From Adelaide I flew to Cairns, spent a whopping 18 hours in Cairns, then jumped on a bus for 10 hours to arrive at Airlie Beach where I went on a tour of the Whitsunday Islands in the Great Barrier Reef. The bus ride was a long but interesting one. For starters the route went through some of the hardest hit areas of Cyclone Yasi: Innisfail, Mission Beach, Tully. The damage that still remained one month after Yasi was impressive to say the least. Twisted, uprooted trees, houses destroyed, shorelines, sidewalks, and roads washed away. Looking out into the hills the hills are brown where the trees have died. We drove through fields of sugarcane that resembled fields of corn back home. One nice thing about the bus was there were in-bus movies; 3 to be exact. 2 were pretty good, an Australian movie called Charlie & Boots, The Constant Gardener. The other movie, Weekend at Bernie's, wasn't too good.
The tour itself was by far the highlight of my trip. I went on a tour with 17 other people, mainly Europeans though there were 2 Canadians. It was an awesome experience. I had a great time. The other guests, the crew, the food were all fantastic. Everyone got along really well, everyone, crew included, was very laid back. We all wanted to have a good time, so we did.
The day we left it rained most of the day and was windy, which made for some fairly rough seas. The rain let off in the evening and we dropped anchor in a cove off of Hook Island. That night the sky cleared and the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud were easily seen. On the water there were tiny bioluminescent creatures congregating around the anchor chain and they were also seen when waves would break. It was the only light seen on an otherwise black ocean. The next day we stopped at Tongue Bay on Whitsunday Island and did a very short walk through the woods to Betty's Beach. On the beach at Tongue Bay there was coral, much like the coral that can be found in fossils back home. I found that interesting, to see how little coral has changed in 220 million years. On Betty's Beach, however, was the whitest of white sand I have ever seen. The sand is composed of over 95% silica and it reflects most of the sunlight striking it, leaving the sand cool under foot. We were fortunate to have beautiful skies and sunshine when we were on Betty's Beach and even more fortunate to see a sea lion when we returned to the boat.
After that we drove for a couple hours to our snorkling stop, Mantaray Bay. The views while snorking were indescribable. There were so many different colors and shapes of the coral, heaps of fish of different sizes, shapes, and colors. There were fish smaller than my pinky finger to fish bigger than a small child. The water was very warm, almost 80 degrees, and blue-green in color. The rain from the previous day stirred up a little silt, but the visibility was still good. It truly was a surreal experience. The soft coral was dancing in the current like grass on wind. There were so many layers in the reefs as well. The bigger fish were above the reefs with smaller ones near the coral and still smaller ones within the coral. There were times when I was literally surrounded by fish. They were so close I could see individual scales on them, yet they were still untouchable. It was as if the fish knew that I was going to reach out to them before I even made the motion. I bought an underwater camera and quickly used all the exposures. We shall see how the pictures turn out.
The last day was bitter sweet as it meant a return to Airlie Beach. The whole experience was well worth it and is something I would not hesitate to do again. It should definitely be one everyone's bucket list.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Adelaide, South Australia
There’s not much trouble to find in Adelaide. But there are plenty of places to repent should you be lucky enough to find some trouble to get into in Adelaide. There are a lot of churches in Adelaide; there’s nearly one on every block. The city is surrounded on all sides by parks. Some of them are nice to wander through, others not so much. Like Sydney, Melbourne, and Hobart, there are parks within the city as well. These inner city parks are nice to stroll through, especially the park that is along the Torrens River. The Torrens River runs through Adelaide, separating Adelaide from North Adelaide. Being the capital city of South Australia, it is a big city but still has a small town feel to it. Adelaide does have the distinction of hosting the largest arts festival in the Southern Hemisphere and hosting the only two Giant Pandas in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Adelaide Fringe Festival is a three week arts festival with events all over the city. All kinds of artists are featured – writers, actors, musicians, comedians, circus/street performers, magicians. The opening night was on Friday and a parade and concert was scheduled. However, due to the nonstop rain that fell on Friday the parade was cancelled, but the concerts went on without interruption. The concerts went from 8.00pm to 1.00am, which I think was the first time something in Australia stayed open past 5.00pm. Normally all the shops and stores, even some restaurants, close for the day at 5.00pm, 6.30 at the latest.
