Hobart, Hartz NP, and Southern NP

 After 19 nights of sleeping in a tent (it went really fast, I didn’t really realize it until Quentin and I started adding up how long we’d been traveling together) I decided I wanted a hotel room. So as we passed through Hobart I got for myself a nice room in a comfy hotel where I luxuriated in the evening after we got dinner. He didn’t want to go in on a hotel to get one with a second bed and chose instead to sleep in his home/car. 

The next day we did as two botanists do best, and went to the botanical garden. We wandered around admiring the cool floras. They had a room dedicated to Antarctic plants which was really neat. Then we got some lunch and headed out of town. It’s funny, idk if it’s just him or cultural, but he does not feel the need to park close to places and is happy to plan to walk for a while, which is totally fine, and I don’t mind but occasionally find myself surprised by it. For example we decided on a lunch place and then he said ‘oh let’s park in Battery Point’ and I didn’t look it up, just followed him, and it was a 15 minute walk from the restaurant. It was a lovely walk and through a cool part of town. It looks like what I imagine a seaside old English town would look like. Lots of quaint, quirky brick and stone homes. I was very happy for the walk but would never really think let’s park far so we walk through this area before and after we eat, and instead would think to park near the lunch spot then go to the neighborhood for a walk, like two separate trips. I’ve noticed that a lot, he always opts for a 15 minute walk over moving the car which I really enjoy, even though sometimes I’m like “we could just drive there then we wouldn’t have to walk back” but I’m always happy we walked after. 

After lunch and a stroll we headed south for the night. We went, unsuccessfully, looking for platypus before heading up into the mountains a bit to an empty campground where we had a fire for the first time in ages. It was great to sit and enjoy the evening not having to go off to our beds so early. 

The next day we headed up Hartz Mountain where we spent the day hiking. It was an absolutely stunning hike, despite the intense wind and biting cold. The trail went along a beautiful curving boardwalk over these unique wetlands filled with amazing little plants adapted to the high altitude environment. They were so tiny and city and form dense mats to maintain their heat. The final bit of the hike was a climb up to an outlook on Hartz Mountain. Once we reached the outlook the wind was absolutely blasting and it often pushed us around. The low clouds surrounded us covering us in a thin damp mist and after 20 minutes I called it enough and vetoed climbing to the peak and initiated our trip back down the mountain. It was a wonderful day though. We headed to town and did some laundry while we ate some wood fired pizza and restocked a bit before heading south. 

Every week or so we end up at a campground that isn’t really a campground and this was one of those nights. It’s was really a gravel parking area a bit off the road where camping is allowed and since it was well past dark we decided to set up there instead of headed another hour down dirt roads to get to a real campground. It worked though and we were the only ones there, so it was quiet and nice. 

The next morning we headed south to Cockle Creek, the southernmost road in Australia. We drove to the end of the road and went for a 18km hike to reach the furthest point south you can go in Australia. We walked through rocky eucalyptus forest that were deafening with the sounds of honeyeaters, green rosellas, and other birds calling out, and walked through open grasslands, mossy forests, and coastal scrub. It was a lovely walk that ended in a stunning overlook of the ocean from the top of shale (I think) cliffs. 

Tired and happy we returned to camp to rest and do some home renovations. I finally fixed my tent pole that has been broken since February, and Quentin worked on cobbling together a cover for his broken headlight with clear vinyl. 

Shortly after heading to bed the rain came, which continued into the night for a while. The rain wasn’t bad but the wind that followed gave me my first bad night sleep. It was whipping my tent all night and at one point I woke to my rain fly on the ground and had to get up and put it back up.