Tasmania: the land of fluffy echidnas and extra furry wombats, as well as lots of other cool things… rugged rocky coastline, rocky peaks, rocky rocks to climb, oh and alpine tarns, beautiful flowers, and lots of Taswegian distilleries.
Ten days into my training as Field Training Officer (lets just say FTO, or maybe just ‘job’), Tash came bounding down from Covid infested Greater Sydney region (nearby at least) to join me in Tasmania for some fun and frivolity before I head to Antarctica for a year.
We did a 4-day hike around the Walls of Jerusalem areas, which was so magnificent and gorgeous, that we had to ensure just a bit of suffering was involved by spending two hours trying to cover about 100m of dense morale-shredding bush, to which we popped out so suddenly into the open, like a quick but painful birth. The ‘nice’ parts involved beautiful tussock walking between tarns, going up Solomon’s Throne in a WWW (wild windy white-out!), but then continuing to the top of King David’s Peak just as the cloud lifted in an ‘Oahhhhhh’ kind of godly moment where the view was expansive.
Our other antics involved discovering a new love of snorkelling in rather cold water. We’d never snorkelled in Tassie before but the water was so crystal clear, and the marine life was truly splendid. It’s fuelled our drive to also snorkel in a kelp forest - ahh, when I return, maybe with wetsuits so we can stay in longer!
Other choice nuggets of goodness included: a day cycling around Maria Island with its white beaches and abstract rock patterns, and seeing ruins of the old penal colony (and extra furry wombats); sampling some Tasmanian gins with local botanicals; going to the Hobart brewery with it’s outside areas reminiscent of breweries we went to in the Sierras (and I don’t mean that they have beer in common!); visiting MONA by ferry; and all manner of foodie, drinkie, touristy activities. I even had a very special birthday cake - a wee little fresh goat’s curd from the local Grandvewe sheep cheesery (who also make exceptional spirits distilled from the sheep’s whey!) with a candle on top - yum! And we managed a bit of climbing too! Some very nice memories - thanks Tash xx