The Adelaide Zoo, like Adelaide itself, is a small zoo but it has a lot to see. It has a really nice collection of birds, which I particularly liked. It had birds of varying sizes, shapes, colors, and regions of the world. In the Aussie animals section there was a Tasmanian devil that was up and about running around its enclosure. It even went for a swim. To see a Tasmanian devil so alive and active was a stark contrast to the Tasmanian devil I saw in Hobart. I was lucky enough to see the Giant Pandas awake and active as well. Since the pandas eat such a low energy diet they spent up to twenty hours a day sleeping, but one was eating and the other was walking around its enclosure when I was there. Pandas definitely rival koalas in the cuteness factor. Koalas may have the lead due to their smaller size.
Speaking of koalas, I took a thirty minute train ride out to Belair National Park today and saw several koalas. All the koalas I saw were sleeping in the nooks of eucalypt trees. The first one I saw was sleeping with its back to me, but I was determined to get a good picture of him. So I went off trail and over a dry creek bed to see the front of him. I apparently made a bit too much noise for the koala because I woke him up. You know that look someone gives you when you wake them up and they have no idea who you are, what you are doing there, or why you are waking them up? Well, that’s the look the koala gave me. After snapping many photos of the koala (I wasn’t sure if I’d see another one or not and I wanted to get my koala fix), I moved on and let him go back to his slumber. I didn’t have that problem with the other koalas I saw, they were either too far or too high (in the tree, that is) to worry about or they were facing me. Belair also housed many rosellas and lorikeets. They are beautiful parrots with vibrant colors and they are quite chatty. I came across what I believe are to be the smartest kangaroos in Australia. I saw about a half dozen kangaroos today and all of them did the exact same thing: they would hop across the trail in front of you, stop, and turn to look at you. Next they would wait for you to reach for you camera. Just when you had the camera nearly out of its case they would jump away into the woods. I swear I could hear them laughing as they hopped away.
Tomorrow starts my whirlwind tour of the East coast. I fly from Adelaide to Cairns tomorrow and will travel about 1600 miles in two weeks to end up in Sydney in time to catch my return flight home. Along the way I will be stopping to go a cruise in the Great Barrier Reef, do some hiking on Fraser Island, and go to the Australia Zoo.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Great Ocean Road and Grampians National Park
The tour I took was very nice. It was a small tour of about 15 people which made for a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. We went to all the places of interest along the Great Ocean Road and all of those places were well worth the stops. We first stopped and did a short little walk through a rain forest of fern trees and gum trees. The forest was pretty thick, you couldn't see too far into the forest due to all the vegetation. After that we made several stops at places along the coastline. All the places we stopped at featured limestone stacks off the shore. The coast is made up of limestone and sandstone rocks. Over time water and wind wore away at the softer sandstone, leaving huge stacks of limestone standing as the shoreline eroded farther and farther inland. Stopping at the 12 Apostles I was in for a shock. It was a tourist magnet. There were countless tour buses in the parking lot and the walk out to the viewing area was packed with tourists snapping photos. I joined the masses and took a gander at the formations. The 12 Apostles are a series of 8 stacks close to one another. The name is a misnomer, there never were 12 stacks; there were 9 stacks but one collapsed in the 1990s. At any rate it was a sight to behold: large stacks of sandy brown and red rocks juxtaposed against seagreen coastal waters giving way to an azure ocean stretching to the horizon.
The stretch of coast from 12 Apostles to the Bay of Islands is known as the Shipwreck Coast. Since the late 1800s there have been more than 80 shipwrecks along that stretch of coastline. We stopped at the site of one of the most famous shipwrecks along the coast. Loch Ard Gorge is a gorge named after a ship that became one of the 80 ships that wrecked along the coast. The wreck of the Loch Ard is famous because out of more than 50 people onboard there were only two survivors, a 23 year old sailing apprentice and an 18 year old Irish girl. After they were rescued there was pressure for the two to get married, though it never happened. The girl, having lost both parents and 5 siblings, returned to Ireland to live with her older sister. The gorge formed a narrow cove along the coast. I had fun watching the tourists walk to the edge of the surf and pose for a picture, only to have a wave come up behind them and soak them from the knees down. Just as fun was watching people run away from the encroaching waves.
