Heading Home

We received word last Monday evening that Rita's Mother had a stroke, so we returned home early to be with her and the rest of the Arens family. After two days of flying we arrived back in Vancouver on Wednesday afternoon, dumped the bags at the apartment and went directly to the hospital. She was paralyzed on one side of her body and generally in pretty bad shape. After a family consultation it was decided to bring her home where she's resting comfortably.

In accordance with her wishes she's been removed from all life-support and nature has started to take its course. Her family is standing vigil around her and, although she's still responsive, she is starting to fade.

Please remember Mary Arens and the rest of the Arens family in your thoughts and prayers at this difficult time.

Launceston

The view up the Gorge from the Lady Launceston

We left Bicheno (Tasmania's Tidiest Town - 2006, thank you very much) on the 7th and drove around the east coast to Launceston where we've been for the past few days. The weather continued to cooperate and we were able to get out and enjoy one of Tasmania's prettiest cities. We drove up the Tamar River valley the first day just to enjoy a scenic drive, and stopped along the way to visit a Platypus breeding exhibit. It was quite well done...probably the best views of the little guys in their tank that we've seen. Usually you only get a glimpse inside some nocturnal habitat with the lights so dim you can barely make out a thing, but this one was really well done. Will try to load up a video that Rita shot at the end of this. It was almost as good as the one we saw in the wild on one of our hikes in Queensland about 4 years ago.

We actually did another organized "tourist" thing the second day - went on a short 50 minute cruise on an 1890's era steamer up and down the estuary. It was another pretty day so the views were terrific. The boat looked like something out of the African Queen.


A panoramic view of part of Launceston Town


This is the lighthouse near Georgetown near the mouth of the Tamar River, and which has guarded the approach to Launceston since the town was established in 1804.



And this is a photo of our little cottage in the old section of the city. It was built in 1850 in an area known as "The Shambles", and apparently was used to house workers at a local slaughterhouse up the hill. Now it's a trendy self-catering accommodation.



Rita queing up to board the Lady Launceston for the ride up the river

It was a great city for walking so that's what we did...walked our legs off up and down the gorge, as well as exploring all of the little town. Lots of history here. Guess it was people from Launceston who sailed across Bass Strait in 1835 to establish a settlement at Port Phillip - modern day Melbourne.

We departed Launceston earlier this morning and flew into Melbourne - picked up another rental car - and drove down part of the Great Ocean Road to the little town of Lorne on the coast. Along the way we passed gorgeous beach after gorgeous beach. This is supposed to be one of the world's great scenic drives and if the rest of it looks anything like what we saw today it should be pleasant driving tomorrow and Monday. For info, one of the beaches we passed was Bells Beach - which Kevin & Mike would know is one of the great surfing beaches in the world.

Tomorrow we continue the great meander towards Adelaide. You can drive there from Melbourne in 8 hours if you take the motorway, but we're taking 5 days to poke along and enjoy the coastline. We're actually heading for Cape Jervis about 2 hours south of Adelaide, from where we catch the ferry over to Kangaroo Island on the 15th. Looking forward to seeing more critters once we get there - supposed to be Koalas all over the place, along with the usual assortment of animals direct from the Star Wars Bar scene.

Meant to mention that Rita said she saw an Emu on the way to Freycinet Park one day last week. It's one Australia's icons (looks like an ostrich). They're usually pretty shy so she was lucky to see one in the wild.

Here's the video of the platypus I promised earlier...for Makenna.

The East Coast

This is Wineglass Bay in Freycinet National Park. Another great hiking spot on the East Coast.

Been thoroughly enjoying Bicheno and the East Coast. Easter Sunday dawned bright & beautiful so we jumped in the car for a scenic drive up the coast, and to see if we could find any good walks along the way. Here are some photos:


This was our lunch spot the first day while doing the Wineglass Bay Circuit. It's located on the right-hand side of the first photo. Wineglass Bay was gorgeous as usual but it was a little crowded so we opted to cross over the isthmus to the beach on the other side which we had all to ourselves.

