We checked out of the inn Wednesday morning and waited for our bus pickup. We had a different driver, but the one who had dropped us off had called her to make sure she knew exactly where to get us, and again we were just getting great service. While they were rounding up the rest of the passengers she sent us into a sort of restaurant/bar where we could get free tea and coffee and use the facilities. Well, this time when we went to buy water they comped us for that since we hadn't taken any tea or coffee. Yay!
They had two boats, and we ended up on the Silver Gull. Cold weather gear was available. Used to colder temperatures, we declined it, and it was nice that it was not mandatory like at the Bay of Islands. We did wear our coats and gloves, and there was a breeze, but it felt pretty good to us. If we had wanted it, there were jackets, pants, and I saw one person wearing an ankle-length coat.
One of the pictures above shows our sister boat, so you can see the set up. It has some surface similarities to the Excitor in the Bay of Islands, but we were much more sheltered. Maybe it was the covering or a difference of the prow-I don't know enough about boats to say. It was definitely a more comfortable ride. There were still bumps and spray, but they were fun.
I took a lot of pictures trying to capture the beauty of the place. I'm not sure how much justice I did, but there are a few here. At first I was mostly impressed with the striation. Clearly these were sedimentary rocks. Then I started noticing different outcroppings jutting out. I kept thinking of cathedrals with spires and buttresses and pipe organs, and realized I wouldn't have been a good explorer because I would have just kept naming everything Cathedral Rock over and over again.
Actually, not everything looked like a cathedral. Two of the more unique formations are shown above. You can probably guess which one is the Candlestick. That is a sensible name for this narrow shaft stretching up between thicker cliffs (though you could still call it the spire or the bell tower). What did not show up is that there is a rope stretched out from the cliff on the left to the Candlestick, because people climb that thing. When our captain told us that, I could only think that it was crazy. Isn't rock climbing exciting enough without it being over rough, cold water?
The other one shows the middle in a group of three rocks. Actually, they are all connected so it is really just one rock with three peaks. Anyway, it kind of looks like a basset hound face. Actually, the rock on the right is a little bit similar, but not as well defined. The rock on the left looks nothing like a basset hound, but maybe it could be the middle rock's rump.
We also found several caves and went in to a few. If you check out the full collection of Tasmania pictures, you will notice that there are bits of the boat and people's heads in almost every picture, but you get the idea.
We got to see many seals and gannets, but the definite highlight was when we saw the whale. At that time of year, there were no guarantees, but suddenly the boat stopped, and people were pointing, and there was the tail of a whale waving back and forth.
I imagine that often with whale watching someone will glimpse a fluke or a side, and if you are looking at that moment you see it, otherwise too bad. In this case, he just kept bringing the tail up, waving it, then taking it back in the water, I don't know how many times. That should have made it possible to take a picture, but my timing was off, I guess, so I gave up and just watched. The important thing is that everyone got to see, and we were just spellbound by it.
I guess you could call it magical. I remember at the time thinking that it was something, and settling on the word sacred. Right as I thought that, I heard the captain talking to another passenger and say it was really special. I'm still not sure what the best word is, but we were there, and so close, and there is a feeling of connection that is outside of the every day. Eventually, I saw the back of the whale (it appears to have been a humpback) kind of come up and then go back under, and it was gone.
The captain joked that now he needed to charge us extra, but then later he was saying he really wanted the trifecta. We had seen seals, we had seen a whale, and he needed to find us dolphins. He was not able to find us dolphins, but I still have to think he did okay.
We came back into Port Arthur, and the rest of the passengers were going to tour the historical site, but we had done that already. I suppose they could have easily left us on our own for a couple of hours, but our driver took us to Eucalypt for lunch, and then she drove us over to Maingon Bay so we could look around a bit there.
Maingon Bay is home to Remarkable Cave. What makes it remarkable is that it is somewhat in the shape of Tasmania. I swear I saw it, but I could never get the angle quite right to photograph it, so my pictures don't complete the outline. Nonetheless, kind of cool.
When it was time, we headed back into Hobart, but since we were going through Seven Mile Beach our driver dropped us off there, saving us a good hour of public transit (and at least $9.00 AUD).
We traveled by some wonderful scenery on the way. We had been surprised by the calla lilies on the prison site, but they were growing all over the countryside. We also got our first glimpses of frisky lambs running around in meadows (we would be seeing a lot more of those). The most surprising thing for me was probably seeing cockatoos in the wild. Here they are exotic anyway, but if you imagined somewhere they could be native, you would think more tropical. In Tasmania, they were kind of like crows or ducks.
That day was also the first day we had run into any other Americans. On the bus back there was a couple from California. They were nice, though he was a bit of a know-it-all (he worked at IBM, but I'm sure that's unrelated). We would encounter more Americans the following day, but it was also interesting how many of the tourists were Australians there. Generally we were running into people from Europe and Asia everywhere else. We did see a group from the Middle East at Eucalypt whom we had earlier seen at the Rainforest Habitat. That was our biggest travel coincidence until we found John and Maria from Cairns in Queenstown. (Otherwise, seeing people from a bus one day at the airport the next day was happening all the time, and there was one group of three men who followed us all over Kangaroo Island.)
Regardless of travel coincidences and demographics, I have to say that it was just a really good day. I don't know that I had ever thought of granite as particularly beautiful, but it was. Great scenery, great wildlife, and absolutely excellent customer service.
One thing we did not get to see may be worth checking out. I saw signs for a place called the Tessellated Pavement. We did not go there, but I asked our first driver about it, and he explained it is a part of the coastline with geometric designs. I am posting a link for a picture that may not be a particularly good representation, but it's something.
http://www.tasmancruises.com.au/tours_cruise.php
http://harristravel.shutterfly.com/259
http://www.flickr.com/photos/deadlyphoto/2328810335/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TessellatedPavement.jpg
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment