Water and Moss

We drove from Hobart to Strahan in rain today, through Tasmanian wilderness. It was beautiful.

On the way, we stopped at Lake St. Clair, but it was too wet to walk to the lake. However, our next stop was outstanding. The Franklin River Wilderness walk may only be 20 minutes or 1 km, but it is impressive. 

You see the Franklin River.

And the Surprise River.

And an enormous amount of moss.

And tall trees.

And fungus.

Then we stopped at the Nelson Falls. This was another short but beautiful walk.

After that, it rained quite hard, and we were running late, so we didn’t stop again.

Queen Elizabeth Cape Walk

Bruny Island was so good yesterday that we decided to go back today and attempt the Queen Elizabeth Cape walk - a day walk of 12kms along the beach and up to the cape atthe end. After going along a track through the scrub, and past a big lagoon and a small lagoon (both empty because of the drought), we finally came to the track toward the beach. This path can only be taken at low tide because the rocky bluff extends three fingers out  towards the bay, and two of them can’t be walked past at higher tides. The beach is near the neck, so it was the one we were on early yesterday, and looks much the same.

You then find a hole in the rocks and walk through it.

The rocky fingers of the bluff are eroded.

The last part of the rocky fingers is an arch.

We walked to the end of the last beach then went up to the cape.

On the way we saw a Bassian Thrush.

We walked back to the beach, then went back over the bluff as the tide was too high. At the beach we saw some giant kelp that had broken off.

As we went back, we met several people who had given up on the walk because it was too difficult. We were very pleased with ourselves.

Fluted Cape Walk

To get to Bruny Island you catch a ferry from a beautiful bay full of yachts.

We went to Truganini Lookout, which is up a lot of steps, but gives an expansive view of the south part of Bruny Island and The Neck.

We went down to the beach and watched the surf.

We drove around the island for a little, and found many of the roads weren’t paved, so we couldn’t visit the lighthouse. Eventually, we ended up in Adventure Bay and found a walk to Grass Place and Fluted Cape. From Grass Place we saw Fluted Cape, and were sure that the walk couldn’t possibly go to the top.

We walked up a very steep path, and saw several rock needles on the way.

Including the ones that we decided were the flutes on Fluted Cape.

When we got to the top, there were other people who we got to take a photo including the island in Grass Place where we came from.

We were both quite amazed that we had succeeded in doing the entire walk when we finished, and found it was grade 3 (of five).

To celebrate, we had some incredibly delicious fresh oysters. Bruny Island definitely is justified in being advertised as having some of the best oysters anywhere.

 

Port Arthur

Possibly the most known part of Tasmania is the Port Arthur peninsula, where the penal colony for the worst convicts was located. No part of the peninsula is more infamous than Eaglehawk Neck, which divides it from the mainland. The surf was so loud, that escapees couldn’t be heard, so a row of chained dogs guarded the neck. 

The coast of most of the peninsula is very jagged, and the surf pounds it, making it very difficult to escape, but also breathtaking.

There are a number of interesting rock formations. The Devils Kitchen.

The Tasman Arch.

The most impressive we found was the Remarkable Cave, where the surf pours through a keyhole arch. There is a platform a metre or two above the sand otherwise you would be engulfed. The rock is almost covered.

The last formation we saw was the Tessellated Pavement. I’ve never seen one before that was sandstone - usually they’re basalt.