About Trucks like in Movies

In Europe they are mostly known from Hollywood-movies but I finally saw one in real life in Deloraine in Tasmania - a big truck looking like Optimus Prime from Transformers.

About the stars

One of the probably most gorgeous thing to see in the world is a sky full of stars and when you look up to the sky in a clear night in Australia you can even see the milky way. This was one of my first shots of the stars, taken when we where camping at the Bays of Fire.

Advent Calendar: 22nd December

This is the motivation to do the 2 hours walk at Fortescue. The rest of the hiking track is pretty odd, but it's worth to walk there for this rock!

Advent Calendar: 21st December

When you tell someone in Victoria or Tassy that you go to Hobart, you'll probably get the recommendation (and so do I) to go to MONA  - an innovative museum for old and new art.

This is one of the museum pieces. And you can actually play on it...well...at least you can try! ;)

Advent Calendar: 19th December

There was a company in Tassy which kind of rented space from farmers. They paid an amount to grow a few trees on each (or at least a lot) of farms here which they would cut down when they were big enough to sell the wood. This was a good income for a lot of farmers, but the company went bankrupt so now there are a lot of trees on the farms and the farmers get neither money for them nor do they know what they should do with the trees.

This one may be one of those trees...

Advent Calendar: 18th Decmber

This cute little guy is a Japanese macaques monkey who lives in an enclosure in the Launceston City Park (there are no monkeys in the wild in Tassy, everything that looks similar to a monkey is probably an Opossum). The enclosure is free to visit, it's in the middle of the park!

But be sure not to climb into the enclosure, the monkeys got Hepatitis B (which is not dangerous for them but for you if you hug them). And yes, I'm pretty serious about that you shouldn't climb in because I've heard a story about two drunken guys who climbed in, smashed the electric fence, which fell into the water that surrounds the enclosure and weren't able to get out anymore because every time they tried to get through the water, they got an electric shock. In the end they got rescued by a friend who had a ladder and lived nearby.

Don't think too much about it, I'm conscious about some logical issues with this story, but it was too funny not to share it. ;)

Advent Calendar: 17th December

A few days ago I've been in Launceston (the second biggest city in Tassy) to a farmer market and saw this sign there. Whenever you go on this island to a supermarket you read at least 500-times "Buy Tasmanian Products" or "Choose Tasmian!". So, they put a lot of effort into making people buy local food which is pretty good, I would love to see that in Austria.

But on this farmer market they sold not only the common stuff like vegetables and fruits but also furry of Wallabies and Kangaroos and home cooked jams (I tried an onion jam - no added sugar, but it was so sweet, unbelievable!) and home cooked convenient food (yeah, strange, isn't it?).

And after three weeks on this island I have to admit: I do not only love food, I love Tasmania too!

Advent Calendar: 16th December

I still haven’t seen a platypus, but I’ve been to an area where obviously enough Platypen (plural of Platypus…anyone a better idea?) live to let the people make up with those signs.

To be seen near Lake Huntsman. ;)

About how every hiking-tour should end

Me and my travel companion Claudia

If you come to Tassy you wanna see the nature, the crazy wildlife of Australia, the wonderful landscape (if you're not interested in that cancel your flight straight away!). There are two ways to explore that: by helicopter and plane (which is pretty expensive and probably no choice for anyone who reads travel blogs) or you go hiking. And there are quite a lot of walking paths on this island as approximately 40% are National Parks.

Echidna

One of my favourite hiking trips became Cape Raoul. Not only is the landscape magnificent. This is a magic place where Pasta learn to fly (here's the proof)! Ok, maybe it's less magic and more physic but anyway it's damn impressive to see a Pasta or a stick that you throw down the cliff seeing coming up again and flying over your head (or you get even hit by a noodle) back because of the strong winds that blow up the cliffs.

