Tassie Travels

For those of you who are my friends on Facebook, you’ll know that I’ve been traipsing around Tasmania for the last fortnight. For sheer rugged beauty, Tasmania is hard to beat. It’s one of those places that can quite literally take your breath away, but it’s also endearingly quirky, so I thought I’d share three of my favourite things about my recent holiday with you.

1. The Beach! Obviously. ;-) Down the road and around the corner from my accommodation was Bellerive Beach. Happy sighs. I spent many a happy hour ambling there. But what was even better was if you went the long way around (along the little headland), you were treated to the most spectacular views of the harbour and Mount Wellington, as well as the beach. This is a small sample of the pics I took:

The beginning of the walk

Steps! They always make me want to explore further.

Mount Wellington standing guard over the harbour

Glorious views

I fell in love with this house! Naturally it had the best views :-)

Little paths and railings led off the main walkway, which had to be explored

Bellerive Beach in the distance

My destination: Bellerive Beach

2. The headstone. Now around the other corner and down the other road from my accommodation was this lovely old church with an array of weathered headstones.

You can’t read it here (you could hardly read it there either!), but it says: Margaret died age 57 years. She was a most pious woman who has in death, as she did in life, found comfort in her redeemer. Beneath it is says: Joseph died 70 years. Long-term resident.

Long-term resident--that's the best they could say about him? Doesn’t that just make you chortle? Don't you wish you had an inside line on that story. Obviously Maggie was a bit of a favourite with the congregation, while Old Joe wasn’t so popular. ;-)

3. Tarraleah: We took a trip northwest from Hobart towards Lake St Clair in Tasmania’s Central Highlands. We were on a bit of a time schedule so we didn’t make it all the way, but we did stumble across the de-commissioned township of Tarraleah (which was once called Ticklebelly—what a great name!). It was a town built in the 1920s and 1930s as part of the hydro-electric scheme. Workers had to walk in with pack-horses as there was no road. But it became a booming township with a population of 2000 before automation made the workers’ jobs defunct.

The view from Tarraleah lookout

BUT, and this is the interesting bit, the town (the whole town!) was sold and restored, and it's now a tourist accommodation hub. There’s a grand art deco lodge, fifteen 3-4 bedroom art deco cottages (built for the engineers and architects), accommodation in the old schoolhouse, as well as cabin-style accommodation on the grounds. You can hire the entire place out! I was dreaming of the writing retreats we LoveCats could have. Happy sighs. The lodge comes with its own butler and chef. Happier sighs. Oh, dear reader, there’s a book in that. And I believe I’m the woman to write it. :-) What do you think?

Oh, and who is now dying to visit Australia's Apple Isle? Seriously, the air was constantly scented with apple blossoms (and jasmine, wattle and freesias), the breezes were crisp and clean, and the traffic slow. Nearly every person I passed on my walks said hello. I felt like I'd gone back in time.

New York to Tasmania

I’m very excited!  My new book – Wild For You – is now up for pre-order. The cover really captures the essence of my hero, Daniel.

Wild For You brings together Daniel, the owner of a Tasmanian wilderness walking company and Madison, a New York fashion designer. Madison has left behind her glamourous life for one week to rediscover her mojo. Little does she know that she’ll end up walking the stunning Cradle Mountain trail alone with hot hiking guide, Daniel. But what could possibly happen in those cute log cabins in the woods?

I walked the Cradle Mountain Lake St Claire wilderness trail a few years ago and it is the inspiration for this story. I walked with Cradle Mountain Huts Walks. The company has been running guided walks for over twenty-years and of course, they have huts.  Huts mean hot meals, hot showers, warm cabins and chilled wine. All this delivered by young, fit guides who take care of everything. Food tastes oh, so much better when you’ve trekked at least twelve kilometers and someone else has cooked.

Madison had to do all the things I had to including carrying her own pack. If she wanted clean clothes she had to wash them in the shower each night for which you pumped your own water.

