A getaway in Tasmania

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A few snapshots on the way over to Queenstown show you how windy the mountainous road is and what a bio-diversity the mountains can offer you in terms of the vegetation!

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The mountains are nothing short of rivers and lakes! No wonder Tasmania is so green!

At that point, I totally understand why Tasmanian environmental authorities insist that Tassie has got a unique Eco-system apart from the mainland Australia, nothing posing a risk to this system should be introduced into it by tourist business!

The custom officers take no risk at all and go all out reinforcing how dangerous that could be if anything biologically damaging is imposed upon Tassie's eco-system when entry-screening the tourists both boarding and disembarking the ferry.

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These photos were taken around Queenstown, and they are Copper mines and tell a story how prosperous the mining business could be in the past! The mines are not currently in operation, but the authorities are discussing about reopening the business in the near future!

I believe no matter how the Tasmanians go about the mining industry, they would definitely weigh out the pros and cons of taking advantage of mining and over exploiting it given how much they care about Tassie's natural blessings and the value of the world heritages!

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Our accommodation in Queenstown--Penghana Bed & Breakfast. This property was built in 1898 on the top of a high hill when the copper mining was flourished. It was owned by a few mine managers including the first one Mr Robert Sticht. It now has been claimed as National Trust Property and can only be used as a tourist attraction and accommodation. No major construction work is allowed without authority's permission.

To tell you a secret, I am not a fan of royal family at all. However, when I stayed there in the property, showed myself all around it, overlooked the rest of Queenstown, I got a creepy feeling of being a member of royal descendants. While I was standing in front of the window , I felt the very urge to give orders to the maid：

“Tea please, Trudy! (Rose's mother's line in Titanic!)”

What an imaginary royal bitch!

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A deserted copper mine located southeast to Queenstown --Iron Blow!

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05/11/14--Queenstown to Cradle Mountain

Strahan---Another big town in west coast, it stands out as an import port in that region nowadays because of Gordon River. There is the tourist cruise running through the winding Gordon River path along the mountains, taking the tourists through the stunning, breathtaking scenic views along the 193 kilometers long water-way. This tour offers the beauty of the west coast that could otherwise not easily be accessible to tourists who travel in the alternative means!

Unfortunately, when we got there, the cruise had been already sailed out to the waters on a daily schedule and we didn't book any accommodation in Strahan either! I guess this could be a perfect excuse for us to go back to Tasmania for another expedition later on!  

It was a rainy day during our short stop in Strahan, so it didn't present us with its real spectacular beauty! But, we could still feel it, and my curiosity about this river remains!

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Note written on the entrance to the information center in Strahan serves as a proof how the rest of the dull, artificial world has been discriminated against by Tasmanian's Ecology community!   

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We can absolutely appreciate the density and bio-diversity of the vegetation in the mountains of west coast, Tasmania!

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A private collection of wood sculptures from the high mountains by a family over 45 years! The owner was joking about his collection when asked how he could make those sculptures:

"We didn't have to do anything but hike in the mountains, keep the artist eyes out for something artistic, bring them back home, use a bit imagination and display them there. That's how the whole collection came around!"

yping88

The King Billy Pine that gentleman took from Cradle Mountain and planted in his front yard 20+ years ago!

This kind of pine tree has been claimed to only thrive in high-altitude Cradle Mountain region, it has a remarkably slow growing process and long life span. In the high mountains, its full length could reach as high as 30+ meters. I will talk about it in detail in the following posts when I take you through our Cradle Mountain adventure!

yearshappy

a visual feast, yping!
it seems i don't have to do any research on this island before my departure Can't get any better than this

yping88

yearshappy 发表于 21-11-2014 10:57
a visual feast, yping!
it seems i don't have to do any research on this island before my ...

I wonder when your holiday in Tassie will be, yearshappy?

I'm afraid our route in west coast couldn't be a perfect reference, because I made a botched visiting sequence due to lacking of research beforehand. But our plan in east coast turned out to be a perfect one!

yearshappy

yping88 发表于 21-11-2014 12:17
I wonder when your holiday in Tassie will be, yearshappy?