The next two sites, London Bridge and Bay of Islands, had formations similar to 12 Apostles but nowhere near as large. London Bridge at one time had two archs jutting out into the ocean, but the span connecting it to the mainland collapsed about 5 years ago. London Bridge was nice because we had the place to ourselves. We took advantage of that and took a group photo, one of the few photos that I have been in since arriving in Australia.
We spent the night at a hostel in the Grampians, hanging out and drinking beer. The next day we went on a short hike to a waterfall that was more like a watertrickle. Next we climbed Mt. Zero which offered some nice views of the surrounding area. The Grampians were very neat, jagged mountaintops raising out of a flat plain. Kangaroos were all over the park. There are several Aboriginal rock painting sites within the park, though we did not go to them. Much of the Grampians was closed at the time as a result of rockslides and landslides caused by the large amount of rain that had fallen recently. The tour really only offered a sneak peak at the Grampians as the park itself is fairly large. But we were in the Grampians long enough for me to see two emus just off the road.
In Horsham myself and about 8 others left the tour to board a bus to Adelaide as the tour was headed back to Melbourne. The bus we boarded was a luxury bus compared to the other buses I've been on. More leg room, comfortable seats, even an in-bus movie all made the 5.5 hour trip to Adelaide a pleasant one.
My plan is to take a train into the heart of the outback and arrive at Alice Springs. The train doesn't leave until next Sunday, so in the meantime I will be spending the week in and around Adelaide. Adelaide is much smaller than Melbourne and a little bigger than Hobart. Even so, there seems to be a fair amount of things to do. Part of the time I will be meeting up with Giulia. She has been in Adelaide for about 3 weeks working. The hostel I'm staying at has a pancake breakfast every morning and apple pie every night, which is quite nice. Also nice is that the hostel coincidentally put me in the same room as Giulia, so I don't have to go far to meet up with her. We shall see what kinds of adventures Adelaide has in store for me.
The stretch of coast from 12 Apostles to the Bay of Islands is known as the Shipwreck Coast. Since the late 1800s there have been more than 80 shipwrecks along that stretch of coastline. We stopped at the site of one of the most famous shipwrecks along the coast. Loch Ard Gorge is a gorge named after a ship that became one of the 80 ships that wrecked along the coast. The wreck of the Loch Ard is famous because out of more than 50 people onboard there were only two survivors, a 23 year old sailing apprentice and an 18 year old Irish girl. After they were rescued there was pressure for the two to get married, though it never happened. The girl, having lost both parents and 5 siblings, returned to Ireland to live with her older sister. The gorge formed a narrow cove along the coast. I had fun watching the tourists walk to the edge of the surf and pose for a picture, only to have a wave come up behind them and soak them from the knees down. Just as fun was watching people run away from the encroaching waves.
The next two sites, London Bridge and Bay of Islands, had formations similar to 12 Apostles but nowhere near as large. London Bridge at one time had two archs jutting out into the ocean, but the span connecting it to the mainland collapsed about 5 years ago. London Bridge was nice because we had the place to ourselves. We took advantage of that and took a group photo, one of the few photos that I have been in since arriving in Australia.
We spent the night at a hostel in the Grampians, hanging out and drinking beer. The next day we went on a short hike to a waterfall that was more like a watertrickle. Next we climbed Mt. Zero which offered some nice views of the surrounding area. The Grampians were very neat, jagged mountaintops raising out of a flat plain. Kangaroos were all over the park. There are several Aboriginal rock painting sites within the park, though we did not go to them. Much of the Grampians was closed at the time as a result of rockslides and landslides caused by the large amount of rain that had fallen recently. The tour really only offered a sneak peak at the Grampians as the park itself is fairly large. But we were in the Grampians long enough for me to see two emus just off the road.
In Horsham myself and about 8 others left the tour to board a bus to Adelaide as the tour was headed back to Melbourne. The bus we boarded was a luxury bus compared to the other buses I've been on. More leg room, comfortable seats, even an in-bus movie all made the 5.5 hour trip to Adelaide a pleasant one.
