feldmanlarry

October 31-Nov. 4, 2017 — Australian Eastern Daylight Time (first time we moved to a new location without a time change, 15 hours ahead of EDT).

Cradle Mountain, Tasmania

Cradle Mountain is on the island of Tasmania south of the mainland (see #7 on the map).

From Margaret — Somehow, Cradle Mountain, in the northwestern/central part of Tasmania feels very exotic. Strange flora and fauna can be observed here. While running and walking, I’m expecting to see a dinosaur come out of this extraordinary rain forest. Well, wombats and wallabies are more like it. I do see a few of those. The landscape here is rugged – the surrounding mountains jagged. Our first night there, we took a spotting tour. Our guides provided us with torches (flashlights) so we could see our way in the dark. After riding around on the bus for a little, we walked on a boardwalk out in the middle of nowhere and the guides used a spotter to find wildlife. It felt a bit like spotting in Allegany State Park to find owls, foxes, deer, bears, etc. Then again, it felt very different. We saw wombats, wallabies, bush tail possums, pademelons, and eastern quolls. We heard Tasmanian Devils calling each other but almost 80% have died off (more about them later) so its rare to see them in the wild. The moon and stars were bright and temperatures were in the upper 30’s (Fahrenheit, not Celsius like in Uluru).

Eastern Quolls

Pademelon

Echidna

Wombat (we saw many of these)

Another Pademelon

Wallaby

Black Currawong

Larry and I walked a small portion of the track around Dove Lake with our guide.  Later, I walked the 3.6-mile loop around the lake.  As I traveled, the feelings and surroundings changed – different landscapes and forests, different feelings of the exotic nature of this region.

Larry and I at Dove Lake

Our guide explains the trees and vegetation unique to this region.

Larry stands on “Suicide Rock” at Dove Lake. For obvious reasons they have changed the name.

Wild vegetation

Cradle Mountain, during my loop hike

Boardwalk, slightly snow-covered, on an early morning walk.

Larry was told later on never to touch a wombat since they can bite. Whoops.

From Larry — We did get to see Tasmanian Devils at a breeding facility. They have a type of facial cancer that is the only cancer that is contagious (fortunately not to humans). Because of this, they have created breeding centers around the country and mix the groups around since one of the problems was that there was too much inbreeding. They were amazingly cute and nothing like the cartoon character except for their howl.

Tasmanian Devil

Tasmanian Devils fighting over food

Hobart, Tasmania

Hobart is on the island of Tasmania south of the mainland (see #6 and #8 on the map).

I wanted to go to Tasmania because it has always had an appeal to me as a far off forgotten part of the world. There are commonalities to island culture around the world. We live in the Pittsburgh region but other regions are within a couple of hours of us. An island like Tasmania can establish a unique culture and unique flora and fauna without easy access to other regions.

One unique part of Tasmania is that it didn’t get a lot of destructive development that hit other parts of Australia so many of the very old beautiful buildings are still around. When we arrived, we had a two-hour private walking tour around the capital Hobart. The guide was a retired school principal and school psychologist who had a real passion for architecture.  The harbor area of Hobart had the feel of a European small town.

Downtown Hobart

Old Gallows

A big part of Tasmanian history is that it was a penal colony (as were other areas of Australia). Residents of a small town on the way to the mountains had purchased bricks to commemorate their ancestors convicted of petty crimes in England. Here are a couple of them.

Hard to imagine being sentenced, along with two children, to 7 years of hard labor in 1847 for stealing 2 geese.

Two sisters sentenced to 7 years for stealing shoes at age 20 and 24 in 1845.

We stopped at a site called a “Female Factory” in Ross where women prisoners served their sentences. The women were classified as Crime Class with hard labor jobs; Second Class with jobs of spinning, weaving, or sewing; or Assignment Class with jobs of cooking and cleaning. The last group were eligible to be assigned to leave the facility to work for free settlers.

Margaret and I are reading a book about Charles Dickens as part of a non-fiction book club and so much of Dickens’ life and novels were about this kind of inhumane treatment.

Remnants of the Female Factory in Ross from the 1840’s

Bridge in Ross built in 1836 by male convicts

This was my first time driving on the left, which was a little scary at first. I had to keep reminding myself to keep left. Roundabouts (traffic circles) are all over the place and I had to make sure I yielded, merged, and exited in the correct lanes. If I had a second to think, I would remember to use my right hand for the turn signal. Otherwise, the windshield wipers came on instead.

The drive took most of a day to get from Hobart to Cradle Mountain and most of a day to get back. It was painful not to able to move my right leg due to my hip fracture. The road was windy at the end and really scenic.

We stopped at a bakery and I found Vegemite on the menu, which is a “thick, black Australian food spread made from leftover brewers’ yeast extract with various vegetable and spice additives. It was developed by Cyril Percy Callister in Melbourne, Victoria in 1922.” (Wikipedia) It was very salty and quite disgusting but it was an experience.

In spite of the difficulties. I will likely only remember the joy of being in Tasmania. I can justify the other places we went to in Australia. Sidney and Melbourne are the two most famous big cities. Cairns has the Great Barrier Reef and tropical beaches. Uluru and Alice Springs have the Outback and the famous monolith. Tasmania is famous for its wildlife but I think it was mostly its obscurity that attracted me.

This reminds me of the paradox of a contest for the most boring person in the world. The winner of such a contest suddenly becomes interesting so the runner up of the contest has to become the most boring person in the world. That person now also becomes interesting and the process could never end. This has very little to do with Tasmania because no one would accuse Tasmania of being boring.

We’ve done a lot in Australia in just a little over two weeks but now it’s time to move on to New Zealand.