We came back to Tasmania on this trip primarily because of the hikes in Cradle Mountain & Lake St. Claire, but have been pleasantly surprised at how beautiful the coastline is here. Port Arthur was rugged and scenic, and the beaches up and down the coast from us here in Bicheno are really world class - as pretty as anything on Kauai - and virtually deserted. The photos below are shots of the beach just behind our little bungalow, and as you can see the white sand just seems to go on forever. Actually, for all practical purposes it does. You can walk about 200 miles up the coast from the spot you see in the picture and pretty much have Pensacola-quality white sand the whole way...and if you see another human being it means you're in a town.



This is a flowering Warratah - a type of Banksia that was growing in the driveway of our little cabin.


A stop for a photo op on one of the hikes.


And another. This is Apsley waterhole in Douglas-Apsley National Park just up the road from us

And below are a couple of photos of the Tasmanian countryside from our wanderings today.







Some general thoughts about the trip so far...just to answer a few questions:

There's always a bit of sticker-shock associated with a trip to Australia. Prices here always appear to be quite high by US standards. Usually, however, that's offset by a favorable exchange rate between the Aussie & US dollars. On our previous trips here the Aussie dollar has been worth about $0.60 US, so the price of things becomes pretty reasonable once you sort it all out. Not so this time however. The US dollar is pretty weak at the moment and the Aussie dollar is trading closer to $0.92 US. So...this trip is about 40% more expensive than I thought it was going to be. It's most noticeable on gas (or petrol as they call it here) which is selling for about AU$1.40 per liter, or close to US$5.50 per gallon once you do the conversions. Thank goodness our rental car gets about 35 MPG (as near as I can figure) but it's still painful to fill up every few days.

We're saving LOTS of money by booking self-catering places and eating in rather than dining out all the time. Plus it's just more fun to live like the locals.

Driving is really no big deal. I'm a lot more comfortable driving on the left after the experience of doing it on previous visits to both Australia and New Zealand, although coming up to a roundabout can still cause my heart rate to spike as I try to remember, once again, just who exactly has the right of way and where to look for approaching traffic. The sparseness of traffic on the roads always helps. Tasmania is a lot like like New Zealand in that you typically can be driving along for 15-20 minutes without seeing another car. When you do, however, it does recalibrate your startle reflex momentarily and (in my case anyway) there's usually a second or two of regaining consciousness and wondering briefly what the devil I'm doing on the wrong side of the road. Fifty years of muscle memory from driving in the US doesn't exactly hold you in good stead here...your first (natural) reaction is always going to be wrong, so you really have keep your wits about you on the road.

The roads are all two lanes - and narrow lanes at that. Speed limit on the highway is 100 Kph (or 62 MPH). Sounds pretty slow by LA freeway standards but believe me it isn't on these narrow roads. There's a big problem all over Australia with "Drink-Driving", especially at night when the critters come out. It's not at all unusual to see lots of fresh road kill in the mornings. Some of the wallabies and wombats can get pretty big too - nearly 100 lbs in some cases - which means they can really make a mess of any car that hits them going 60 mph. The trucks and buses all have "Roo bars" mounted on the front grill that will sweep them away without too much bother, but the little rental cars are virtually defenseless. Needless to say we don't drive at night.

There's something essentially endearing about the Australian people that always makes a visit here such a treat. From the lilt of the accents to the colorful turns of phrase we both enjoy just listening to them talk. There's also an innocent optimism present here - reminds us of the US from about 50 years ago. That, plus the natural and ingrained sense of hospitality that I first saw on my visits here when I was flying off the Enterprise & Independence. The people are, without exception, the nicest on earth.

The country began as an open-air penal colony and I swear you can still see some traces of that ancestry on the faces of a lot of the Australian men, who tend to be a rugged-looking lot and who appear to be ready to rumble on a moments notice. The women, however, are just the opposite - talk about sugar & spice. They're the most naturally "feminine" women of any country I've visited. No airs, no attitudes, just natural & down-to-earth.

The country is all vaguely familiar for anyone who grew up in Southern California. The stands of eucalyptus forests everywhere make any trip seem like an extended drive thru Balboa Park in San Diego, but with a bit of an edge to it. It's still a place where it always feels like you're about two wrong turns and a busted fan belt away from a survival situation.