My plan is to take a train into the heart of the outback and arrive at Alice Springs. The train doesn't leave until next Sunday, so in the meantime I will be spending the week in and around Adelaide. Adelaide is much smaller than Melbourne and a little bigger than Hobart. Even so, there seems to be a fair amount of things to do. Part of the time I will be meeting up with Giulia. She has been in Adelaide for about 3 weeks working. The hostel I'm staying at has a pancake breakfast every morning and apple pie every night, which is quite nice. Also nice is that the hostel coincidentally put me in the same room as Giulia, so I don't have to go far to meet up with her. We shall see what kinds of adventures Adelaide has in store for me.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Apollo Bay, Victoria
I'm traveling along the Great Ocean Road which runs from Torquay to Warrnambool along the coast of Victoria. After landing in Melbourne, I took a train to Geelong and from Geelong I took a bus to Apollo Bay via the Great Ocean Road. I've been on many bus rides, but this ride takes the cake as being the most beautiful, most scenic ride I've ever taken. In some places the road is level with the coast and you can hear the waves crashing against the shore from inside the bus. Outside the blue-green water of the Southern Ocean gives way to frothy white foam as the water meets the land. Other times the road climbs high above the coast, leaving you with amazing views of the coastline.
I'm staying at a very cozy little hostel about 3 blocks from the shore. This hostel feels more like the hostels I stayed at while hiking the AT than like the hostels I've been staying at here in Australia. My first day in Apollo Bay I did a little beach walk before heading up to Marriners Lookout, which offered a gorgeous view of the coast and Apollo Bay from a couple hundred meters up. I had mentioned to the owner of the hostel that I was finding it very difficult to get to Adelaide without having to spend several extra nights in different towns. The owner recommended that I book a tour that leaves Apollo Bay for Adelaide. I looked into it and decided that doing that would be the fastest, cheapest, and best way to get to Adelaide. The tour goes through the Grampians National Park, which excited me a lot because I had to scrapped my plans to visit the Grampians. But now I get to spend some time in the Grampians, so that's going to be nice.
Today I walked a stretch of the Great Ocean Walk, which is a 90 km coastal walk from Apollo Bay to the 12 Apostles, I rock formation along the coast. I walked for 8 km along the coast to a picnic area in the Otway National Forest. The walk was beautiful, alternating between sandy beaches and rocky beaches. Along the rocky shorelines there were rock pools to inspect. I learned an important lesson about walking along the rock pools: take off your sunglasses. The water in the rock pools was like a sheet of glass, transparent and smooth. When you have sunglasses on you do not see the sun's glare on the water. So I took a step onto what I thought was a dry rock, only to discover I was stepping into a shallow rock pool. The water didn't go past my ankles and I had boots on so I was OK. Yet another lesson learned while traveling.
Blackberries are in season right now. I stopped and filled a liter bottle full of blackberries and probably ate about a pint of blackberries while I was picking. I didn't have to go far from the beach to find the blackberries either. The forest went right down to the beach. There was no transition zone, just forest and then a sandy beach covered in sea shells.
I'm staying at a very cozy little hostel about 3 blocks from the shore. This hostel feels more like the hostels I stayed at while hiking the AT than like the hostels I've been staying at here in Australia. My first day in Apollo Bay I did a little beach walk before heading up to Marriners Lookout, which offered a gorgeous view of the coast and Apollo Bay from a couple hundred meters up. I had mentioned to the owner of the hostel that I was finding it very difficult to get to Adelaide without having to spend several extra nights in different towns. The owner recommended that I book a tour that leaves Apollo Bay for Adelaide. I looked into it and decided that doing that would be the fastest, cheapest, and best way to get to Adelaide. The tour goes through the Grampians National Park, which excited me a lot because I had to scrapped my plans to visit the Grampians. But now I get to spend some time in the Grampians, so that's going to be nice.
Today I walked a stretch of the Great Ocean Walk, which is a 90 km coastal walk from Apollo Bay to the 12 Apostles, I rock formation along the coast. I walked for 8 km along the coast to a picnic area in the Otway National Forest. The walk was beautiful, alternating between sandy beaches and rocky beaches. Along the rocky shorelines there were rock pools to inspect. I learned an important lesson about walking along the rock pools: take off your sunglasses. The water in the rock pools was like a sheet of glass, transparent and smooth. When you have sunglasses on you do not see the sun's glare on the water. So I took a step onto what I thought was a dry rock, only to discover I was stepping into a shallow rock pool. The water didn't go past my ankles and I had boots on so I was OK. Yet another lesson learned while traveling.