I'm afraid our route in west coast c ...

It's supposed to be one week after. Now I put it on hold, heading to NSW instead.

yping88

05/11--07/11/14: Cradle Mountain

Introduction:

There are six national parks in Tasmania listed as the wilderness world heritage area by UNESCO (United Nations Education, Scientific and Culture Organization), and Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park takes up an important rank among them, with the rest named Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, Hartz Mountains National Park, Mole Creek Karst National Park, Southwest National Park, Walls of Jerusalem National Park, Mt Field National Park.

Cradle mountain serves as the northern border of this Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair national park, while Lake St Clair finishes up this park about 80+ Kilometers southwards into Franklin-Gordon national park.

Cradle mountain sits on a latitude of 1545 meters above the sea level, and it is named so due to its resemblance to a gold mining cradle! The world-wide famous Over Land Track starts at Cradle Mountain, and I will talk about this track in the following post.

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We missed the turn-off sign to our accommodation and were blessed with these stunning views!

So, who said mistakes only give rise to negative outcomes, oh?

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For the first time ever I was in a close vicinity of Cradle Mountain, which kept coming to me in my dreams, it was a rainy day. So, the Cradle Mountain just kept teasing me by hiding in the fog or coming out partially. Most of the time, I felt like I was walking around it in a sweet dream, from which I would prefer not to wake up!

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The three-hour walking circuit around Lake Dove which looking up on Cradle Mountain from afar is a must-walk track during your Cradle Mountain visit, I bet you would seriously question yourself in your decision-making skills if you miss out on that track!   

That boat shed became an often-photograghed icon in Dove Lake circuit. It was built in 1940s and stood quietly by the lake!

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A little rain-forest hiding in the Lake Dove walking track!

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A scary Halloween party on a board-walking track in Cradle Mountain National Park!!!

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Devils @ Cradle

Tasmanian Devils are the world largest carnivorous Marsupials (食肉袋类动物) that currently found to inhabit only in Tasmania's wilderness, they prefer to live in the coastal bushlands and forest!

They have a very short life span of 5-6 years, and have a very low surviving rate as the new offspring compared to the numbers of little tiny babies produced in one gestation. A shocking poor odds as in 4 out of possible 50 newborns of one female could survive on their mother's only 4 nipples. These strongest four would hang on to these nipples after winning the competition for them, leaving the rest of the siblings starving to death.

The ones who make it to their life will highly likely suffer from the facial tumor probably due to their devouring diet habit (They will not screen out what they can eat out of a game, they will swallow the skin, meat, fur and bones altogether) and won't be able to live into their adulthood.

As a result, their numbers in the wilderness have diminished alarmingly during the last decade. In 2007, the total adult population were estimated at 25,000 after 60% decrease from the population of 2001's and they were listed as the endangered species by International Union for Conservation of Nature.

On the food chain, they stay at nearly bottom of it. They hunt for food as the scavengers (食腐动物) rather than proactively hunt for it, and they usually scare away the primary hunters from the preys by growling like a devil (Maybe that's how they got that name!) and then they would claim the carcasses their own! As an animal of small size, they have a surprisingly tough jaw that gives them the advantage when feeding on the carcasses!

Nowadays, in the devil sanctuary, they have commenced a program aimed increasing the devil infants' surviving chance by hand rearing them, or alternatively put four babies on devil mother's nipples in turn. The staff have achieved some positive outcomes, but, there are still a lot things to be done to sustain or increase the devil's population.

The promising side of protecting this endangered species is they are quite adaptable to the sanctuary's environment and feeding regimes, which micmic their natural habitant and diet pattern (Devouringly swallow all parts of one big carcass at one meal and then go for days without eating anything until next prey becomes available).  

Good news is: In mainland Australia, Victoria has been chosen as the first state for a small group of devils to be introduced in. Hopefully, in the near future, we will be able to get upclose to them in Melbourne!  