You might even see some Echidnas (the only egg-laying mammals beside platypus) ambling the path next to you. They aren't too afraid of humans...neither are the snakes! We met another traveler on the path who told us that a big snake was blocking the path making us walking in an always-on-alert-mode. Usually they shouldn't attack you, but be aware not to step on them on accident. ;)

Finnish Sauna after the Hiking tour at Cape Raoul

And make sure that you don't loose the path at the end of the track as we did...but if you make it back to the start of the track you will be rewarded with a Finnish sauna! The farmer who's property is next to Cape Raoul has build up a sauna which you can use for a donation and provides a camping zone for 5$/person! Make sure that you don't come back too late (we started heating up the sauna at 9PM) and you may have a nice chat with Andy, the owner of the sauna!

I published thirty more pictures on Flickr (Click here to see them). Enjoy the view (without the damn strong wind up there), and tell me how you like the pictures ;)

Advent Calendar: 15th December

Sometimes it is just rainy and cloudy in Tassy. That's how it looks like then near Hobart on the beach. The best time to come to this island is probably january. The days are getting definitely warmer now with a temperature-peak of 27 degree celsius today!

Advent Calendar: 14th December

When we were searching for a camping spot with a barbecue in Mt. William National Park we spotted this pelican. This was one of the moments, where I rummaged around to find my camera as fast as possible in the car to take a picture before the bird would fly away (what he didn't do luckily 'til we left).

Advent Calendar: 13th December

The good thing about owning a car and being on a roadtrip is that you do not only have gorgeous views on the countryside but that you can stop whenever you want (ok, maybe not on the main highway, but on every other road we can just stop left by) to enjoy the sun and take stunning pictures like this.

Sundown is here around 9 PM by the way... :-p

Advent Calendar: 11.5th December

I’m really late for the 11th of December, I know…again: no reception.

This is Mayflowerbeach on the east coast of Tassy. Was the perfect place for a late breakfast! 

Advent Calendar: 9th December

One of the girls I’m travelling with at the moment, Maria, was picked up by a guy who offered us all to sleep at his place and have a hot shower. So after being at Freyscenet National Park we drove to his place, arriving late in the night and had a very relaxed evening,listening to italian music, drinking wine, eating cheese and prosciutto and bred with butter. After 20km of hiking this was an amazing meal.

The knife above was the only one he had in his kitchen, was 30 to 40cm long, felt like a machete and was being used in a very universal way that night, from cutting cheese to buttering bread. 

Advent Calendar: 8.5th December

With some delay here comes the 8th of December (no reception in the bushes on the beach):

There are a lot of Wallabys in Tasmania. Either alive or dead on the street, you can see them everywhere. Especially in the night they love it to jump in front of your car, attracted by the lights of the car (their eyes are really, really bad). I like to call those Suicide-Wallabys.

All in all it’s worth to have a drive during the night in Tassy, you will see most of the wild animals living here during that time (I think, I’ve even had a short glimpse on a Tasmanian Devil!)…but for sure you shouldn’t drive too fast then if you don’t want to support the suicidal character of the wallabies!

While hiking in the Freyscinet National Park the other day we saw a few wallabies during daytime but none of them got as close as this one at the parking space where we parked our car.

We even pet it, so fluffy!

Advent Calendar: 7th December

This is an oyster. Fresh from the sea at a place called Triubanna on the east coast of Tassy.

I stayed the last two days at this place, was kayaking here and had a really good time. Corinne, our host, lives next to a bay where we could collect fresh wild oysters. And in her garden we cooked them (a lot of them, I think none of her couchsurfers gonna eat seafood in the next weeks) on a fire heated oven and prepared them in vietnamise way (because a girl from Vietnam stays here too right now) with oil and leech.

I was surprised that the raw ones actually taste good (even though nothing for people who don’t like seafood for sure) but cooked in this way it’s much better!

Bon apetite!

Advent Calendar: 6th December

Every beach is different in Tassy. This one in Opposum Bay is full of seashells!