Blackberries are in season right now. I stopped and filled a liter bottle full of blackberries and probably ate about a pint of blackberries while I was picking. I didn't have to go far from the beach to find the blackberries either. The forest went right down to the beach. There was no transition zone, just forest and then a sandy beach covered in sea shells.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Hobart, Tasmania
I decided to go to Tasmania on a whim, and it was an excellent decision. My last 3 days in Melbourne saw the temperature soar into the high 90s and 100s, and when I landed in Hobart the temperature was in the low 60s. In fact, the temperature never saw 80 the entire week I was there. When I arrived at the Hobart Airport I disembarked the plane onto the tarmac and walked into the airport. The airport itself was small, I think the Butler County Airport would give the Hobart Airport a run for its money in terms of size. I arrived to dull, rainy, grey, dreary weather, which suited my mental condition at the time after having spent a sleepless night at the Southern Cross Rail Station waiting to catch a 5.30 am shuttle to the airport. My first day I wondered in and out of the rain in Hobart familiarizing myself with the town and planning my week.
My first trip took me to the summit of Mt. Wellingtion, which looms over Hobart like a gargoyle. It was a very nice day hike. It was fairly moderate with some rather steep sections. I gained about 2600' while climbing through a thick fern forest before going above treeline. While in the forest I saw a couple pademelons, which look like tiny kangaroos. Ravens were calling overhead and little lizards were scurrying about my feet once I reached the treeline. The summit, at 4170', is in an alpine ecosystem with the temperature about 20 degrees cooler and much windier at the summit than in Hobart. I was reminded of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire because there is a road one can drive to reach the summit the people who drove were sporting shorts, shirts and sandals while I donned hiking boots and a windbreaker. The view of Hobart itself was covered due to fog, but I had a spectacular view of nearby Glenorchy. It was an extreme change of environment for being so close to Hobart. Interesting side note, Charles Darwin climbed Mt. Wellington when the Beagle landed in Hobart in the 1830s.
Next I went to Mt. Nelson, which is a hill in comparison to Mt. Wellington. I hiked Mt. Nelson in reverse as the easiest way to get there was to take a bus to the summit and then hike down and back up. Mt. Nelson offered a nice view of Hobart from its summit. The trek down was through a dense forest. Along the way I saw a dead Tasmanian Devil in a creek. So that's yet another Aussie animal I can cross off my list.
Saturday found me heading to Tasman National Park on the Tasman Pennisula. When Australia was a penal colony the pennisula was used to house the worst offenders due to the fact that it is connected to the mainlandby a very narrow strip of land. Dogs were employed to guard this narrow strip, making escape very difficult. Maingon Bay in the National Park was beautiful. Sandstone cliffs falling into the sea with the blue-green waters of the ocean crashing against the rocks. I went on a nice coastal trek to the stunning Crescent Bay. It is a crescent-shaped bay with white sandy beaches and large sand dunes rise up behind it. It was very peaceful and relaxing. Then I climbed Mt. Brown, which again was more like a hill. But the view from the summit was just as stunning as the bay. There were wonderful views of Tasman Island and Cape Pillar. I had the opportunity to cross yet another Aussie animal off my list as I saw a wombat on the trek.
I spent Sunday in town at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. It is a very nice museum with exhibits and Aboriginal culture, zoology, geology, Aussie's convict history as well as Tasmanian artists. But the best exhibit was the Antartic exhibit. That exhibit encompassed nearly every aspect of Antartica, from its climate and environment, to the flora and fauna, to the history of Antartic exploration. I was surprised to find out I spent five hours in the museum as the museum itself isn't very large.
Monday I took it easy and bummed out in the hostel. A TV channel carried the Super Bowl, which started at 10.00 am on Monday here. So I treated myself to a little taste of home. Though I didn't get to see the Super Bowl commercials because the station aired local commercials instead.
I realized just how small of a world it truly is while in Hobart. At the hostel I met a mother/daughter couple, Karen and Rachel respectively, who grew up in Zionsville, IN just outside of Indianapolis. Rachel went to Miami University and worked for five years in outdoor education out West. Her father lives in Cataract Falls, which is 15 minutes away from DePauw University. Karen and Rachel are two super nice and chill people. We chatted for a while about Miami, DePauw, backpacking, and a whole lot more. Karen said Rachel and I have led yin and yang lives, seeing how we switched locations for college and afterwards Rachel went West for outdoor education and I went East. And we wound up crossing paths in a hostel in Hobart Tasmania. Which I suppose is the most likely place for us to have met.
