Tasmania recap #5: Lake St. Claire, Mount Field NP, Strathgordon, Huon Trail & back to Hobart
Mood: 
|| Rushed
Tune : Doctor Who S3 OST - "This is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home"
May 2: The one major stop on our schedule for today was Lake St. Clair (the other half of Cradle Mountain - Lake St. Clair National Park), but unfortunately the weather was still really crap (even worse than the day before) and so we didn't even stop at any of the look-outs on our way there. We did do the 5km long main walk at the lake called the Figure Eight Loop (combining three smaller walks: Larmairremener Tabelti Aboriginal Walk, Watersmeet & Platypus Bay). The weather continued to be horrible and the path (or what was passing as a path) we walked over was very muddy which all added up to this destination being a bit of a disappointment to us. It didn't help it was actually too foggy to see the lake and we didn't spot any platypus (which are apparently seen very frequently near Platypus Bay). :( The last part of the walk we kept ourselves occupied trying to photograph drops of water hanging from the vegetation around us and finding weird mushrooms to capture on camera.
We spent another hour or so at the visitor's centre to charge phone/camera batteries, and in my case my laptop as well. Because we didn't do many walks in this NP (and really didn't feel like doing any more as it was still raining) we suddenly had some spare time on our hands so we started driving in the direction of the park we had scheduled for the next day: Mount Field National Park. On our way we stopped at a look-out and passed an apple tree filled with tons of gorgeous, shining, red apples. So we had a bit of fun there trying to pick a few hands/pockets/etc. full (as much as we could carry in our jackets, haha!).
In Mount Field NP we went to see the Russell Falls and Horseshoe Falls and they were both really great. We also saw some awesome colourful birds again (the birds in Australia all look so exotic in our Western European eyes) which was pretty cool. As it was rapidly getting dark we didn't drive any further that day.
Only later did we find out this was in fact the magnificent Lake St. Clair and uhm the only picture I have from it >.<
Raindrops on plants! Yes, we got bored...
We saw heaps of cool signs in the National Parks though. Like: watch out for car lifting kangaroos!
Wombats can apparently run 55km an hour. Faster than they look, huh?
Same goes for echidnas
Our pretty apple tree
Busted
Colourful bird
Me at a GIANT tree trunk
Russell Falls
Horseshoe Falls
And hey, look at that, more mushrooms!
Lucky for us it wasn't a full moon that night so no need to worry about werewolves
May 3: Our plan for today was to go all the way up to Strathgordon and back and see the seven (!) look-outs on the way. It sounded like enough to fill at least half a day, but it turned out one look-out was closed, one was overgrown with vegetation, two were kind of flooded and somehow we missed the other three... Fail! Having loads of time on our hands all of a sudden (as it was still early morning) we decided to head back in the direction of Hobart and from there we traced part of the Huon Trail in the Southern part of Tasmania. We lingered around the village Huonville for a while where we also had dinner.
The one look-out we found lol
In Huonville
Do you see the adorable little mouse?
Close-up
Birdies!
May 4: We hit a pretty look-out on our way back to Hobart and after that we went back to the car rental place to bring back our car. It was a sad departure :( We made sure to check the kilometers before we left though and during our 7 day long road trip we drove 2274km through Tasmania! We thought that was pretty impressive.
After that we went back to the hostel we stayed at before our road trip. My flight was leaving the same night so I didn't have a reservation, but Alina was staying in Hobart for another two nights so I camped out in her room for the afternoon. And of course I downloaded the series finales of Heroes (finally!!), Chuck, and whatever other shows I had missed while being all Internet-less.
In the late afternoon I had to say goodbye to Alina :( and I went to the airport, arriving at Sherrie's place in Sydney somewhere around midnight o.O
Look-out on our way to Hobart
Close-up of the sun rays escaping through the clouds
More pictures can be found HERE and HERE.
And that's where I have been since, in Sydney that is (or North Parramatta to be precise, but that's all the same here in Australia, lol). I haven't done a whole lot while here: I went to the cinema with Jules, Gen, and Sherrie a bunch of times, played heaps and heaps of Guitar Hero, went to a Murder Mystery Party with Jules, played general catching up online and we're heading out for a concert of Wes Carr later today.
This Tuesday morning I am leaving for my 5 week long journey around both the North and South Islands of New Zealand, woah! When did time fly by so fast? I realised a few days ago that my year in Australia is pretty much over now. I'll only be back for a few days before going to the USA and then after that for a few hours at the airport waiting for my next flight. It's so bizarre how fast time suddenly flew by these past months...
