Northern & western Tasmania

Tamar Valley & Launceston

We left Bay of Fires and the cute wallaby family at the campground and headed west, direction Launceston. We optimized our route to accommodate some visits to wineries in the Tamar Valley. This fertile region along the Tamar River is the ideal place to grow grapes and produce sparkling wine. We stopped at "Bay of Fires Wines" and got some nice wines and sparklings to try. Then we moved on for lunch and just a quick tasting at Pipers Brook before stopping at Jansz Wines. They only produce sparkling wine and the nice sales manager let us taste the entire range. Sparkling wine in Tasmania is produced with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes. Depending on how much Pinot Noir is used you will end up with a white or a rosé sparkling. All of the Jansz wines were produced with the "méthode tasmanoise", meaning it's the Champagne of Tasmania ;). And seriously, all of the sparklings were excellent and at least equally as good as French Champagne (even the French said that ;)). It was a beautiful afternoon and we visited another very cute and family-run winery afterwards: the Leaning Church Vineyard. The lady in charge was super lovely and their Sauvignon Blanc was so good that we could not but buy a bottle (are you surprised?). As they also offered Tasmanian whisky tasting, Alex went for it while Moni, the driver, got a coffee on the house. Nice, no?!

In the early evening we reached Launceston and had decided to stay in a hostel in town so we could leave the car and walk around instead of camping outside town and having to drive and look for parking lots in the center (plus that meant we could drink some more Tasmanian wines).  The next day we went to explore the city, strolled through the picturesque center with its little lanes, alleys and inviting cafés, bistros and restaurants. Interestingly, Launceston is first known for its historical brewery, called Boags & Sons, built in the traditional brick style. In the early afternoon we walked to the most important site in Launceston, its beautiful gorge just 2km from the city center. Somehow, we were not thinking too much when we left the hostel in the morning and were both climbing up the hill with our flip flops and reached the Cataract Gorge with a nice lake to swim in. Lucky us, we had also forgotten our swimsuits and thus could not go for a refreshing swim, but we had brought a cold bottle of beer for Alex. And guess what: drinking alcohol in public places is not allowed and of course Alex got caught - luckily only when the bottle was almost finished. We put our feet into the water and lazed around the grassy area watching people on the chairlift going from one side of the lake to the other.

After this relaxing break we walked out of the gorge via a little path leading back to the city just next to the river. In the evening we decided to treat ourselves and go to a popular fusion restaurant close to the port, the Mudbar. We enjoyed delicious food and a good bottle of Tasmanian Chardonnay before leaving Launceston the next morning. On our way to Cradle Mountain in the north-west of the island we did yet another stop at a winery on the other side of Tamar River. Holm Oaks had some interesting wines like a semi-sweet moscati named after the dog and the pig of the house and their range of red wines was equally outstanding.

Cradle Mountain

The rest of the afternoon we spent on our approach to Cradle Mountain via narrow and small mountain roads. The closest free campsite to the National Park was about 45min away and we decided to follow our camping app to this amazing spot at Lake Gardiner. Once again we took a gravel road through the forests in the middle of nowhere, wondering whether we actually went wrong (for 15 mn!). The camp was a small grassy area next to a beautiful and peaceful mountain lake. There were no facilities, but we liked the serenity of the site. We saw some echidnas on the road (looks like a hedgehog with a long and pointed nose) and in the morning we could see some platypus swimming in the lake. Now, a platypus is a really interesting animal looking like a mixture of a duck and a beaver. We could not take a picture of it, so you will need to google it to see what it looks like. The nights up there were quite chilly, but we crawled into our sleeping bags very early or joined our fellow campers when they lit up a campfire (they told us it is perfectly normal for campers in Australia to bring chainsaws with them for cutting firewood).

The first morning we got up early to arrive at the Cradle Mountain National Park on time so we could get into the inner carpark close to the start of the hiking trails instead of taking the shuttle from the visitor center. Contrary to what people had told us about the weather, we enjoyed sunshine, blue sky and nice and warm temperatures during the day in the North. Cradle Mountain is the probably most famous mountain in Tassie with its high and bizarre limestone towers. And you have the best views of the mountain behind the calm lake on a clear morning, so we took the most amazing pictures before we set of for a full day hike. It is possible to climb the high towers of Cradle mountain in a 7-8h circuit and we started by walking through lush forests along the lake. Then we had a steep climb up to reach the path just below the towers. The last hour up to the highest tower was just incredible: we were climbing up big boulders on all 4 like mountain goats, but were rewarded with a nice 360 degree view of the National Park. The way down was equally challenging, but we had fun and returned via another path along the plateau with super nice views of the lake and Cradle Mountain. Quite exhausted we returned to our tent at Lake Gardiner.

For the next day we had arranged horseback riding and had a nice 3h ride along rivers, fields and through eucalyptus forests where we met two more of the Tassie tiger snakes. Though Alex is an "experienced beginner", he was allowed, towards the end, to gallop up the hill together with Moni :). When we returned to the stable we made acquaintance with some of the other animals around: a noisy opossum with her baby in the gutter and cute little Joey. Joey was a baby wallaby who lost his mum during a car accident, but the driver saved the little baby from the pouch and raised it by hand at the farm. In the early afternoon we continued our way to reach Strahan, a small town in western Tasmania. According to Lonely Planet it had been nominated "the best little town in the world" , but we did not even have network to call Moni's sister for her birthday... We ended up paying an overpriced glass of wine and a beer to get Wi-Fi to be able to make our necessary calls :). However we must admit that this little harbour town was cute (big bonus, they offered free public hot showers). At night we headed back to our free campsite which was quite creepily located in the middle of a very high pine forest and we were the only ones staying there together with a crazy opossum. After a very very quiet night, we started the day with a quick visit to the Maquarie Heads beach where Gordon River meets the Tasman Sea.

Mount Field National Park

As we still had quite a way ahead of us before returning to Hobart we left Strahan early and took winding roads over passes and through forest land to reach Mount Field National Pass (what amazing views we had). On the way there were a couple of nice stops like the Nelson Falls or the viewpoint at Donaghy's hill. In the late afternoon we arrived at Mount Field National Park and pitched our tent at the busy, but well-equipped campground of the National Park. Then we headed off for a good 2h circuit to see the famous waterfalls of Mt. Field NP: Russel Falls, Horseshoe Falls and Lady Barron Falls. As it was quite late, there were hardly any people on the tracks anymore and we could enjoy the serenity of the lush forests.

And the next day was already our last day in Tasmania as we headed slowly back towards Hobart to fly back to Melbourne in the evening. On the way we stopped at three wineries in the Coal River Valley, another famous area for Tassie wine, and had lunch on the terrace of the cute Coal River Farm. They do organic lunches as well as chocolate tastings and homemade cheese tastings (soooooo yummy!!). We quickly stopped at a 2nd hand shop in Hobart to sell some of our camping gear we did not need anymore (gas bottles, etc) and for whatever reason we also sold our cheap snorkelling gear (will regret that later)... And then we were again at Hobart airport, returning the car after 3 weeks on this beautiful island and looking forward to our next adventure: the wild West Coast!

Stay with us, we have quite some exciting stories and pictures from our adventurous trip from Perth to Darwin. Next article: coming soon (for real!) :).

All the best and see you guys very soon,

Alex & Moni