Tasmania

Now back from our whirlwind 8 days in a campervan in Tasmania, Australia.

Originally, we were going to go to Uluru (that great big red rock) for our vacation, but we met some people who told us something like "if you've seen the red rock desert of utah, uluru will be a letdown". And my coworker instead told us that Tasmania was the place to go.

I have to say it was the right call. Tasmania is: pristine white sandy beaches; rugged coastline cliffs; rainforest waterfalls; snowy alpine mountain peaks; rolling green hills; abundant exotic wildlife; unique subterranean caves; incrediblly fresh and tasty local seafood; strange and quaint country towns. Except for downhill ski and sea diving, we did just about every outdoor activity you can imagine in those 8 days... though we could have skied and dived if we had the right equipment with us.

above is the painted cliffs of Maria Island. Maria is where we first came in close contact with kangaroos, wallabies, and wombats (and some other little creature we think was a pademelon). No tasmanian devils though... we kept expecting to see some in the wild but it never happened. and for my brother: no dingoes. those are, i believe, only in the outback. No desert in Tasmania.

this wallaby hung out with us for quite a while, and even let me pet him.

we were quite excited to see snow, and kept marveling (here at the Walls of Jerusalem National Park) how we had just dipped our toes in the ocean at a warm sandy beach the day before.

from beach to snow to rainforest: the last few days we were in the west, which is mostly green.

driving around the state was half the fun. piloting a huge campervan down shoddy steep roads was an adventure in itself. getting a campervan instead of a car was definitely the way to go: we could sleep anywhere, which is handy in tasmania. many little towns didn't have motels, but they did have caravan parks.And we learned to get our food and petrol early: everything in tassie shuts down at 5 pm.

weird plants like this everywhere. photographer's paradise.

click below for my facebook album, which has more pics. Next up: in November we're going to the Great Ocean Road between Melbourne and Adelaide, but we're hard-pressed to believe anything could be as spectacular as Tasmania.

Link to Facebook album