The world is down my feet and it tickles: TASMANIA: from steep windy gravel roads to beautiful look-outs

Hi there!

We had a last-minute idea: Let's go to Tasmania!
Tasmania is the smallest state in Australia, but also the biggest island and is located about 500 km beneath Melbourne. The flight only takes about an hour (let's say they were some bumpy flights) and you find yourself in a completely different environment. Tasmania reminds me of Scotland. The weather is cold, misty, rainy, ominous and unpredictable. The landscapes are just as rough as tough as the weather. High mountain ranges, steep windy roads, gravel paths, tough tracks with crevasses, but above all: the most magnificent landscapes of all of Australia (at least so far)!

We flew to Launceston, which is a smaller city than Hobart located on the north of the island. The first day we decided to go to the Cataract Gorge, which is just outside of Launceston. I read about it quickly before we left and the idea was to have a look and then go for dinner. It was way more beautiful than we encountered and we ended up on a 1 hour track through the area. Wow, it's hard to take all in how beautiful the surroundings are. Gives me loads of inspiration and such a feeling of inner peace.

Although we had to idea how long this track would even take us, we did finally make it back to the car! We had a lovely dinner in town (well not really, we were at a food court.. backpackers budget ey) and had a good night sleep in our budget motel. Which in the end was quite a nice room, so no complaints there.

We intended to go to the Cradle Mountain, which is about a 2,5h drive. However, the weather was very stormy, windy, rainy and misty, so we decided this was not a good idea as we still had to get back to the airport that day to catch our flight. I looked up that there would be a visitors information centre in Deloraine, so we drove there. We got some maps and navigated ourselves towards the Liffy Waterfalls. Unfortunately the guy at the info centre did not mention there would be gravel roads at some point (!) and with a rental car we're not allowed to go there (neither would our little car be able to make it). Bummer. We drove further to Breona along the Great Lake, but again no luck as the gravel roads started again. We pulled over and I asked a big man on an even bigger motorbike about where to go. He told us there was no way we could get through there: all tough gravel roads. We needed to head back. Unfortunately we weren't able to see the 'scenic look-out's' as there was really heavy fog. We could hardly see the road.. After a while we got back to Deloraine and had coffee in the only place in town that seemed to be open on a Sunday! Well, at least we had some great views along the road.

Before getting back to the airport, we went to the city park in Launceston, where they have these macaques. We wandered around a bit, before it was time to catch our flight. But honestly, I will be back in Tasmania. As most of you know I love remote, cold areas that have this magical glow around them, and Tasmania is definitely one of those places!

Enjoy the photos :)