Where
to begin with this part of our pre-tour.
This was the highlight of the trip.
The scenery was spectacular and the wildlife plentiful. I only wish we had more days to spend here.
We
left Hobart on Wednesday morning for a full day’s travel to the Pepper Lodge in
Cradle Mountain National Park. We made
two stops to visit small towns along the way.
These towns date back to the early 1800’s and have some
similarities. Both had stone bridges
built by convicts, both had little bakeries that served delicious snacks and
meat pies, and both towns have had to reinvent themselves to keep from
dissolving.
The
first town we stopped in was Ross, which was founded in 1821, and they use the
four corners to promote tourism. The
four corners is an intersection as you enter the town. One corner is called temptation as the local
pub is located there; the second is called damnation and was the site of the
city jail (it is now a private residence); the third is salvation where a church sits; and the fourth is
relaxation where the Town Hall is located. In the middle of the intersection is a war memorial for soldiers lost in WWI and succeeding wars. There is also a stone church that dates back
to 1885 and a barracks building that used to house the soldiers that guarded
the convicts in the early 1800’s. It
also has the remnants of a female factory (or female jail). It was a quaint little town with homes built
in the old English style. The stone
bridge was built in 1836 by two convict stonemasons, who were freed upon
completion of the bridge.
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| Stone Uniting Church |
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| War Memorial |
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| Telephone booths that are still operational |
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| Quaint little home in Ross |
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| Stone Bridge of Ross |
The
second town was Campbell Town, located only about 10 miles away. They chose to
remember the heritage of the convicts that helped build their town. They created a strip of bricks in the
sidewalk that each contain the name and age of the convict, the ship he (or
she) arrived on, what he/she was accused of, and how long the sentence
was. They also have three trees that
were the oldest trees in town, but they had died and were considered a safety
hazard. However, because they were
original trees, the historians did not want to cut them down because they were
heritage. A local chainsaw artist came
up with a plan to turn them into wood sculptures and with the help of the local
people created a beautiful little point of interest. As an aside, our bus driver Gordon, who was a
former elementary principal and an avid historian of Tasmanian history, gave us
the story of the navigator of Wiley Post’s 1931 historic plane trip which set
the record for flying around the world in 8 days, 15 hours, and 51 minutes – Harold
Gatty. Charles Lindburgh called Gatty
the “Prince of Navigators. Gatty was
from Campbell Town and as Post’s navigator, did most of the hard work on the
flight – fuel and oil consumption, route planning, etc. – but never got any of
the recognition. He had spent his life
learning about airplane navigation and wrote a book on airborne navigation.
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| Convict's Brick |
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| Convict's Brick |
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| Wood Sculpture |
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| Stone Bridge of Campbell Town |
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| Harold Gatty Memorial |
During
the drive to Cradle Mountain, we saw lots of sheep farms – sheep farming is
very big in Tasmania. These sheep are
Runney Sheep and are raised as food, not for their wool. There are some sheep
farmers who raise Merino sheep whose wool is used for high-grade clothing. To pass away the time on the drive, Ben had a
trivia quiz on Australia and Australian slang.
Bill and I tied for first place with 14 out of 30 questions correct. He also passed out some Australian candy –
fantails which are caramel candies covered in chocolate and are called fan
tails because the wrapper has a trivia question on many of todays’ celebrities.
We
stopped in Deloraine for lunch and, of course, had to go to the bakery for one
of Tassie’s meat pies. Bill had the
steak and I had the chicken and camembert pie – both very good. Deloraine is known for its aluminum carvings
located around the town center and its wood carving festival every year in
November. After lunch, Ben played some
Australian songs, to include Waltzing Matilda and Ned Kelly, by Johnny
Cash. It really made the time go by!
One
of the unique things we have seen in Tasmania are the Wicked Campers. These are camper-style vehicles that remind
you of our Hippie volkswagons. On the
back of these campers are printed in large print some funny (and some not fit
of a G-rated audience) sayings. Examples
are: “Beer makes you see double, but
makes you feel single”; “Don’t hate yourself in the morning, sleep until noon”;
and “When it comes to Chardonnay, my glass is half empty”.
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| Wicked Camper |
We
finally arrived at the Pepper Lodge at Cradle Mountain around 3:30. Cradle Mountain is part of the Great Western
Tiers mountain range in central Tasmania.
