Most normal people who had been spending months and months counting down their work days left until holiday time would probably be over the moon from excitement. For a big 5 week adventure over to that tiny little island that everybody forgets about; Tasmania. To those holiday goers, they wouldn’t mind waking up before the town baker’s for an early morning start followed by a 9 hour long journey over Bass Strait in “The Spirit of Tasmania”. MOST people wouldn’t mind it at all, even those who got sea sickness would endure this discomfort purely out of shear excitement.
The difference between us and most other people is that those who are willing to book themselves in for the voyage on the day after Australia’s most celebrated public holiday, don’t drink copious amounts of alcohol the day beforehand and only have five hours sleep. I’m getting old... well at least as far as my drinking clock goes... it’s a-tick-a-tocking... and boy did I feel sorry for myself. I could tell Tom was suffering too but he’s a little more well trained than I.
After the first hour or so floated on by, we began to get our sea legs back and were tackling the voyage rather well. Thanks to Ned’s recommendations, we scooted straight up the stairs to score ourselves some comfy seats on the tenth floor with mattresses to have a snooze and even an electrical port (GOLD!!!) to plug in the laptop and watch some flicks (me = trash, Tom = David Attenborough). We were set for the rest of the ride all of the way into Devonport, Tasmania – or at least so we thought...
I really should have investigated what they were doing there, generally when you walk into a pub and see them setup – you know you’re in for a good night. We, unfortunately, did not put two and two together – we were far too distracted when we initially chose our seats. In retrospect we really should have been a little more switched on, surely the Spirit of Tasmania staff don’t just leave two microphone stands and a sound system setup for the fun of it.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for supporting new & upcoming musicians who have some seriously amazing talents and are in it for the love of it but so help me GOD if I’m going to sit in a boat swaying from left to right with a god awful hangover listening to these two washed up musicians and their renditions of Elvis, Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond. I’m sorry, I’m sure they are both lovely people and they might just be doing it to earn a living but after two hours into it, when they tried to tell us all that they were going to try and ‘wake us all up for the last leg of the trip’ and ‘crank the volume’ and start singing some ABBA specifically from Mama Mia and the likes of the Nutbush. These poor people, the only patrons clapping at the end of their songs were either children who didn’t know any better or booze hounds how thought they were ‘faaantsahic’. Let’s just say, in five weeks time on the way back.. we are not sitting on the tenth floor.
After the first hour or so floated on by, we began to get our sea legs back and were tackling the voyage rather well. Thanks to Ned’s recommendations, we scooted straight up the stairs to score ourselves some comfy seats on the tenth floor with mattresses to have a snooze and even an electrical port (GOLD!!!) to plug in the laptop and watch some flicks (me = trash, Tom = David Attenborough). We were set for the rest of the ride all of the way into Devonport, Tasmania – or at least so we thought...
I really should have investigated what they were doing there, generally when you walk into a pub and see them setup – you know you’re in for a good night. We, unfortunately, did not put two and two together – we were far too distracted when we initially chose our seats. In retrospect we really should have been a little more switched on, surely the Spirit of Tasmania staff don’t just leave two microphone stands and a sound system setup for the fun of it.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for supporting new & upcoming musicians who have some seriously amazing talents and are in it for the love of it but so help me GOD if I’m going to sit in a boat swaying from left to right with a god awful hangover listening to these two washed up musicians and their renditions of Elvis, Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond. I’m sorry, I’m sure they are both lovely people and they might just be doing it to earn a living but after two hours into it, when they tried to tell us all that they were going to try and ‘wake us all up for the last leg of the trip’ and ‘crank the volume’ and start singing some ABBA specifically from Mama Mia and the likes of the Nutbush. These poor people, the only patrons clapping at the end of their songs were either children who didn’t know any better or booze hounds how thought they were ‘faaantsahic’. Let’s just say, in five weeks time on the way back.. we are not sitting on the tenth floor.
Goodbye Melbourne...
Hello Tasmania...
Once we had arrived at Devonport, I instantly forgot about the last horrible hours of my life. It was as though our trip around Australia just teleported us over to Europe (except with the Aussie weather!!). Even from the first few minutes that we spent staring in awe of Tasmania and it’s beauty, I can safely say it is a beautiful island. Both Tom and I are so excited to spend the next few weeks exploring the wonders of this lovely place.
After we had gone through customs (a make-shift setup under a tin roof) we headed towards our first campsite.. by that time it was already approaching 7:30pm so unfortunately it didn't leave too much time for adventuring. We headed towards Narawntapu National Park about an hours drive from Devonport. One thing we noticed very quickly about Tassie is the huge number of road kills lying on the road, at one point there were 4 lifeless animals within a 100 metre distance. We both figured that this place must be running rampant with a huge variety of wildlife, or at least I hope that's the case and we're only seeing a tiny percentage of them on the roads.
We're keeping our eyes peeled for a Tasmanian Tiger, believed to be extinct with the last known Tasmanian Tiger to have died in Hobart Zoo in 1936 but there have been thousands of 'sittings without proof' ever since. I, as passenger 95% of the time, am in charge of always having the camera in the ready position at all times. Gees I hope we don't see one cause I'm not very good at my camera duties and to miss that million dollar snap will just be disastrous.
N.B. for those who we may have fooled, this photo was not taken by us.
N.B. for those who we may have fooled, this photo was not taken by us.
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