Sue and I visited Tasmania for a two-week holiday. We rented a car at Hobart Airport, drove to Tasman Peninsula in the southeast corner, and worked our way anti-clockwise around the state.
The coastal walk from Maingon Bay to Crescent Bay over Mount Brown – scrub-covered rocky terrain, lots of wildflowers, small lizards, lichens. Had a refreshing swim at Crescent Bay. The cave is Remarkable Cave, where the upper part of the entrance roughly matches the shape of Tasmania.
Port Arthur, the historic penal colony: the main buildings, outlying cottages, honey-eater in the superb gardens.
An introduction to Tasmanian wildlife at the “Un-zoo”: Tasmanian devils, kangaroos, Cape Barron geese, pademelon and wallaby.
The southeast coastline of the Tasman Peninsula: tall, narrow archways, sea surging over the rock platforms.
Triabunna estuary early on a foggy morning, en route to Maria Island.
Maria Island.
The astonishing Painted Cliffs on Maria Island.
Freycinet Peninsula: Wineglass Bay, Hazards Lagoon and Hazards Beach.
Bay of Fires (Larapuna).
Then we had a long day crossing northern Tasmania from St Marys to Stanley, near the northwest corner of the island.
More fascinating rock shapes and colours.
A sombre day in Cradle Mountain National Park: starting from Dove Lake, passing Lake Hanson and Twisted Lakes.
Kitchen Hut, then a long descent past Wombat Pond and Lake Lilla.
Finally, an echidna! And a Tasmanian hen. We’d seen a couple of echidna while we were driving but they had disappeared by the time we’d parked and gone to look for them.
Southwestwards, skirting the mountains.
Queenstown, a historic mining town in western Tasmania, once a textbook example of a “moonscape” caused by noxious fumes from the smelter, but now slowly re-vegetating.
Lake Saint Clair; track to Shadow Lake and Forgotten Lake: we disturbed a tiger snake on the board-walk; skinks, gorgeous dragon-flies, an echidna.
Driving through open farmland from Lake Saint Clair to Maydena.
Driving through open farmland from Lake Saint Clair to Maydena.
Dover, a small town southwest of Hobart.
Hastings Caves
Hastings thermal pool tracks
Kunanyi (Mount Wellington), above Hobart
And finally, Long Bay to Blinking Billy Point.
#topofpageGo to top of page