This is a beautiful lodge with about 90 little cottages set in the
forest area. We were in a building that
had four units. They had a gas fireplace
that also acted as the heater. So if you
wanted to stay warm at night you had to keep the fireplace on. It would turn off once your desired
temperature was reached, but it would turn back on again when the temperature
dropped below that. Consequently I kept
waking up each time the fireplace turned back on.
After
we arrived, Bill and I took hike on one of their hiking trails, the King Billy
Trail, through the temperate rain forest.
All the trails had boardwalks so you did not trample the ground
cover. It was like walking in a
prehistoric paradise. Green moss cover
most of the ground and many of the trees.
There were a lot of Blue Gum Trees (a species of eucalyptus that is Australia’s
country tree) and several large trees called King Billy Pine that resembled our
redwoods in size. They were brought over
by the English colonists. Near the top
of our walk there is a level area that is covered in cedar-like
undergrowth. The wombats love this
vegetation and as we walked through the field, there was a wombat eating his
way around us. Wombat’s have no fear of
humans or cars. They seem to do what
they want, when they want. Consequently,
you find a lot of dead wombats along the side of the road. In fact, as we entered the park area, our
driver had to slam on the brakes to keep from hitting one who just wandered out
in front of us. Coming back from the
walk we saw several pademelons, the smallest of the wallaby species (the indigenous
people named them and the name means “a rat that swallowed a melon.” I also saw a large Bennett Wallaby just outside
our building.
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| King Billy Trail |
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| Wombat |
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| Wombat |
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| King Billy Trail |
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| Pademelon |
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| Bennett Wallaby |
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| Pademelons |
After
our dinner, which included an appetizer of wallaby (it is really a delicious
tasting meat), we went on a night game drive.
Our park ranger, Paul, took us around the park (in a range rover) where
we saw lots of wombats, pademelons, Bennett Wallabies, busy tail possums, and
one Black Easter Quoll, an animal that looks a lot like a cat, but is very rare
to see. It was a fantastic game drive.
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| Eastern Quoll (he is below and to the left of the tall plant) |
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| Brushtail Possum |
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| This is what an Eastern Quoll looks like |
The
next morning as we headed to breakfast at the Lodge, we again saw several
pademelons. They are really prolific in
this area. After breakfast we loaded up
our van to begin our drive to Launceston.
But before we left Cradle Mountain we made three stops. The first stop was a 1 ¼ mile Cradle Valley
Boardwalk through the temperate rain forest alongside the Dove River, with
stunning views of the 5,068 foot Cradle Mountain. The second stop was at Dove Lake where we
took a short walk to Glacier Rock which again had great views of Cradle Mountain. However, my best picture was a spot near the
lake where I was able to get the reflection of Cradle Mountain on glass-like
water of Dove Lake. Our last stop in the
national park was to Waldheim Chalet, built by an Austrian Gustav Weindorfer, a
botanist who was instrumental in having this area declared a national
park. He had come over to Tasmania from
Austria and this area reminded him of his Austrian Alps. He loved it so much that he built his home
(or chalet) and then spent most of his adult years trying to persuade
politicians to protect this area. There
is also a 15 minute walk through the ancient rainforest (very similar to the
King Billy Trail we did yesterday) with its King Billy pines and deciduous beech
trees.
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| Pademelon outside our cabin |
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| Pond by the Pepper Lodge |
Magnificent nature, history and arts
Let’s lay down our weapons and open
our hearts
We’ll all come together with flags
unfurled
And celebrate our wonderful world
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| People's Choice Winner |
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| Judges Winner |
Since
we were doing so well on time (our group was not only punctual, but most times
early). So Ben and our bus driver
decided to reward us by stopping at a local dairy that made cheeses and ice
cream. We really think that they wanted
to go there, but whatever the reason the cheeses where delicious as well as the
ice cream. Both Bill and I had the
chocolate cherry.
After
arriving in Launceston and getting settled in our hotel, Bill and I got caught
up on our laundry (you can never escape it, but the hotel did have a guest
laundry) and then went into the bar for Happy Hour and dinner. Bill had the steak special and I had grilled barramundi.
Beautiful pictures of the rain forest!
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