There were so many highlights on the walk, but for me the greatest experience was climbing Tasmania’s highest peek, Mt Ossa. It stands at 1,617 metres in the middle of the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. Making it to the top does involve a lot of scrambling over huge boulders. The view is worth it even if you are a little intimidated by the climb (will all those boulders slide further down the mountain as I climb up?!?). From the top, a quarter of Tasmania is visible and not one man-made thing (well there’s an old disused mining road to the east, but we ignored that). When Daniel and Madison climb the mountain, they are in for the unexpected.

The guides on our walk were lovely, knowledgeable and fit.  They were passionate about conservation and taught us lots of interesting ecological facts. We visited a myriad of beautiful waterfalls; explored a disused mine shaft featuring one lonely spider and lots of cave crickets (ugly little critters); held Fairy’s Aprons, sweet little purple flowers; splashed in freezing rivers and lakes; ambled through ancient rainforests and learned about the wonderful array of native fauna and flora. A number of these sites feature in the book.

Pre-order Wild for You now at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and other e-tailers. I hope you enjoy it as I loved writing this story.

If you wanted to recharge your mojo, where would you go?

Animal Antics

by Michelle Douglas

Oh, I’ve met some interesting animals recently!

Last month the hubby and I drove from Newcastle to Melbourne, put the car on the Spirit of Tasmania, and spent 2 weeks in Hobart. Now I could wax lyrical about the beauty and grandeur of Lakes Pedder and Gordon, the achingly idyllic native landscape of Port Arthur and the spectacular coastal scenery of Bruny Island, but…

What I want to share with you today are the animals I met while I was away. Hey, you know we LoveCats are suckers for animals. :-)

Here’s Molly the pig. Isn’t she just adorable!

Molly was an unexpected surprise. On Day 1 of our trip we just decided to drive from Newcastle towards Melbourne until we felt like stopping. We stopped at Springhurst—a tiny, tiny place—and stayed at The Old Butter Factory for the night where Molly was the resident pig. (Okay, I couldn’t resist this pic either, but isn’t it a fab building).

I’ve not patted a pig before and I was surprised by how coarse Molly’s hair was. She was a real sweetheart—adored a scratch behind her ears.

And for some reason, there were a couple of peacocks wandering around too.

Okay, once in Tasmania it’s non-negotiable: we have to see Tasmanian devils. And we did. At a wildlife sanctuary called Bonorong Park.

Here we met Fred, the baby wombat.

And here’s Fred and me touching noses. If I’d known at this point precisely how aggressive teenage wombats could be, there’s no way I’d have done this.

Billy the koala was a real hit with the two carloads of Asian tourists. We all got to pet Billy and his fur was sooooo soft.

Kangaroos! Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve patted a kangaroo? Okay, I know I’m sounding like a tourist, but it was fun!

And the stars of the show—the Tasmanian Devils. They’re certainly not as cute as Billy, but I believe they have a certain charm. Our guide destroyed many of the myths surrounding them. Yes, if you stick a finger in front of their nose you will probably lose it. They have seriously powerful jaws. That said, with each other they’re more bluff than bite. They know how much damage they can inflict on each other so they work at being scary rather than bite-y.

For a long time it was believed they were a threat to livestock and were hunted accordingly, but they’re scavengers not predators. Now, due to their dwindling numbers, a couple of problems have arisen throughout the island. Once upon a time the devils completely picked cleaned the carcasses of dead livestock, often before a farmer even knew an animal was dead. These days, however, there are more carcasses than devils and flyblown sheep have become a problem. Also, the fox population is on the increase. Devils enter the dens and eat the fox’s young, but now there’s not so many of them… Well, you get the picture.

And therein ends today's lesson. :-)

I couldn’t believe what an endearing relationship the guide had with these two devils. I swear, they LOVED him.

So… What less-than-cute-and-fluffy animal do you have a bit of a soft spot for? And to help us all get into the Christmas spirit I’ll give away an advance copy of my December release The Nanny Who Saved Christmas to one commenter.