About how Hobart became the beginning of my first roadtrip

Hobart may be a little town, capital of a little island (only 15.000 squarekilometers smaller than Austria), Australias smallest state. But in the few days I’ve been here I met a lot of people, someone to travel with and…I bought my first car!!! =D

On my first day the weather here was very british (you can also call it rainy and cloudy if you prefer so), but I started to explore the town like I always do…simply walking through the streets, along the boulevards, the small lanes, the hidden alleys…

When I met up with Alice (my first ever Couchhost - thanks for the great time in Hobart! (= ) and some of her friends, we had a a great evening with cheap beer (that’s why you should always go out with locals, they know the cheapest pubs!) and met three Canadian Geologists, who were much more alive than their subject of study!

On our one-hour-way home we came across a closed pub with three people sitting in there, drinking wine and playing on a guitar.

…if you know me, you probably know, how I reacted: smiling (in a positive non-psycho-joker-like-way) and waving at them, asking them in body language if we may join them.

One of them actually opened the door and asked: “Be you travellers?” And we answered: “Ne! We are but men!”

Ok…actually he asked if we are travellers and we just said yes (couldn’t resist to make a reference to Tenacious D). But he let us in, gave us both a glass of wine and we had a great night after a great evening!

Stuart, the guy, who opened the door for us was the owner of the pub and presented it to us proudly, explaining his pub philosophy to us.

The next day I met Claudia, a Couchsurferin from Italy who wanted to make a roadtrip through Tasmania for cheap like me. To make it short, we spent the next days looking for a car on Gumtree (a website, popular in the UK and Australie, where you can find everything - including Guinea pigs), bought one for cheap, registered it (much easier than in Europe, thanks Australien Government! - you just have to fill out one formular, pay 50 up to 100 dollars, depending on the car price, and that’s it), made some food and camping gear shopping and now we’re on the road! =)

Flower Power-Van from a danish Hippie

The first car we tried, was a Flower Power-Van, but it was too fucked up, so that my first car ever should be a Hyundai Excel as old as myself with manual gear and 4 of 5 doors that still open!

My car!!!! =)

We also attended a free Gospel Concert in town, which was amazing! Two-hundred-and-twenty musicians on stage. The audience gave zero fucks about the weather, which changed regularly from sunshine to soft rain. The pianist got sometimes so excited that he just stood up on his bench and conducted the chore. When they were playing hits like “Don’t let the sun go down on me”, “Come together” and in the end even Michael Jacksons “Don’t stop ‘till you get enough” the crowd was dancing like they couldn’t get enough. 

An amazing crowd of people dancing and having
fun at the gospel concert in Hobart!

And when we were done with grocery and food shopping for our roadtrip we went up a hill to have a better view on Mount Wellington, which was surrounded by clouds while the rest of the sky was blue. So we drove up the hill until the street ended, went on by foot…just to realise that we would have to enter private property if we want to have a magnificent view on the mountain. So we just asked the people who were standing in front of the fence if this was private property and they actually let us in (after asking what nationality we are…I wonder, if he would have said no if we would have been from somewhere else…) to what was a grazing side for their deer! Because they were butchers! And after sitting in the sun on their land for some time and taking pictures, they shared some beer with us and we had a nice chat for some hours before we left to have a last meal with Alice before leaving Hobart.

Mount Wellington on a sunny day!

So even though Hobart might be a small town, being around there with the right people I made a lot of experience (including riding a car on the “wrong” side of the street, which is not that horrible is I thought it would be).

Now I'm on my first roadtrip, having slept more often in the car than in the tent, made my second couch surfing experience (which was awesome) and eat a lot of Pasta...but that's another story ;)

Advent Calendar: 5th December

When I saw this car at Pirates Bay I wasn’t quite sure if I’m still in Tassy or on Cuba.

This was on the peninsula of Tasmania on my third day of my roadtrip here.

Advent Calendar: 4th December

I finally got a picture of a parrot here at the east coast of Tasmania! They are apparently everywhere in Australia :D

Took this picture today in the morning after Claudia made us all running to the window with the words "Look, fast, come over here!"

Have a colourful day!