Saturday, February 12, 2011

A quick Tasmanian escape

Last week I took the opportunity to get away to Tasmania for a few days. For part of it I holed up in a hotel on the east coast, and wrote without interruption. It was a wonderful experience, and I wish I hadn't had to come home so soon.
I hired this little car. Cute, eh? It made me smile. I named it Cedric, after the car in the David Parker/Nadia Tass film, The Big Steal. (If you haven't seen this lovely movie, rent it out - it's fab!)

As Cedric and I wound through the hills, we drove through this... Cool, temperate rainforest. 

I stopped for lunch and wandered down this path...

...and walked along this beach. I shared the entire stretch with one woman and two little girls.

I drove on and found a hotel for the night. This was the view from my room.

And this, in the other direction, taken on a misty, moisty, drizzly day.

I ended up staying there several nights, writing and walking and writing some more. Got loads done.
Every morning and every night I walked along the beach, scrambling over rocks (which I love) or  sinking my toes in sand and small waves. This beach was right across the road from the hotel.

At night I sat quietly on the rocks and watched tiny fairy penguins, so sweet and shy and dauntless as they clambered and waddled over rocks and up the hill to their burrows, where we could hear hungry chicks cheeping imperiously.  I didn't take theses photos; I didn't want to disturb them with a flash, and I didn't have a good enough camera to take pics without.


On the last day, I continued down the east coast. I ate my lunch  on this beach and collected broken shells for a jewellery idea. I always collect shells and stones and bits of driftwood from the beach. Can't help myself, even when I know I'm flying home with only walk-on baggage.

I stopped here just to stare at the view...

And had a coffee here... 


This old cowshed must have the best view in the world, I think — cowshed-wise.

I came home with a firm resolve to organize a writers' retreat here one day.





10 comments:

  1. I'm in. Let me know the time and place :-)

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  2. Sounds wonderful, Anne.

    I was in Tassie May last year. Loved it. My DH and I would like to retire down there. Quiet, beautiful, lots of time to write. Heaven!

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  3. Absolutely stunning photos Anne. Thanks for sharing. haven't ever been to Tassie but it's on the list :)

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  4. What a beautiful area. I'd have found it hard to leave too!

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  5. Thanks, Keziah. It would be lovely to retreat together, wouldn't it? So many people have been urging me to organize it. Maybe next year -- I'm really busy this year.

    King-rolens-kin, it is a lovely state. I have friends who've bought a place on the coast there and are semi-retired. Am ever-so-slightly green.

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  6. Eleni, you have to go. Hire a care and drive around -- it's magic. A small gem of a place, with so much to see in a relatively small area. It's also a real foodie place. ;)

    Theo, you have to come to Australia one day. Thanks for dropping by.

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  7. I'm another who hasn't been to Tassie yet, but it's very, very high on my wish list. I think I'm scared I'd want to live there. But what would my family say?

    Barb H

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  8. Barb, so much contact today is done on skype and phone and email, I think maybe they'd say, Oooh, a holiday! ;) Certainly you need to go there, and in the warmer months - might be too cold in winter for you tropical types.

    My friends who have a house there stayed at various places until they found the town they liked best and then went on regular holidays there, getting to know people until they found a house that was coming up for sale in the location they wanted and snapped it up.
    Sounds like a plan.

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