I am not sure (again) what my Internet status will be when I am in New Zealand, but I'll do my best to log on at least every few days (and if any Comic Con news or whatever gets released, Ade text me!!). If anyone's interested to keep track of where I am: my itinerary for New Zealand is posted HERE and will likely be added on to when more stuff is planned/booked ^_^
|| Rushed
Tune : Doctor Who S3 OST - "This is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home"
May 2: The one major stop on our schedule for today was Lake St. Clair (the other half of Cradle Mountain - Lake St. Clair National Park), but unfortunately the weather was still really crap (even worse than the day before) and so we didn't even stop at any of the look-outs on our way there. We did do the 5km long main walk at the lake called the Figure Eight Loop (combining three smaller walks: Larmairremener Tabelti Aboriginal Walk, Watersmeet & Platypus Bay). The weather continued to be horrible and the path (or what was passing as a path) we walked over was very muddy which all added up to this destination being a bit of a disappointment to us. It didn't help it was actually too foggy to see the lake and we didn't spot any platypus (which are apparently seen very frequently near Platypus Bay). :( The last part of the walk we kept ourselves occupied trying to photograph drops of water hanging from the vegetation around us and finding weird mushrooms to capture on camera.
We spent another hour or so at the visitor's centre to charge phone/camera batteries, and in my case my laptop as well. Because we didn't do many walks in this NP (and really didn't feel like doing any more as it was still raining) we suddenly had some spare time on our hands so we started driving in the direction of the park we had scheduled for the next day: Mount Field National Park. On our way we stopped at a look-out and passed an apple tree filled with tons of gorgeous, shining, red apples. So we had a bit of fun there trying to pick a few hands/pockets/etc. full (as much as we could carry in our jackets, haha!).
In Mount Field NP we went to see the Russell Falls and Horseshoe Falls and they were both really great. We also saw some awesome colourful birds again (the birds in Australia all look so exotic in our Western European eyes) which was pretty cool. As it was rapidly getting dark we didn't drive any further that day.
Only later did we find out this was in fact the magnificent Lake St. Clair and uhm the only picture I have from it >.<
Raindrops on plants! Yes, we got bored...
We saw heaps of cool signs in the National Parks though. Like: watch out for car lifting kangaroos!
Wombats can apparently run 55km an hour. Faster than they look, huh?
Same goes for echidnas
Our pretty apple tree
Busted
Colourful bird
Me at a GIANT tree trunk
Russell Falls
Horseshoe Falls
And hey, look at that, more mushrooms!
Lucky for us it wasn't a full moon that night so no need to worry about werewolves
May 3: Our plan for today was to go all the way up to Strathgordon and back and see the seven (!) look-outs on the way. It sounded like enough to fill at least half a day, but it turned out one look-out was closed, one was overgrown with vegetation, two were kind of flooded and somehow we missed the other three... Fail! Having loads of time on our hands all of a sudden (as it was still early morning) we decided to head back in the direction of Hobart and from there we traced part of the Huon Trail in the Southern part of Tasmania. We lingered around the village Huonville for a while where we also had dinner.
The one look-out we found lol
In Huonville
Do you see the adorable little mouse?
Close-up
Birdies!
May 4: We hit a pretty look-out on our way back to Hobart and after that we went back to the car rental place to bring back our car. It was a sad departure :( We made sure to check the kilometers before we left though and during our 7 day long road trip we drove 2274km through Tasmania! We thought that was pretty impressive.
After that we went back to the hostel we stayed at before our road trip. My flight was leaving the same night so I didn't have a reservation, but Alina was staying in Hobart for another two nights so I camped out in her room for the afternoon. And of course I downloaded the series finales of Heroes (finally!!), Chuck, and whatever other shows I had missed while being all Internet-less.
In the late afternoon I had to say goodbye to Alina :( and I went to the airport, arriving at Sherrie's place in Sydney somewhere around midnight o.O
Look-out on our way to Hobart
Close-up of the sun rays escaping through the clouds
More pictures can be found HERE and HERE.
And that's where I have been since, in Sydney that is (or North Parramatta to be precise, but that's all the same here in Australia, lol). I haven't done a whole lot while here: I went to the cinema with Jules, Gen, and Sherrie a bunch of times, played heaps and heaps of Guitar Hero, went to a Murder Mystery Party with Jules, played general catching up online and we're heading out for a concert of Wes Carr later today.
This Tuesday morning I am leaving for my 5 week long journey around both the North and South Islands of New Zealand, woah! When did time fly by so fast? I realised a few days ago that my year in Australia is pretty much over now. I'll only be back for a few days before going to the USA and then after that for a few hours at the airport waiting for my next flight. It's so bizarre how fast time suddenly flew by these past months...
I am not sure (again) what my Internet status will be when I am in New Zealand, but I'll do my best to log on at least every few days (and if any Comic Con news or whatever gets released, Ade text me!!). If anyone's interested to keep track of where I am: my itinerary for New Zealand is posted HERE and will likely be added on to when more stuff is planned/booked ^_^