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March - July 2001
Australia
Brett Voegele2005-11-14 17:31:04
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the winding roads down the West coast to Strahan. In Strahan we took a boat cruise on the river, visited an old island penal colony, and wandered briefly through the rainforest. From Strahan we climbed around some huge sand dunes, hiked to the highest waterfall in Tasmania (Montezuma Falls), and drove some scenic roads to town of Queenstown - which can't be described as scenic. It was a huge open-pit copper mining community, so there is very little left growing in the region. However, having gone to college in Butte with it's open-pit copper mine I felt right at home. Queenstown had a unique charm to it - even if it was hard on the eyes.
Hobart & Overland Track Hike
From Queenstown we made our way south to Hobart - at 200,000 people the largest city on the island. It has a great feel to it, and we enjoyed relaxing in the city. Next, Harriet drove me north to Cradle Mountain so I could begin a hike of the Overland Track. I had been looking forward to the hike for quite awhile, and wasn't disappointed. I was able to summit some of the main peaks in the region (Cradle Mountain, and Mt. Ossa - the highest in Tasmania at 1617 meters [around 5200']), hiked the fantastic and varied trail during the day, and camped/talked with others at night. There were several people at the camps - sometimes 30+, as I did the hike over Easter. However, during the day one could pace themself so as to avoid everyone. The trail is very well maintained - though still quite muddy. It's definitely a hike I would recommend, as the scenery is magnificent. With some of the side trips I ended up covering about 75 kms (45 miles) from Friday to Monday, and was fortunate with dry weather the entire time (it snowed the day before I started and after I finished). In all it was a fantastic trip. I hope to return to Tasmania and do some of the other, more remote, hikes in the future.
Port Arthur
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