Close to the Edge of the World.....

Lake St Claire, Tasmania. Thursday 5 February.

Tinselvania, as Tasmania has become to be known in our trip, was soon upon us. On the overnight ferry from Melbourne we held a toast- ‘hello Tinselvania!’ It was rapidly followed by Olivia’s announcement of ‘and Goodbye ricecakes.’
The source of this little ditto, for those who have ever tried to feed Olivia will know, lays in her appetite, or rather more like, lack of appetite. Despite much thought given to this subject on our daily supermarket sweeps, the vast majority of her lunches have consisted of cucumber, carrot, peanut butter and ricecakes. So it was quite logical for her to celebrate leaving mainland Australia after 4 months by toasting the food she has probably consumed the most of, hoping never to see them again!

'The Spirit of Tasmania'

Tasmania was a relatively late addition to the places we both wanted to see on this trip, but after less than 48 hours here, we are all hooked. From the moment we boarded the ferry and found we had our own cabins (so exciting) , to standing on the edge of Lake St Claire this evening at dusk, you can feel there is something special about this place.
On our first morning we made paper, discovered the source of an amazing Tassie cheese we have been eating, and met Australias ‘Officer Friendly.’ In addition we had also spent 15 minutes in the company of the first Wiszla we have seen since leaving Fire at home. Jasper the 2 year old dog, probably did not know what hit him as 5 people jumped out of their camper to mob him and his owner.

Being greeted at the door at the amazing Creative Paper Factory in Burnie.

Strahan, pronounced ‘strawn’, where we have stayed for 2 nights, lies on the west coast of the island and on the beautiful Macquarie Harbour. Apart from being 9 times bigger than Sydney’s harbour, this places real fame is as the home of the infamous Sarah Island prison and ‘Hells Gates,’ the 70m wide rock strewn entrance to the harbour from the Southern Ocean. This is one of the roughest and hostile seas in the world but on the day we took a harbour tour, it must have been the stillest and most placid of the year. Our boat tour took us out between the rocky Gates and into the ocean. There were no waves but we immediately felt we were on an enormous rollercoaster as the Arctic rollers hit us. The relief as we turned back to the calm of the harbour was felt by everyone.

'Hells Gates'- a millpond!


The drive from Strahan to Hobart is 5 hours of wiggly mountain pass followed by miles of majestic plains, so have stopped ½ way at Lake St Claire, which at 147m deep is Australias deepest lake. For an island so small Tasmania seems to have an extraordinary number of big mountains, huge tracts of bush and big expanses of water. In addition it has 3 varieties of snake, all deadly poisonous. After a close encounter today, Maddie now knows and will never forget that the Tiger snake is jet black, about 4 foot long and is the 4th most venomous snake on the planet. I shall save the tale as I am sure she will enjoy telling when we are back home!
Hobart tomorrow for 4 days and I may even get to play my first round of disc golf since leaving home.......
Andy & Lu