www.davesisland.com

Hi everyone!

Yet again it has been ages since I posted to let you know what I’ve been up to…and yet again i’m sorry but the time has just been flying by!

After the great trip up the west coast of Oz with the lads (Tom and Craig) I headed back down to Perth for a months work before I finally had to say good-bye to all my friends there and go east coast.
The last month in Fremantle was eventful to say the least, with the summer gaining momentum and the backpackers full to bursting point every night. It was really sad to leave but the thought of moving to pastures new spurred me on and the prospect of meeting up with old friends helped too. I’ll never forget the friends I made and the people who enriched my life in more ways than I could have dreamed of, you are all great and i’ll miss you.

So moving on to the here and now…
I flew into Sydney on the 10th where I met up with Tom and Craig who are living in Pyrmont, just across from Darling Harbour. On the same evening my mate from home, Snip/Philip (since renamed to Scratch) landed in Sydney and we met up - there was much rejoicing.
Two days later we were on yet another plane to Hobart, Tasmania, on the start of a completely new adventure.

We landed in Hobart (the capital) and jumped straight into our Toyota Corolla Ascent, 1.8 Automatique…
Leaving the tent securely stored at the side of the parking space (unintentional) we headed for the south/south-west where we did a spot of sight seeing before catching the ferry ($25 return) to Bruny Island. After doing a lap of the northen portion we drove along the beautiful straight which joins the north and the south and attempted to spot some penguins, without much success (we could at least smell them).
We spent the night in our own little cabin (bless) in Adventure Bay and played some frisbee (kindly donated to me by the Canadian Ultimate Team) on the beach. The next day we marched through dense rainforest in search of the Mavista Falls, which we found but not after falling victim to leeches and other biters.

After Bruny island we carried on down the south west, following the Huon Trail, to a town called Cygnet where we spent the night in the Cygnet hotel in a rather plush room with a magnificent portrait of a busty serving wench (Scratch got a shot of her on his nice new camera - pics to come soon).
After a hearty cheescake breakfast we continued along to the small logging town of Geeveston where we secured our room at the quirky backpackers of Bob’s Bunkhouse (later renamed, although not advertised, to Bobs Monkhouse - made us laff anyway). From there we drove right down to the southern-most tip of Tasmania, Cockle Creek. There wasn’t a great deal to do here as it was more for long term walks etc but it was a great drive down through some beautiful scenery and townships. We also stopped off at Hastings Caves and the thermal springs. The caves were good, the springs weren’t - just a swimming pool at an off-cold temperature (not recommended).

After a night in Bob’s Monkhouse we ventured inland to the Hartz Mountains National Park, where we took it upon ourselves to scale the highest mountain in the region…Hartz Mountain. It was a great walk and was made all the more rewarding by the weather which, in true Tasmanian style, changed by the minute - starting off fine, then progressing to sleet, then snow, then fog, then clearing nicely as we reached the summit - allowing us to view the entire south-west in all its glory…spectacular.
Afterwards we opted for an easier walk along the Tahune Airwalk, another Ewok-style tree-top walking platform which lead out to a rather bouncy viewing platform - not my cup of tea, especially when Scratch decides to bounce on it.
From there we backtracked all the way back to spend a night in Hobart before we began our journey northwards. Here we spent the night in a shoddy, crappy backpackers called the Pickled Frog - which also had an annoying attendant who spoke in an American accent as he was ribbing us English about the cricket (work that one out if you will).

Leaving the “Knackered Frog” behind, we began a mega-drive out to the Gordon Dam, which turned out to be worth the drive as it was pretty impressive - very steep and VERY high…I had to fight with myself to take a peek over the edge!
From the dam we wound our way through the mountains to the foot of Lake St. Clair - at the end of the famous 6-day Overland Track. We booked into our port-a-cabin accommodation at the Derwent Bridge Wilderness Hotel and had meal at the lakeside restaurant, Scratch had his first taste of kangaroo and I enjoyed a nice lamb dish.
The next day we woke early and enjoyed a massive fatty breakfast at the Hungry Wombat Cafe- we felt we deserved this after the grueling drive the previous day. We then popped in to see a work-in-progress project called The Wall in the Wilderness - a carving masterpiece by a guy called Greg Duncan. Basically he is spending the next few years carving out a huge wooden sculpture which will be over 100 metres long. Not usually something I’d mention but the carving was exceptional, quite amazing what this guy can do. Scratch agrees.

