Hello again. This is going to be written in installments because I don’t want to leave anything out from our time here in Tasmania. For the first time since our group met (probably exactly a month by the time I get this posted) we have individual rooms for the most part. Even at our apartments we are in open lofts and pull out couches. Don’t get me wrong, the apartments in Byron Bay, hostels in various cities, and camping out are great, but there is something to be said for a large, warm bed in a closed room. Don’t worry, my window is open so I can get my dose of nature. There are about 6 of us that have what I think are queen size beds in a room WITH a door! Also on a hygiene note I took one of the best showers of my life today, from my experience in Oz you get consistent hot water OR water pressure. Finally had both this evening and enjoyed all 5 minutes of it. Trying to be environmentally conscious in the shower department is a skill I am slowly acquiring. This was day 3, night 2 in the southernmost state in Australia. If you take a look at “Tassie” (Aussies love their abbreviations) on a map, one will see large amounts of green and very few dots indicating population centers.
Listening to: All Eyez On Me vs. Bittersweet Symphony - 2Pac and The Aranbee Pop Symphony Orchestra (DJ Hero Soundtrack) Yes…I have the whole thing on my iTunes.
I will hopefully get pictures up simultaneously with this blog post, because where we went today was absolutely beautiful. Initially we just saw a “lake” surrounded by mountains, but slowly learned an ugly truth about this body of water that is more rightly named a “reservoir”. What used to be Lake Pedder is now called Huon-Serpentine Impoundment (the greens were really happy about the dam....) after the “hydros” (hydroelectric power companies) dammed the lake along with two other lakes in the area to create a large reservoir for hydroelectric energy and recreational activities. This story should be on the international circuit because it has everything that international media craves: corruption, murder, sabotage, deceit, and big money corporations. After learning all of the history behind the stunning scene we were taking in, it took on a bit of a different meaning and continued to illustrate the fight that goes on the world over between environmentalists and the government/big businesses. We headed back down the mountains a bit to our lodging arrangements and thus ended Day 3 in Tasmania! Oh, and there were some platypus sightings today behind our rooms.
26 February – Day 4
Well, another day of paradise in the books. Today we took about a 6k hike up Mt. Field in Mt. Field National Park, we saw some interesting geological formations that caused little cirque lakes to form all over the mountain. We did have the option of swimming in the one at the bottom if we chose to do so. Coming into our Tasmanian excursion, we were all expecting snow, ice, war, rapture, famine, tsunamis (this actually almost happened), locust swarms, and various other natural disasters in this state. I think I might have taken a little bit of liberty with that last part, but I will leave that up to you. At any rate, we moved on to the Styx (yes, like the band) Forest which is a forest preserve but it just goes to show you, even when you protect something, people want more. The entrance sign reads "Welcome to the Styx State Forest: Big Tree Forest Reserve", the ladder part has been modified to read "ONE Big Tree ReserveD". Granted there are some huge trees (80+ meters, that's about 263 feet for those playing at home) but the park caters to the general public, not your typical conservationist. After checking out really big trees, we headed down to a nice river to have another swim. Neither of the two swimming experiences have been exactly warm, but just the experience of swimming below the 40th parallel has some form of weird pleasure to me. Saw my first platypus today, good times. That is the day in a nutshell, next!
Listening to: Vicarious - TOOL27 February – Day 5
Ahh, I could live in this place FOREVER. Today we headed out to the Florentine forest to check out the protester camp that is situated in the middle of a logging road that the companies are trying to push through to reach a group of trees they want.
We spent about 45 minutes touring their camp and hearing their "war" stories. They have what are called 'tree seats' which are about 20m off the ground and are attached to a rope that is interconnected with about 20 other things. There are about 6 of these that will be occupied when the logging companies/police come through on a raid so that if they want to get through, they have to cut the rope. If the rope is cut, 6 people are killed at the hands of the logging companies and police. Needless to say, you have to be a pretty intense person to take a seat on one of these contraptions. The media is always on hand for the raids so this would never be done for obvious consequences, however, the protesters have what is called a "black wallaby" who is a person that runs through the forest with a video camera rolling the whole time a raid is occurring so that nothing goes down that can't be sent off to the AP. Another contraption in the road are two cars that have their wheels removed and have cement poured in the chassis. These babies are called dragons.
These are also connected to the tree seats, if that rope is cut, giant logs suspended from the air come crashing down on these two cars. Not only is that more blood on the loggers hands, it makes a hell of a lot of noise to alert any one around that a raid is happening. After hanging out with the protesters for a while we headed to Lake St. Claire! On our trip to the lake, we took a few day hikes and on one hike we encountered a Tiger Snake, this little guy is the 8th deadliest animal in Australia (read WORLD) and the 3rd deadliest snake (same rules). He was just hanging out off the side of the trail and gave us no trouble what so ever.
1/10 deadliest animals seen.
Lake St. Claire might just be perfect. We arrived at our camps which were just National Park bunkhouses with a kitchen attached.
Everyone really enjoyed our time here immensely. Phebes, Laura, Kerstin, and myself walked out after dinner to a full moon, cloudless sky and just sat on the rocks in silence, taking everything in. I decided I would wake up early the next morning to check out the sunrise for something different.
28 February -- Day 6
So at 5:40am (sun rises early here) I drug myself out of bed and brewed a quick cup of tea and headed down to the lake with Aimee, Catie, and Laura to check out the rising of the sun. Snagged a few pictures (discovered my camera has a 16:9 aspect ratio on it).
Definitely nothing wrong with waking up to this on a daily basis. This was the start to another good day filled with hiking. We headed on our way Strahan, but stopped a few times on the way. During one of the trips we learned of the earthquake that struck Chile and quickly realized we were on an island that is barely protected by New Zealand. Thankfully, we are on the western side of Tasmania so there is no danger of us being struck by any waves, but there are tsunami warnings out for the eastern coast which is a very scary reality. On one of our 4 or 5 hikes we spotted yet another tiger snake this guy was also just off the trail and paid us no never mind. After that is all said and done I am pretty tired in general sitting here at Mollys: Great Food having just received my chicken sandwich, I think I am going to sign off from this marathon post and eat some well deserved grease. Hope all is well stateside!
Cheers!
-zuey
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