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I picked out these two photos and uploaded them separately here, because I would like to acknowledge this staff specially for the Tasmanian Devils information she passed on to the tourists and the commitment she has made to this program of bringing this particular species out of the endangered list!

Her vast knowledge base of Devils--their habitant, growth, life style, breeding and offspring's upbringing, feeding habit, adaption ability and their introduction to new environment, etc, etc...---absolutely stunned me and startled me out of my habitual believe system: She is way, way, way more than just a zoo keeper, she is a much devoted, knowledgeable staff member who loves what she has been doing, and she addressed each devil by their names.

She told the audience that the food resource for the devils in the sanctuary can only come from the shooting games. Road kills can never be any meals for the devils in the sanctuary because of the unknown diseases residing in those killed animals even though they are much more easily accessible to the meal supply unit in the program.

A male devil will identify himself or be respected by his fellow devils as a king who dominate a particular ground based on his size. Normally, this king devil would get the meal first whenever it's available and then mark an individualized territory around this meal by urinating in a circle. His fellow devil friends would make many desperate attempts in approaching that meal and get intimidated away by his horrible growling! They would usually get hold onto the leftovers while the king devil loses his interest in that meal or he is distracted by something else more attempting!

From my point of view, the reason they are called devils is that they fight to death for their survival at the price of losing their own siblings and keep Law of Jungle (丛林法则) brutally alive in their own family!!!

yping88

07/11/14 was a sunny day, we decided to make the most out of by walking a 6-8-hour highland track, and then went on doing Cradle Mountain Summit climbing!

The following photos are perfect representatives of why I have ranked Cradle Mountain as my much-loved mountain! I don't think I could ever put in words how I was amazed by its beauty, serenity, elegance, and yet intriguing and muscularity! I have never seen anything that can combine together all the above descriptions until I set my foot on the track leading me to the Cradle Mountain!

A courtesy reminder: Please put your excitement in check while browsing through the photos, but the whistles will be tolerated!   

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After we trekked along near Cradle Mountain's rough base, it was trying to remind us out of its courtesy of the possible challenges ahead.

The closer we trekked towards it, the louder its voice of warning had become: Are you sure of what you are demanded of to finish off this summit climbing adventure? Have you gone enough research? Enough preparation? Reasonable mountain-climbing strategies? Enough strength? Enough resilience & persistence?  

Are you ready both physically and psychologically? Take your time, think it over and answer these questions before you go any further!!!

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No matter how high the mountains go, the water will follow their path!!!

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The snow patches left by the heavy snow fall one week before our visit!

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While seeing us not back down and make the determined advance to the summit, the Cradle Mountain starts losing its exterior grace and showing its true color---Heeeheee, it's definitely not as soothing as it seems!

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For this adventure, the common mountain climbing assistant stick doesn't make much of a sense any more, people had to give them up for the this summit climbing! You would be able to figure out why from the posts to follow!

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Before we were hit up with the tough rock climbing task, let me put aside a little moment for myself and enjoy the wonderful landscape in the distance!

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Holy mother of gun!!!

I mean, we were prepared, but we absolutely didn't see this coming!!!

However, after we trekked this far, it would be a shame to back down without even trying. Let's put ourselves out there and sort out what we were capable of doing!

yping88

Had to drop ourselves to the boulders on the tummy most of the time just in case we lose the balance in between the sharp boulders. We could end up in serious injury if something went wrong, so, most of the time, we just stopped to have a little discussion about how we could make it a bit safer for the next step.

To be honest, more than once, I stared at those cliff-like boulders in awe and scared myself with my wondering: What if that boulder came loose? Where could I seek the shelter if that happened? How come those boulders present themselves with such a nasty, evil look?--fierce, angry, ferocious, malicious, you name it!  

Tortured by those scary thoughts, I was trying my best to put on a brave face and kept telling myself and our adventurous partners that we could definitely do this!

No matter how scary and tough you could be, bring it on, Cradle Mountain!