I am usually a " fly in and fly out" traveller but on this trip to Tasmania, I managed to do things differently. During this 10-day stay, we did two road trips, the first from our base in Launceston to Port Arthur in the south, and the second to Strahan (pronounced Strawn) in the west. And in Strahan, we booked a day trip on a historic ride from Regatta Point to Queenstown on an old steam locomotive. I had a lot of help on this trip from my brother James who had made Launceston (pronounced Longstern) his home.
He did everything. All we had to do was go along and enjoy the ride. Our first road trip was from Launceston to Port Arthur, a journey of 256km.
This would normally take 3 hours 30 minutes but we chose the scenic route and made a few stops along the way.
So in the end, our journey took us 7 hours. We left Launceston at 9am and arrived at our hotel in Eaglehawk Neck, about 30 minutes drive from Hobart, at about 4pm.
This was the route we took:
1. Launceston
2. Campbell town
3. Ross
4. Oatlands
5. Colebrook
6. Campainia
7. Richmond
8. Sorell
9. Copping
10. Danalley
11. Eaglehawk Neck
Campbell town, Ross, Oatlands and Richmond are a must for those who are into heritage buildings and colonial history, many of them the stories of convicts who helped to build up the territory.
Yes, bridges are also major attractions in these towns.
Campbell town, an hour's drive from Launceston, is home to the Red Bridge which spans 7.6 metres over the Elizabeth River.
Built by convicts in 1836 and completed 2 years later, it is the oldest surviving brick arch bridge in Australia. The designer, James Blackburn, was also a convict.
This town is also home to St Michael's Catholic Church which was built in 1858.
Ross, 78km from Launceston, is noted for its iconic sandstone bridge and other heritage buildings.
The Ross Bridge, also built with convict labour, is the third oldest bridge still in use in Australia. On both sides of the three arches are 186 carvings of the faces of local personalities, including the self portrait of the artist himself, Daniel Herbert, and his wife.
Carved on the bridge are the Roman numerals MDCCCXXXVI (or 1836, the year it was opened to traffic).
We spent a bit of time at the wool museum where a large section was dedicated to the colonial history of the town. I learnt, for example, that the name of the town was given by Governor Lachlan Macquarie to honour his friend who had recently won the seat of Ross in the Scottish elections. I wonder how the other towns got their names.
Incidentally, the river which crosses under the bridge was named after the Governor. We realized we had to hurry, so we did not visit the heritage site referred to as the Female Factory. It is estimated that 12,000 female convicts passed through this detention centre since it was set up in the 1840s. One stop we know we could not miss was the windmill in Oatlands.
The Callington Mill, built in 1837 and fully restored in 2010, is the only operating mill of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. You are allowed to go up the windmill if you joined a guided tour. We were told the view of the surrounding countryside from the top of the windmill is magnificent. There was none available when we arrived at 12.10pm, so we just admired the windmill from the outside. An awesome sight all the same.
Richmond, which is just 25 minutes drive from Hobart, is a popular tourist destination. It boasts of having the oldest bridge in Australia, the Richmond Bridge (built in 1823), and also the oldest Catholic Church in the country, St John's Church (built in 1837).
Stroll through Richmond and it's like taking a walk back in time as the town has remained
unchanged for 100 years.
They say small is beautiful. At the last count, the town had a population of 880.
Another major attraction is the award winning Old Hobart Town model village, depicting life in the capital in the 1820s. It is the labour of love of brothers Andrew and John Quick who took three years to complete the project.
We did not have time to stop but we made it a point to drop by the place on our return journey to Launceston. See, we are very flexible!
As we approached Eaglehawk Neck, there is a telltale sign that we are moving away from civilization. Suddenly there was no cellular phone coverage. I was told that I should have opted for Telstra.
If you are using the online maps on your phone, then you are in trouble.
Lucky for me I had downloaded a phone GPS app called Here We Go before my trip to Australia. It works in an offline mode.
For this I have to thank Pit Ling, the wife of Star's former Sports Editor Ng Weng Tuck, who introduced the app to me.
