Yes, exactly where the Tasmanian Devil is... although nowadays almost extinct and to be seen only in Zoos. This small island at the very south of Australia is known by its natural beauties and its incredible walks. So to say, a Hiking mecca.
We have never been there before, but at least for Tati, the image of Tasmania was of an incredible mountain area, very lush! And together with the lush part, of course, rain, lots of it! Great walks, but muddy ones... of course!
And that was Tati's mindset while preparing for this trip, she could totally see herself in a 3 day incredible hiking, but wet from head to toe!
As a bit of background information... We must add that, we do love hiking, more than anything. It doesn't matter how hard or how long... but we do always pray for the NO-WET-FEET God.
:-))
Yes, we admit, we are really chicken in this respect.
In New Zealand we saw, with great astonishment, all the hiking Kiwis (New Zealand folks) crossing rivers and muddy areas. Straight through, in and out, and there they went... splash splash splash splash trail along.
The very same cross would take us an extra half hour of strategic movements with the goal of arriving at the other side, with DRY FEET... of course. :-)
So, this Tasmania idea, came with a big range of excitement but the mental preparation that we would also face 3 days of ... the unavoidable... WET FEET!
Read the Tasmanian Hikes Guide Book and you will find, clearly stated: Be prepared for all types of weather!
It didn't mater how often Matthias would look in the weather forecast and swear that it would NOT rain...
There we went, mentally prepared for lots of water falling from above and well armed with rain gear!
We arrived in Launceston Airport in the afternoon, got our rental car and off we went to “Walls of Jerusalem” National Park.
The first striking thing was the tiny size of the town and the slow pace of Tasmania. In this 300km diameter Island, lots of cows, sheep and agricultural land, hilly sites and tiny tiny towns in between.
Try to get something to eat after 6pm and you will get only one answer: „Backtrack 15km and you will find the only 24hour bakery in the region between Launceston and Cradlle Mountain & Walls of Jerusalem.“
It doesn't matter if you would like to have bread or not, that will be the only place that serves something eatable between 6pm and 8am.
The second striking thing is that every place has the best Pie or won the Pie Competition. Makes you wonder how many “first” places they have...
Bread and pies inside our bellies, we slept in the car, a big Holden Commodore that turns into a great King size „bed“ if you fold the back seats.
At 11am the next morning we were at the trail head.
And, no, it was not raining. But, of course, we thought, it is just a matter of time. Put the feet in the trail and off the rain goes!
But so far so good.
This first day was a 6-hour only uphill to win the 700m altitude to get to the plateau where the Walls are. Starting in a dense forest to end up in a high altitude vegetation range.
The third striking thing for us was, that indeed, the vegetation was looking much less lush that what we have expected. A little bit like a dry season feeling.
But still, we thought, it was just a matter of time...
Getting in the plateau was just like getting to wonderland. Lake after lake, it was almost like the whole area was a big lake, with some parts of it covered with a funny type of grass. Now and then a river would break through the grass and make its appearance visible, almost as a reminder that we were, in fact, walking above the water. Mix that with the amazing stone formations of the wall and it is difficult to take the awe expression out of your face.
In order to protect this incredible delicate mix of water, grass, bushy vegetation a board walk was put up and making for a highway for the hikers. From time to time you would spot a Kangaroo jumping around and showing who was owning the place.
We put up our tent near one of the lakes, having Kangaroos and some little black snakes as neighbors.
Yes, yes, snakes are something you have to be aware of. But as Matthias said, they are only little baby snakes that sometimes by accident would cross our way. :-/
And there we spent the rest of our 3 days, hiking around to all paths we could find....
Climbing many summits...
And just enjoying being there...
Being able to see stars as clearly as traffic lights, the milk-way like MILK... :-)), and chatting to one or other hikers we would meet on the way!
One of the talks was with a biologist, making a survey on the park. He was kind enough to tell us that the little baby black snakes were on the very top of the 10 most deadly of the world. Something really good to know after have almost stepped in one and spotted 5 of them in only 2 days. Imagine how many of those little ve
nom creatures are living nicely around the area!
At the very last day, we decided to do one last ascent to one part of the wall before packing our stuff and going down to hit our way back.
You can see that the view was more than worth the effort! The problem came when we arrived down in our base camp and realized that we ha
d run out of fuel to cook lunch. We had also run out of snack food and the only thing left was fast noodles... that are fast... but still need hot water to be cooked. With no neighbors to ask for help and too hungry to start a 5 hour walk to the car park...
Matthias, winning the best price for improvisation cook, was able to make the best uncooked-noddle
salad I have ever tasted in my life!! Not that I have tried many.. or any.. before, but I tell you, for a mix of uncooked-fast-noddle, onions, paprika and carrots and cream-cheese, it was tasting superb!
And yes, it did rain! Once, at night, we were sleeping and we never got wet feet.
The forth thing we learn
ed during the trip: Tasmania's capital city Hobart, is the second driest capital city of Australia. And to own this price in a desert-like country like Australia, you have to really be dry!
At the end, Tasmania is indeed a Hikers Mecca, beautiful walks, but this lush, rainy and muddy idea ... was not exactly the reality! Only: when it rains – it RAINS!
Our prays for the DRY-FEET Gods were heard!
