Once I left wet Marrawah, I headed across towards Launceston where I thought I’d camp for the night as I had nothing better to do with the poor [pour] weather. But about 30 minutes before Launceston, the clouds buggered off and I got some sun which encouraged me to go further! So I made it all the way to Kempton that day – just 40 minutes outside of Hobart! Unfortunately, I arrived a bit too late to get a key to the shower block at the campsite where I stayed, but that is a day in the life of the vanpacker!
I decided the next day to go meet up with Chrissy and the other plant-bandits near Freycinet – a 2.5 hour drive, some of which was back-tracking north! But it was a fantastic drive, with an even better end-point near wineglass bay!
After a lovely afternoon and evening with the plant people, I headed out towards Hobart to find bees along the way and a camp! Well, I found no bees despite the good weather. It really does seem like bee season is coming closer and closer to an end… I did however manage to find a camp at a scout-managed piece of land just South of Hobart, which was really quite nice to camp for $10. And that evening, I shared my campfire with an Irishman, a Canadian and a Dutchy… No joke.
So I thought, maybe I can find bees tomorrow! But come morning, the weather wasn’t looking great: cold and rainy, not good conditions for bees! Well, I tried to find what I could but was again thwarted. So I decide to drive around the Tasman and Foresteir Peninsulas to see what could be seen!
Tessellated Pavement – a natural formation at Eaglehawk Neck
Lime Bay
Lime Bay rock formations/patterns
As you can see, I found some pretty cool places! And Lime Bay had a great campground on the coast for only $13/night. But there were too many people there (c.a. 10). I thought, “You know what? Tonight I’ll stay somewhere no one else is, and maybe find some Tasmanian Devils!” I knew that there were some devils on the Forestier Peninsula. But there weren’t many free campsites on wiki camps, so I decided to take a little road out East of Murduna. I knew that it wound its way close to the coast, and through some forest that looked pretty wild, and that was enough for me!
Everything was going pretty well. I even took a turn onto another road that my GPS had marked but google didn’t which seemed to get closer to the coast! But…
I went through quite a few puddles, ruts and other miscellaneous hazards without being able to turn Ron around, so I thought that I’d stay here the night… I had a look around, and even found the end of what must be a fantastic bush walk coming out here, with an arrow pointing back towards a car park (which I never went to) a few kms back up the road! Where you can find out about this walk, I’m not sure, but I think it’d be amazing – wet, mossy rainforesty stuff, maybe extending to the shore? I only speculate, but I may look into this for future reference. It would be a wild walk! (I found it, and it does indeed extend to the shore – 10km, mostly on Richardsons road (from the carpark), at the end of which is a barrier stating 2 hours return, which is apparently a bit optimistic – http://www.portarthurtasmania.net/cape-surville-bushwalk.html)
Back to the story though. I told both my parentals and Chrissy my coordinates in case I ran into troubles. But my parents thought maybe I should get out in case it got wetter overnight and I got bogged. Sounds reasonable, so I did! And thankfully with no worries, as it was a pretty steep and muddy incline with a sharp right hand bend with a huge tree chopped up close on either side (quite fun actually). Thankfully under the mud was [mostly] gravel, so there wasn’t [too much] slipping and sliding!
It’s not hard to see why people think the trees are talking to them. When you stand in the calm of the early evening and hear the rustle of the wind through the leaves, and the soft creaks and groans of the old gums towering above, you are reminded of a long slow conversation of which you are not a part… Yet, you may be the subject of discussion.
That night was the coldest I’ve had yet! I slept in thermal pants, clothes and jacket under my blanket (at which point I was nice and toasty). I managed to find some cool spiders, moths, a couple of possums and something else that I never saw in proper light! Perhaps a bandicoot, but it was pretty big for a bandicoot… I like to think that it was a devil 😛
Anyway, next morning I set off pretty early in hopes of finding some animal life still out and about on the roads! But then I heard a funny noise from under Ron when I reached a certain rev count….
I had a peak underneath the car, and quickly saw that it was a guard plate, which had been knocked pretty hard (by a stone the previous day… I actually remember the bugger). So I took off the plate for a closer look…
It was time for me to use the only tool in Jeremy Clarkson’s toolbox: The hammer.
As luck would have it though, I snapped off a bolt while undoing the damn thing, so I had to zip-tie it back on with my only zip tie! But, panels beaten, bolts substituted with zip-ties, I was ready to go again! Now that’s what cousin Pete would call bush-spec!
Once again though, the clouds and the cold kept the bees away… All I caught that day, was a rather impressive 7.5cm long Gasteruptid wasp (2.5cm body, 5cm ovipositor!). I decided then that it was time to get a service, after all it had been 10 000 km since Perth! I did this in the little town of Forcett, 30 minutes East of Hobart (I was trying to think of a joke about the name, but my creative juices weren’t flowing, and I didn’t want to Forcett). After this, I drove to Hobart and spent a couple of hours parked above Hobart, watching some wallabies having a good time watching the city and eating some grass/wallaby pellets left by a resident.
Kilometres travelled: 21 339
Bee count: 157
James
The Bee log blog 