TASMANIA
The Ranck Boys Expedition Under Down Under December 2001 - February 2002
Or... read a brief description of our trip...
My apologies for any mistakes,as this was originally an email
sent out to family and friends. However it still gives one a feel for our expedition
Tasmania, that little triangle that sits right under the south eastern corner of
Australia. I went with my Dad and little brother, Oliver for a solid month of nature/tourist action.
So we did loads of hiking, lots of driving and some camping, although we gave up on that because the weather, well
it wasn’t exactly crap, it was just very changeable, one minute it’s sunny five minutes later
a gale is blowing and the heavens have opened up on you something chronic. So we decided against
the whole character building camping experience, which was just as well as my brother and I
definitely got some cabin fever thing, much to my father’s chagrin. However my brother and
I also learnt an important lesson, well to name a few,
(A) Tasmanians can’t park or drive to save
their lives let alone anyone else’s (minimum 1 meter between cars for parking and 90 degrees
is a foreign concept entirely. If the road doesn’t have lines, drive which ever side takes
your fancy regardless of the possibility of oncoming traffic, cutting corners
is a God given right and overtaking on hills, contrary to popular belief,
is a good idea),
(B) Dad does not know any
shortcuts, at all, he’s a liar, he doesn’t know any secret ways - if you believe him you’ll
end up injured, lost, dirty and unhappy, when he says he knows the place like the back of
his hand he actually means the back of his head! The dodgy looking path he claims is the
way is not, it just a dodgy little path leading you to misery. That said, once we learnt
our lesson all was pretty fine and dandy.
During the trip my brother got gem fever (Tasmania has rich geological deposits), gripped by a
desire to find a bazillion dollars worth of gems, just a small bag of sapphires he kept
saying, nothing unreasonable. So we did end up doing some fossicking, and curiously
enough we did find some gems, little incy ones, 2 blue sapphires some pink sapphires
and a few bits of topaz. However we did have to go piling through jungle, were eaten
alive by bugs and nearly got seriously lost, again! Dad did try to lead us out "his"
path, but we knew better letting him go it alone, 2 minutes later we were greeted with
the crack of some large piece of timber breaking and an unhappy sounding shout, hehehe, 5
minutes later Dad returns somewhat muddy muttering about what a stupid Godforsaken gem
hunting expedition this was and no that wasn’t the path. Fun times, heaps of cool spots,
water so cold it gives you an ice-cream headache, but so clear that you keep going back for more.
Definitely a place worth going.
Back to Benjamin's spot on the web.