The rest of the day panned out into another mega-drive, again through winding alpine roads up through the west and cutting back in again to the base of Cradle Mountain. Here we stayed at Cosy Cabins - and shared our 4-bed dorm with a sleep-talking chinaman and biscuit-munching american. After a nourishing meal of spag-bol and teaching Scratch the now legendary card-game of Sh*thead we retired early, in preparation for the day to come…

…Up at the crack of dawn, we donned our winter warmers and began our hike along Dove Lake and up to the summit of Cradle Mountain - after casually forgetting to sign ourselves in to the walker’s registration book…never mind, we are experienced enough and don’t need anybody to come and rescue us - yeah right.
I’d like to say that we made it to the top that day, but we didn’t, the truth is that the cloud came in thick and fast and we decided that getting to the top just wasn’t worth the the trouble - as there would be nothing to see anyway. I know, I know, “its the sense of achievement!” I hear you cry but to be honest we just weren’t prepared to break our necks in thick fog for non-existent self-gratification ( put that in your pipe and smoke it )
Even so, we had a great walk 4hrs turned out to be just enough….by the time we got down the whole place was covered in cloud/fog anyway. Fortunately, due to our early start, we had already had the best of the views.

From there we drove up to the north coast, through Burnie and west along to Boat Harbour where we threw the frisbee around on the white sand beach and even had a dip in the Bass Strait to wash away the grime of the day.
We treated ourselves that night and spent the night in the sea-side town of Stanley, in our own self-contained cabin at Stanley Cabin Park with a double bed each…yes.

In the morning we walked up “Fly” Hill, an out-of-place flat-top mountain which looks down over Stanley - we called it Fly Hill because there were a lot of (annoying) flies there.
We then continued along the north coast to the north west tip of Tasmania, Arthur River, and The Edge of the World. On the way we popped into a place called Dismal Swap, basically a sink-hole swamp with neat visitors centre…and a novel way of getting down to it…via a huge slide. It sounds better than it was however, because although the swamp itself was quite interesting (as interesting as a swamp can be), the slide was a bit of a let down - we were hoping for a rip-roaring, teeth-clenching, eye-watering ride - and when we were issued with hairnets and helmets our adrenaline began to pump. However on completing the ride we realised we actually got was what, at best, can be described as a kids helter-skelter (maybe we had our sights aimed a bit high, but who can blame us?

Anyways, disappointments aside, we drove to Arthur River, visited the Edge of the World, then turned round and missioned it Launceston (we are never sure how to pronounce that). Here we stayed in a much better backpackers, aptly named The Launceston Backpackers - after initially checking into a room with a stinky-footed person we were moved into a much nicer twin room - a great backpackers with clean facilities and friendly, helpful staff.
We had a couple of drinks out in town then hit the hay.

From Launceston we made our way to the upper north east corner, not forgetting to mention the little town of Scottsdale - where I received my first ever speeding ticket!!! oops! However, I flashed the copper a winning smile and played the dumb-tourist, baffling him with our array of guidebooks and maps. He reduced my penalty to a mere caution and sent us on our way with some helpful advice on how to avoid certain towns where “Dick Heds, and Druggies” hang out. Nice chap.
We proceeded to the very north east tip, a little town called Anson’s Bay. Not a great deal to do or see here and we moved on hastily to our final destination of the day, St. Helens where we stayed in a great little backpackers which isn’t actually in the guide books or anywhere else for that matter - as we can’t remember the name its the right next to ChickenFeed on the main street, and its not the YHA.

The following day we drove up to the Bay Of Fires, a region of small coves and beaches, pretty in the sun but in the dull day we visited, not so.
From there we made haste down the coast, driving through the blackened forests and burnt-out homes of Scamander - where the bush-fires had been raging a few days before. Quite an eerie sight.
We stopped off in the Freycinet National Park, to take a peek at the world famous Wineglass Bay. Unfortunately for us, the weather that day was not the best and the beauty was a bit spoiled by low-cloud and smoke from the fires…having said that, it was still impressive and we could imagine that on a sunny day it would be stunning.
As the weather was not on our side we decided to mission it down the east coast and get to Port Arthur, a former penal settlement which housed British prisoners right up the late 1800s and is still kept as a Historical Site.
Here we booked into an amazing cabin by the side of Stewarts Bay, in the Stewarts Bay Lodge. As this was going to be our last stop before returning to Hobart we decided to splash out and had a blinding meal at The Mussel Boys restaurant, we then retired back to the cabin to watch Bruce Lee, The Chinese Connection on our cabin’s DVD player entertainment system.
We explored the historic site and the rest of Port Arthur the following day, as well as visiting the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Centre to get a glimpse of the little fellas. The final leg of the trip took us back to Hobart, where the festivities were already in full swing with a huge street party going on down by the warf.
And that is where we are now, and where this story ends…Tasmania has been an amazing experience and I recommend anyone to come, fantastic. We are flying out tomorrow morning and meeting up with Tom and Craig to start our Christmas and NYE partying. Looking forward to it.

To all of you, have a brilliant Christmas and an even better New Year, miss you.
Also, to all of you in WA..
Pirates Crew (Vaughan, Charlie, Yimmy, Dot n Terry, Dave, C-for) Em, Mon, Lori, Terri(y?), Kings…thank you, and enjoy the summer!

TTFN!
Dave (Sniff)
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Snip (Scratch)

P.S. For those of you, which will be most of you, who are wondering on our sudden change of nicknames - its because Snip is always Scratching and I’m always rubbing my nose and sniffing…it made sense, and made us laff… at the time.