The road we took was mostly gravel logging roads, but any patch of paved road was used by the local youth (we assume) to entertain themselves by creating some impressive skid patterns and losing a ton of tyre tread - EVEN when that was on an narrow bridge where tyres were completely ripped off at the slightest mistake. I guess there isn't much to do around these parts?!
The whole Tehune area was engulfed in large bushfires two years earlier when we were sailing to Tasmania the first time. It took them almost a year afterwards to clean up and to remove any dangerous branches or sometimes even whole trees, most of which grow to almost 100 meters.
It was overcast and drizzly, and aside from the Airwalk there were some pretty trails among some amazing trees at the site.
It was impressive to see how fast the forest was recovering. Fire is part of the gum tree’s life. The resilient, bark-blackened survivors lost a few limbs, but the ones that were left quickly sprouted new leaves. From the walkway, we could readily see a forest floor covered in saplings and ferns.
Once we left the elevated walkway, we took the loop trail around the forest floor to get the ant’s perspective. As we crossed the river over two swinging suspension footbridges, we could see the log debris of the fires piled up high along each bank by the subsequent year’s floods.
Following that, we went to Hastings for a tour of Newdegate Cave - we had to book this days in advance and it was for a timed entrance so our whole day was basically planned around this visit. Our guide, who was simultaneously informative and disinterested (imagine lots of information delivered in an inflectionless monotone), told us that Newdegate is the largest dolerite cave in either Australia or the Southern Hemisphere. We were a bit too far away from him at that point to accurately determine to which area he was referring, but the gist was that it is an unusually big cave (for a dolerite region).
Nature's cave structures are always a pleasure to see
Included in the entry price was the use of the pool fed by a nearby thermal spring, and while it looked inviting, we decided to spend our time with some more exploring. On the advice of one of the rangers at Hastings, we took a seldom-maintained dirt road (another one!) to the trailhead to Duckhole Lake. Duckhole was created when water filled a sinkhole – probably one of those Dolerite caves again in which the ceiling gave way. It now serves as the remote forest home of, well, ducks, lots of algae and just a few distant and skittish platypuses. What really amazed me about the walk wasn’t the lake or the verdant forest between it and the car park. It was that maybe 95% of the almost two-kilometer-long trail was boardwalk at least three planks wide. What should have been a mushy slog was instead a pleasant stroll. This was for an almost unknown trail to get from a car park buried deep in dirt roads to a lake, really a pond, where the only activity on offer was to sit for a while on a log and look for platypuses. Oh, I do enjoy being in a country where not everything has to be done for profit.
Another 'interesting' local road led us to Duckhole Lake with its lovely boardwalk trail through the damp forest
We took the scenic coastal road back - via Roaring Beach, Surveyors Bay and by then the sun was finally shining
On the way home, we made our second stop of the day in Geeveston, which is home to a platypus viewing trail and platform. We had spotted one from the platform in the morning and wanted to see if he was still there. Yup, still there, and just as active as ever.
More platypus - this time in Geeveston where they even provide a platypus viewing platform.
There were a couple of other humans as well. One was a tourist who thanked us tremendously for helping her spot her first one. The other was a local named Tony Conkin. Tony comes almost every night after work to look for the platypuses. He knew a LOT about each individual, their behaviors and their territorial boundaries. We told him he should be giving tours and he sheepishly admitted that he runs a company called Wildlife Tasmania that does just that. He’s one of those guys that likes his job so much that he forgets to stop being helpful and informative on his time off. His tours did sound pretty amazing.
Our time in Hobart was coming to an end, we had the car for another full day, but that was assigned to provisioning (all the fresh stuff) and a few last minute chores. Soon we'd be departing back to remote anchorages and our 'normal' cruising life.
One of the things that seem to happen as you get older is that Birthdays seem to come faster and faster. I swear, it seems I just had one only a few weeks ago, but Maryanne was already spoiling me with gifts again. This time, she treated me with two tickets to a Midnight Oil concert.
Now, Midnight Oil has been my favorite band (well, at least in the rolling top three) since a certain unnamed Irish band gave up playing Rock and Roll to crossover into the Dentist’s Waiting Room genre. Midnight Oil albums have not mellowed out as the band matures, which makes each just as much fun to turn up just a bit too loud. They have been called the most Australian band in the world and on a whim, Maryanne did a search and found out they were playing in Tasmania right now! In fact, they were going to be at the MONA-FOMA (Museum of Old and New Art, have a Festival of Music and Art), just up the Derwent River from us, the day after we had initially planned to leave.
Uh, no they’re not. We changed our marina booking (earlier in the week, once we realized this) - so that’s the day before we leave now. It’s their farewell tour. We will never be able to see them live again. Ooohh, I really wanted to go, but the timing was so bad. What about COVID? How much will our boosters have kicked in by then?
Maryanne checked. You can’t get in without being vaccinated, you must wear a mask, the venue is at a 50% cap, etc. While I was still busy hand-wringing, she bought eight tickets. That was because the internet was so bad at the marina. She called them and they took six of them back.
Well, it was great! MONA is an amazing venue, where everybody was able to sprawl out on the grass, like a big post-punk picnic. Peter Garrett, the lead singer, started off by wishing us all “G’day”, then it got loud.
Midnight Oil playing live just a 10 minute drive from the marina at MONA (and the forecast heavy rain held off too!)
The show was amazing, which is strange because there really wasn’t much to it. There were no choreographed dance moves. There was no theme, other than Midnight Oil music. Peter Garrett is incapable of dancing in sync with anyone. He looks like his body was taken over by an alien yesterday and it still hasn’t figured out the pulleys and levers yet. What we got to see was two hours of watching a bunch of musicians play their hearts out and sing our favorite songs and scream at the establishment. Rob Hirst, the drummer, seemed to be having more fun than any of us. Why wouldn’t he? He’s the drummer for Midnight Oil. He gets to go their concerts all of the time.
It WAS fun. Even Maryanne, who was late to the party, so to speak, was jumping up and down and singing right along with the rest of us. We left with big smiles and happily ringing ears. I still can’t believe we actually got to see Midnight Oil in Tasmania! That was definitely worth pushing our departure date from the marina back a couple of days.