Have talked before about the wildlife here, which always make a hike thru the forest eventful as a wallaby, wombat, kangaroo or pademelon goes boinging down the trail ahead of you. There is some weird stuff here, though- a function of about 60 million years of evolution on a continent separated from any other land mass. Someone once joked that some of the animals in Australia make you wonder if maybe there was an open bar in heaven before the last day of creation.

We're here for 3 more nights before we head to Launceston. We fly to Melbourne on the 10th, pick up another rental car, and then will be heading to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road.

The Tasman Peninsula

This was our view from the Lanai in back of our house in Port Arthur. You can just see the small herd of 11 sheep that the owners have grazing on the property, and which occasionally worked its way right up to the fence below our window.

Our week in Port Arthur passed too quickly. The Tasman peninsula is an especially rugged and pretty area - located about an hour southeast of Hobart. It was the location of one of the most infamous of the penal colonies established by the British during the days when "transportation" was the preferred method of dealing with criminals. People were transported for offenses ranging from petty larceny to treason - the Irish were particularly favored after risings against English rule in 1798 and 1845, although they continued until the "system" was discontinued around 1858. The reason it was discontinued was due to the discovery of gold in the colony in 1852 - miners returning from the California gold rush noticed the resemblance between California and parts of Victoria and New South Wales, went looking, and struck it rich. Once it became apparent that people were actively hoping to be transported to Australia in order to go prospecting the whole point of the system just sort of imploded. People were transported for periods ranging from 7 years to life, but all sentences were essentially life sentences due to the fact that there was no provision for returning paroled convicts to England.

Most of the early history of all of Australia's major cities (and states) is the story of the British Penal System - that's how the whole country got it's start - as a dumping ground for English convicts. It's an interesting, and sad, history. Anyway, the Port Arthur prison was just up the street from our house.




The scenery on our walks continued to be terrific. The photo above is of "Remarkable Cave" a local landmark on the coastline.

Below is a better view of what the seacoast of the Tasman Peninsula looks like from another of our hikes. Lots of sandstone and basalt cliffs that have been eroded by the surf over the past several thousand years - made for some spectacular views.


I'm standing at the site of the boys prison at Point Puer - across from the main complex at Port Arthur - and am looking at the "Isle of the Dead" , or the burial ground for the prison. Conditions were so bad here that prisoners were known to either commit suicide by jumping off the cliffs, or to draw lots to see which prisoner on a chain gang would be murdered by the others, knowing that the perpetrators would be hung and all of them, therefore, would be free of the brutality of the system.



On a lighter note, this is Crescent Bay - one of our discoveries on an afternoon walk. Came here twice in fact to spend the day, have lunch, and generally enjoy the place. Had it all to ourselves both times - never saw another human being the whole time.


Two more looks at Crescent Bay. Rita is relaxing at our lunch spot overlooking the beach.




On the drive from Port Arthur to Freycinet National Park we stopped off in the delightful little town of Richmond. Originally established as a stage coach stop between Hobart & Port Arthur it developed into its own convict precinct - the chief attractions in the town are the old jail (or gaol, as they spell it here) and the old bridge that was built by convict labor back in 1823. It was a nice stopover on a pleasant day.


This is St. John's Catholic Church. Built in 1835 it's the oldest Catholic Church in Australia

And below is the Richmond Bridge.


This is the "Triangle" in the assembly yard of the old gaol. The prisoner would be lashed hand & foot to the arms of the triangle (spreadeagled basically) then had anywhere from 12 to 100 lashes laid on with a cat-o-nine tails. If the prisoner fainted he was revived with a bucket of salt water so the punishment could be continued. Women weren't flogged in Tasmania, although they were in some of the other (mainland) penal colonies.

Bye the way, the reason the Brits started transporting their prisoners to Australia in the first place is because their original dumping ground became unavailable after the American Revolution succeeded in 1783. Up to that time transportation to the American colonies was a common practice - Benjamin Franklin chided the King about it when he was colonial minister to Great Britain before the war broke out in 1775.

We've just arrived in Bicheno on the East Coast of Tasmania, and close to Freycinet National Park - another spectacular area here in this beautiful State. We'll be here for a week before heading to Launceston for a few days.