The charms of Sydney were utterly lost on me.  A delayed flight, a long wait in the rain for the shuttle bus, an (unsuccessful) attempt to charge me 250% of the agreed price for the car rental, massive rush-hour traffic jams, even more heavy rain as we crawled out of the metropolis, all combined to reinforce my prior decision to avoid the number one tourist destination in Oz.

Fortunately, things looked up almost immediately.  A visit to The National Botanical Gardens in Canberra provided a more fitting introduction to mainland Australia.  The several photos below give a good representation of what my brother and I saw; although most of the flowers were not in bloom since it was Austral autumn, the green oasis set amid the park-like city of Canberra deserved more time than we could spare from our itinerary.

Leaving Canberra after a tasty and filling Lebanese lunch, we continued South and West to Jindabyne, which provided a convenient base for the ascent of Mount Kosciuszko.  The “climb” was in fact nothing more than an overly-long, though scenic, walk up a dirt track to the summit.  With an early start from Charlotte Pass, we avoided most of the crowds that start from the top of the ski lift from Thredbo later in the morning, an even less-deserving manner to claim the high point in Australia.  Indeed, a far more interesting summit was the nearby Mount Townsend, accessed from a use trail off the Main Ranges Track, faint at times, to the second highest point in Australia, at 2,209 meters, a mere 19 meters lower than its far more famous neighbor.  The Vagabond Hiker managed to miss the use trail altogether and consequently ended up bushwhacking up a nearby mountain completely unnecessary to accomplishing the objective.  Whereas several hundred or more ascend Kossie daily, only five of us summitted Mt. Townsend that day.  Fortunately, a couple was on the summit when I arrived, so I was spared the indignity of having to take a selfie (my brother skipped this optional extension).

Most of our time in New South Wales was spent on the far south coast, also known as the Sapphire Coast.  My brother and I based our day trips from an AirBnB cottage in the small coastal town of Eden, set on the picturesque Twofold Bay and boasting (at least according to its tourist literature) the third deepest natural harbor in the southern hemisphere.  Coastal hikes in Eden and in Ben Boyd National Park directly to the south, a visit to a local wild animal park and nature reserve, and a cardio hike up nearby Mt. Imlay provided highlights for our week in Eden.

My next post will be “The Road to Alice,” featuring highlights from a 7-day drive up to Alice Springs in the Red Center of Australia.  Stay tuned!

The Vagabond Hiker

It hardly seems possible, but I’ve been exploring Tasmania for nearly six weeks.  After my previous blog post from the South of the island, my perambulations have focused on the North and East as well as the Central Highlands, along with one short excursion towards the West Coast.  While most of the photos assembled here were taken on walks and hikes, alone or with my brother, I would be remiss in not including some of the local critters we saw at The Platypus House and Wings Wildlife Park.  The only time I’ve seen a greater variety of mammals was darting in front of my car at night.

My next post will likely be in a couple of weeks from Eden, along the southern coast of New South Wales.  Not sure whether the Garden is in bloom this time of year.

In the meantime, enjoy The Rest of Tassie,

The Vagabond Hiker

 

 

Since departing the United States in mid-January, I had been traveling more than 5 weeks at a frenetic pace throughout southeast Asia before casting up in southern Tasmania.  Spending 6 weeks here in the southernmost state in Australia, two in the south and four in the north of the island, is a welcome relief.  (The Calendar Tab shows my current travel plans).  After sleeping in a different bed almost every night (not as salacious as it sounds), knowing that one doesn’t need to grab one’s things and head out the door early the next morning has been quite a luxury.

During my first two weeks here, I went on five or six short day hikes within a 2.5 hour radius of the rural cottage I had been staying at south of Hobart.  These hikes encompassed some of the diverse ecosystems nearby, from rain forest in the lower elevations of Mt. Field National Park to coastal forest and heath southeast and southwest of Hobart, to a sub-alpine environment on the higher slopes of Mt Hartz.  I assembled the photos that follow from these jaunts as well as a trip to Hobart’s Royal Tasmanian Botanical Garden.  Some dramatic and beautiful scenery, strange endemic flora and fauna, and great late summer weather added up to yet more wonderful hikes for

The Vagabond Hiker