Hobart, and all of Tasmania for that matter, is truly a special place. It is like Australia's best kept secret. There are heaps of National Parks to go trekking in and the scenery varies from white sandy beaches, to rain forests, to alpine environments, and then the historic sites are thrown in just for good measure. It would be very easy to spend six weeks travelling across Tasmania seeing the sights. All this for an island that can't be much bigger than Ohio.
My first trip took me to the summit of Mt. Wellingtion, which looms over Hobart like a gargoyle. It was a very nice day hike. It was fairly moderate with some rather steep sections. I gained about 2600' while climbing through a thick fern forest before going above treeline. While in the forest I saw a couple pademelons, which look like tiny kangaroos. Ravens were calling overhead and little lizards were scurrying about my feet once I reached the treeline. The summit, at 4170', is in an alpine ecosystem with the temperature about 20 degrees cooler and much windier at the summit than in Hobart. I was reminded of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire because there is a road one can drive to reach the summit the people who drove were sporting shorts, shirts and sandals while I donned hiking boots and a windbreaker. The view of Hobart itself was covered due to fog, but I had a spectacular view of nearby Glenorchy. It was an extreme change of environment for being so close to Hobart. Interesting side note, Charles Darwin climbed Mt. Wellington when the Beagle landed in Hobart in the 1830s.
Next I went to Mt. Nelson, which is a hill in comparison to Mt. Wellington. I hiked Mt. Nelson in reverse as the easiest way to get there was to take a bus to the summit and then hike down and back up. Mt. Nelson offered a nice view of Hobart from its summit. The trek down was through a dense forest. Along the way I saw a dead Tasmanian Devil in a creek. So that's yet another Aussie animal I can cross off my list.
Saturday found me heading to Tasman National Park on the Tasman Pennisula. When Australia was a penal colony the pennisula was used to house the worst offenders due to the fact that it is connected to the mainlandby a very narrow strip of land. Dogs were employed to guard this narrow strip, making escape very difficult. Maingon Bay in the National Park was beautiful. Sandstone cliffs falling into the sea with the blue-green waters of the ocean crashing against the rocks. I went on a nice coastal trek to the stunning Crescent Bay. It is a crescent-shaped bay with white sandy beaches and large sand dunes rise up behind it. It was very peaceful and relaxing. Then I climbed Mt. Brown, which again was more like a hill. But the view from the summit was just as stunning as the bay. There were wonderful views of Tasman Island and Cape Pillar. I had the opportunity to cross yet another Aussie animal off my list as I saw a wombat on the trek.
I spent Sunday in town at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. It is a very nice museum with exhibits and Aboriginal culture, zoology, geology, Aussie's convict history as well as Tasmanian artists. But the best exhibit was the Antartic exhibit. That exhibit encompassed nearly every aspect of Antartica, from its climate and environment, to the flora and fauna, to the history of Antartic exploration. I was surprised to find out I spent five hours in the museum as the museum itself isn't very large.
Monday I took it easy and bummed out in the hostel. A TV channel carried the Super Bowl, which started at 10.00 am on Monday here. So I treated myself to a little taste of home. Though I didn't get to see the Super Bowl commercials because the station aired local commercials instead.
I realized just how small of a world it truly is while in Hobart. At the hostel I met a mother/daughter couple, Karen and Rachel respectively, who grew up in Zionsville, IN just outside of Indianapolis. Rachel went to Miami University and worked for five years in outdoor education out West. Her father lives in Cataract Falls, which is 15 minutes away from DePauw University. Karen and Rachel are two super nice and chill people. We chatted for a while about Miami, DePauw, backpacking, and a whole lot more. Karen said Rachel and I have led yin and yang lives, seeing how we switched locations for college and afterwards Rachel went West for outdoor education and I went East. And we wound up crossing paths in a hostel in Hobart Tasmania. Which I suppose is the most likely place for us to have met.
Hobart, and all of Tasmania for that matter, is truly a special place. It is like Australia's best kept secret. There are heaps of National Parks to go trekking in and the scenery varies from white sandy beaches, to rain forests, to alpine environments, and then the historic sites are thrown in just for good measure. It would be very easy to spend six weeks travelling across Tasmania seeing the sights. All this for an island that can't be much bigger than Ohio.
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