasmania is.  Rugged coastal ranges, pristine beaches, rural farmland, exotic animals like wallabies, quolls, and wombats, Hobart with its vibrant cafe and gallery scene… it’s a little island that packs a lot of punch.

See my pictures from Tasmania here

See my dad’s pictures from the South Coast Track here