After eight years of living in Australia, we finally realised our dream of visiting Tasmania. Like a delicious cake, we did not want to have it all in one go but wanted to savour each bite slowly. So we decided that we would only do western Tassie to start with. The drive from Sydney to Melbourne and then on by the Spirit of Tasmania to Devonport was an experience – the longest we had ever driven.
It was straight to Tullah from Devonport and all we could see were picture postcards along the way. Poppy fields and pretty villages. Staying at the Tullah Lakeside Lodge on the banks of Lake Rosebery was such peace after our busy city lives. We explored the lake surrounds, trekked around Dove lake, visited Montezuma falls and took the Western Wilderness rail journey from Queenstown to Strahan. Each was wonderful in its own different way.
The best part of all our travels were the encounters with native animals in the wild. Never having seen an echidna in the wild we stopped the car on the side of the highway and excitedly took a video of the shy creature on our phone camera! Just when we thought we had the highlight of our trip we encountered two tiger snakes when walking around Lake St Clair! I perfected my driving in the steep narrow winding mountain roads from Queenstown to Lake St Clair with my heart in my mouth! The ‘human’ rock we chanced behind some bushes at Lake St Clair (see picture) was very funny.
The stop at the village of Lower Crackpot at Tazmania was delightful even though we are both 47 years old! It was lovely to chance upon the creator Brian’s wife while lost in the maze, who gave us a lovely personal account of the history of this place. The end of the holiday came too soon. We were to explore Melbourne on the return but after being lost and so infused with nature in Tasmania, the city seemed so unreal. Sydney brought us back to senses and life continues but we will always remember the dream that was Tasmania.
We will make it reoccur!