Hotel Lufra in Eaglehawk Neck became our base for exploring the surrounding area.
The hotel was a welcome stop, a chance to rest for a while, and check for messages -- thanks to the free wifi.
Hotel Lufra proved to be an excellent choice. Our room faced the sea and the view is to die for. Very few things in life can compare to a magnificent view of a sunrise accompanied by the captivating sound of incoming waves crashing on the beach.
The first place we checked out was the Doo-lishus food van located at the Blowhole car park in the nearby Pirates Bay .
It seems it had won the award for the best fish and chips in Tasmania.
It was good but I still prefer the fish and chips at Food Frenzy in Hobart.
Doo-lishus also serves a range of other seafood delights, home-made pies, and ice cream.
And if you are in the mood for exploring, take a short walk down to the beach after your meal and see a blowhole cave up close.
Or walk up to a vantage point and see the Tasman Sea in all its glory.
After a restful sleep, we were all set to go out exploring the next day.
Two wonders of nature are found in the Tasman region (located in Tasmania's South East) -- the Tessellated Pavement which is walking distance from our hotel, and Remarkable Cave which is 5km south of Port Arthur.
The Tessellated Pavement is like a floor with mosaic tiles.
This work of art is caused either through erosion of the rock surface from the sand and gravel carried by the waves, or the chemical action by the sea water.
You get a first glimpse of this pavement as you make your way up a slope from a path just opposite the hotel. Don't be in a hurry to get down. To appreciate its beauty, you have to look at it from an aerial view.
The tide was coming in when we reached the bottom of the slope, so we could not walk over the whole stretch of the pavement.
From the beauty of nature, we made our way to a place called the Dog-line to witness the cruelty of man.
A bronze statue of a dog marks the spot where a row of ferocious dogs stood guard at this isthmus to prevent convicts of the Port Arthur penal colony from escaping to the mainland.
From here, the next obvious stop was Port Arthur, the home of Australia's biggest and most notorious penal colony.
You have to pay an admission fee to get into this place, A$37 (RM118) or A$28 (RM90) if you are a senior citizen but it is worth it.
The fee includes a guided tour at scheduled times and a cruise which will take you to two islands, one used as a detention centre for underaged convicts, and the other, the Isle of the Dead, the burial site of the convicts.
Together with your ticket, you are each given a playing card. You can find out who this convict is at the interactive museum in the basement of the main building.
My card was an Ace of hearts and in the museum, I found out that the convict was 18-year-old Edward Brown He was convicted of stealing a painting and sentenced to life at Port Arthur.
This a huge place, so you may not have the time to see everything. Don't worry. Your ticket is valid for two days.
For those with a strong heart, you can pay to join a ghost tour conducted at night. I have a weak heart.
From man's cruelty, we headed south to look at another of nature's beautiful work of art, the Remarkable Cave.
This cave has been carved out of a sandstone cliff by the sea.
You have to walk down a flight of 130 steps from the road to the viewing platform.
This platform is where the back of the cave had collapsed.
The notice at the start of the steps says the return journey will take 15 minutes. I definitely took much longer.
At the viewing platform, you can see right through the cave to the ocean.
If you look carefully, you will see the cave branching out to two chambers leading to the ocean.
There are railings at the viewing platform to discourage visitors from going into cave.
A few took the risk and went inside the cave but had to rush out when the waves started coming in.
We could have taken a straight route back to Launceston, but I insisted we made a detour to Hobart for my fish and chips.
Yes, it still the best fish and chips in the world.
Our second detour took us back to Richmond where we spent more than an hour admiring the work of the Quick brothers' recreation of the old Hobart town.
Visitors also flock to Richmond for the food and wine.
Not for us. We opted for local Valhalla ice cream instead. I must say it is good.
After that it was straight back to Launceston using the Midland Highway.
It was one day of rest for us, or rather for James who did all the driving, before we embarked on our second road trip.
This time we will heading west to Strahan and travel up a mountain range and go past lakes.