The Island Off Of The Biggest Island
Day 1 of Tasmania 2022 trip
Cape Pillar and Tasman Island, an Island off of the biggest island off of the Biggest Island in the World
Tasmania, that island state of Australia at the bottom of the World, I'm finally visiting you! Domestic trips are not my usual but with COVID-19 still languishing around the world, we thought we would play it safe and holiday closer to home. This would be our first trip since 2019, which is quite a break for us but we shouldn't complain, 2019 was a huge holiday that I will forever be grateful for.
Woke up very early (hardly had any sleep) to catch the 5:05 am train to Domestic airport. I had never taken the train to the airport before, and whilst it was an absolute rip off (AUD 15.13), it was worth it. So easy. Whilst dragging my small suitcase up the road to the station, a taxi stopped and the driver yelled at us, saying he'd drive us to the airport for $30. I told him to go away. I didn't have cash anyway and didn't want to screw around with what was probably an EFTPOS machine that had a card skimmer on it.
The line went out the door for Jetstar's luggage drop off. I had read about this before, how there was a real lack of station staff and I thought we had come with ample time but it didn't look very good. We lined up outside the terminal for quite a while and by the time we got through the door and printed out luggage tag from kiosk it was time to jump the queue. Thanks everyone.
After security, we hit up the Maccas to get some food. Almost a bad decision. They looked very understaffed and there were LOTS of unhappy looking customers. The staff that were around had zero hustle, no motivation to get ahead of orders. It was terrible.
At 6:30 am we were walking as quickly as possible to the bloody gate, which of course was far away from the food court. The Jetstar people started doing announcements, calling our names lol.
SYD -> HBA (JQ719)
Got on the plane no worries. Sat in 27C which was towards the back, aisle seat. However, my two neighbours decided to move up front to the where their relative was so I had the whole row to myself. I scoffed my bacon and egg roll and laid down to sleep after takeoff.
I didn't get to sleep long. It just wasn't comfortable, even with the entire row! And I was kind of cold. But I was treated to excellent views of Tasmania from above, and what I was very certain was a preview of Freycinet National Park!
Freycinet National Park, Great Oyster Bay and Nine Mile Beach from above
Got to Hobart in one piece. I hadn't flown in over 2 years and wasn't feeling 100% well towards the end… it was only a 2 hour flight! Was my dormant travel sickness tendencies resurfacing?
The airport was the smallest thing ever. After picking up our luggage we ordered an Uber to pick up our car hire in Tranmere, which was some bloke's car on Car Next Door. This was much cheaper than hiring a car from a traditional car hire company at the airport, and we did not need to pay for petrol. The car we picked up was a newish Carolla and it still had the new car smell. We had to do the usual thing of taking a tonne of photos and video of the car demonstrating it's current condition. But I was bursting to get in the car because it was feeling quite cold, and not a nice cold :(
Off to the Port Arthur area
The first stop we made was to pick up some nourishment at Cripps Bakehouse, a couple of suburbs away. It was a decent old school looking bakery. I bought a herb bacon and cheese pull apart (AUD 5.50). Then we drove to Eastlands shopping mall where I went to buy some more things at Kmart (some thongs) and Coles (nut bars and water and chocolate milk). Meanwhile A went to buy and print out a Tasmania National Parks pass (AUD 80!). The chocolate milk we purchased, Pyengana Chocolate milk, was pricy but very tasty! Then we filled up the car and off we went, our destination was Cape Raoul located in the Tasman National Park, which was 100km away.
Cape Raoul
Cape Raoul was one of the capes of the famed Three Capes Track. At first glance you may think, “Woaaahhh I must do this!” but upon closer inspection, you'll find that it's $500 per head and quickly close the web browser tab. $500 does seem a bit ridiculous for the privlege to walk on a track for a few days in a National Park but alas it is what it is. There is basic accommodation provided (you have to camp!) but apart from that, you get exclusive access to walk the trail that connects the three capes.
Luckily, you can do the capes by themselves. So we spent some time deciding which cape to go to and finally settled for Cape Raoul, which shouldn't be too easy to do and still provide excellent scenary. The other cape were were deciding on was Cape Hauy, which is easily the most popular cape as it was not very strenuous.
Cape Raoul Sign, taken in the dark with a phone (Credit: Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service)
Estimates varied wildly as to how long it would take to finish the hike (from 3.5 hours to 6 hours), which was not great for our planning, but we decided to go ahead and just deal with whatever happens. I believe we left quite late and everyone we encountered was on the way back, never anyone in the same direction as us.
The hike was ok, there were about 5 viewpoints which were literally the only times you could actually see anything.
What the path looked like
The first two-thirds of the hike was amongst trees, which was a bit boring but at least it provided some shelter from the wind. The elevation was crazy had to hike up and hike down a lot via switchbacks, so it definitely not too easy as I mentioned before!
Cape Raoul from Cape Raoul Lookout, still a long way to go to the end!
Then you finally do a lot of descending to reach the actual cape itself, which was rather flat with no trees and just shrubs, so it was very windy.
What the path looked like on the Cape
We ate a lot of that herb and cheese pull apart that I had picked up at the bakehouse!
The view of Cape Raoul from The Gap viewpoint
(Best viewed on desktop and in full screen mode)
Ultimately we took just under 5 hours, came back in the dark but we had headlamps to help us in the last 40 minutes or so.
We drove to our accommodation immediately, as we were tired and gross from the hike and had showers. I actually had a few other things on my list but unfortunately we just didn't have the time. These were Remarkable cave, a blow hole and beach nearby. Not important but may have been nice.
Port Arthur General Store
For dinner there were barely any options so we settled for the General Store. It turned out to be a good choice.
Port Arthur General Store, exterior
Port Arthur General Store, interior
A had the prawn and scallop schnitty. Prawn and scallop pieces were small but the sauce was nice.
I had the hawaiian chicken burger. It was okay.
Burger (L), Schnitty (R)
Schnitty
There were plenty of people coming in for takeaway, and the place cooked up all sorts of things (most were probably not healthy), including pizza.
That night we stayed at the Port Arthur Motor Inn, which was average at best. It was an aging place that needed some TLC. The heater barely worked but was good enough I suppose.
I tried to go outside to see the stars but it was cloudy :(
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