Mantracker Always Gets His Wallaby

(Originally dated Dec 21, 2010)

I am semi-officialy giving up my Mantracker status. Upon returning to the Americas I will re-adopt it. Just seems more appropriate in a land of larger wildlife like moose and bears. Until then, I am TASMAN!

I arrived in Launceston, Tasmania today. Flying over the island I saw an expanse of untouched wilderness. It was remarkable. Kilometres of untouched beach and forest spread out before me. Launceston has not disappointed me either. After getting off the plane I found the airport shuttle. Luckily it does drop-offs exactly where you want. Even more fortunate was the fact that there were a lot of locals getting dropped off before me. Why is this a good thing, you ask? Because I basically got a free tour of the town.

At the hostel I was told check in would not be until 2pm. Seeing as it was only about 10am I had some time to kill. I roamed the town exploring, but mostly in search of food. Afer a very thorough maunder through town I headed for Cataract Gorge National Park. This was truly a magical hike through the Tasmanian wilderness. A large portion of the trail did have a lot of foot traffic, but it didn't take me long to find the trail less travelled. At the end of the "family/tourist" trail, where most people looped back around to the beginning, there was a sign pointing further on. It was a long hike which most likely deterred most from continuing on... just what I wanted. For the 2 hours I hiked the lonely trail I encountered only 5 other people. It was sheer tranquility and peace. It was just me, the wilderness and my sporty camera. I put racing stripes on it to make it look more cool and aerodynamic. Not a true story. Along the way I saw a lot of skinks, one baby bearded dragon, a wallaby and all sorts of colourful birds. One of the most interesting things was coming across a large section of the woods teeming with cicadas. The noise was so loud that I of course left the trail to trek off into the woods and see what all the fuss was about. The trees were covered by thousands of large cicadas, 2-3 times the size of the ones at home in Canada. I've never seen anything like it. As I journeyed on I came to an old abandoned power station and a suspension bridge spanning the gorge to turn me back on my way to town. The return leg had nothing special to mention, but was equally as visually appealing. Overall, the perfect way to spend the afternoon. I may go back tomorrow, weather permitting.