Changes (Launceston, Tasmania)

Well, hello. I'm back. This time with a rainforest trek through the Tarkine in north-west Tasmania. Although we enjoyed the Tarkine experience with Trek Tours Australia last year, it was not quite what we were expecting. There is a message in that, dear reader - read the track notes before booking the experience. As you might recall we ended up in cabin accommodation, not quite the backpacking or wilderness adventure we had in mind. It was still an excellent experience, but without roughing it around camp sites.

First night's accommodation last year.

Following from that, and after discussions with Nick, one of the guides, we decided to book the Tarkine Rainforest Expedition. A full pack, 6 day camping extravaganza with a maximum of 8 participants, plus the two guides. And, as it turned out, a slightly under quoted distance to be navigated. More on that later.

Once the trek was guaranteed to go ahead, we booked our flights. Ahh, Qantas. Does anything go right with them these days? We had a briefing to attend at 3pm, the day before the walk, and, if we were fortunate, we could get there by 4pm. Otherwise it would be an extra night in Launnie to ensure we made the briefing. 

A few months after we booked the flights, Qantas changed its schedule and put all flights back an hour or so. Hence today’s title, dear reader, a David Bowie classic from 1971. This rescheduling ensured that we could not make the briefing at all. The return flight was also later which meant Dave probably wouldn’t get home until after 8pm. I was offered, and accepted, the option to cancel the flights. We then considered our next move.

Not a tent in sight. Corinna 2025.

Some months later, as we were doing the maths on the extra night in Launceston versus flight costs, Qantas offered $65 flights, which made arriving a day earlier the cost-effective option. Ultimately, we booked Virgin flights home via Melbourne to ensure we arrived in Sydney at a reasonable time.

Unsurprisingly, the flight to Launnie was late leaving but arrived on time. We caught an Uber to the hotel - a significantly cheaper choice than a taxi. That night we finally dined at the Pizza Pub with some unrestrained feral children (not ours), one of whom made deep throated guttural sounds at his sibling. The food was nothing to get excited about, but it was Friday, so pizza.

Saturday

The morning of the briefing continued the unseasonal humidity being experienced in Tassie thanks to Cyclone Narelle, despite it being firmly entrenched in the north of Australia.

In the morning, we headed to Frankie’s for excellent coffee, dear reader, and a blueberry muffin. Then we walked to Aspire, the venue for our 3pm meeting, to discuss rain jackets. I had convinced myself I needed to purchase a new one. The gear list stated a rain jacket with ‘storm flap’. My old jacket, now Dave’s, sports a storm flap, my new Quechua from Decathlon does not, although it is tri-layered and rated to 20,000mm for waterproofing.

After some discussion with the very helpful man in the shop, it was decided that storm flaps are somewhat passé and have been made redundant by the YKK zip system. It was back to the hotel to repack our gear and check the zip on my new jacket. Winner! It is a YKK. No need for another new jacket.

The 3pm rendezvous with our guides was drawing near but first, to the river! The North Esk River flows just 50m from the hotel. It was at the street’s end hidden by a substantial levee bank. The levee had a walking path set into its top and we wandered in the overly bright sun for a while. The hole in the ozone layer above Tassie ensures days of sunshine can be glaringly bright and deadly if you don’t apply sunscreen. Blackberry, a noxious weed, ran the length of this part of the river. As a pre-teen going to work with dad we would often stop and pick blackberries by the roadside. They’re in season, I said to Dave, and ran down the bank and commenced feasting on the ripe, sweet berries. Who says you need to be in the forest to forage for food? 

Photo courtesy of Dave.

We returned to Aspire just before 3pm to meet our guides, Lani and Lish, and to pick up our tent. The share of the group’s food would be added tomorrow, before the walk commenced. The group seemed quite good, although 2 people had flight issues and didn’t make it. Of the 8, there were two couples/pairs travelling together, one of which is Dave and me. The other four were solo adventurers, 3 women and a man. Interesting. Aside from the solo man (see what I did there?) everyone was from Sydney.

That night, we decided to dine at the Mersh, aka the Commercial Hotel. It was just around the corner from where we were staying and had a large menu on display outside. In hindsight, we probably should have gone inside to check it out. It had good reviews online but, well, it was old school. Old carpet, dated décor, dodgy gambling room and a hen’s party of screaming 20 something girls that invaded the quiet as we ate dinner. Despite that, the food was good and the people were lovely.

Bed time. We needed to be well rested. Tomorrow the trek begins.

Until tomorrow.

 

Heroes (Budapest)

Good morning, dear reader. An early reveal of today's title, a David Bowie classic from 1977. Sing it with me, "If I were king ...". Good times. The reason will be become clear shortly. You will also be relieved to know that this post is relatively brief in comparison to what you've endured to date. We spent the day, well, part of it, on the Hop-on-hop-off bus and the rest relaxing and catching up on processing my photos.

You may recall in my last post, I challenged my children to be the first one to respond. The first to do so would have the title of "favourite child" bestowed upon them. Two of our three offspring replied in a timely fashion. One is yet to acknowledge my request. As is often the case with siblings, there is a dispute as to the actual winner. The decision has been referred to the bunker, NRL style, and the ultimate winner will be revealed throughout the course of this post. To more important matters.

We walked through the Castle District to the funicular this morning and travelled very sedately down the hill to the Danube to catch the Big Bus. We caught a similar contraption in Wellington, New Zealand, some years back. It is certainly a mode of travel from yesteryear and relies on the weight balance of one car going up the hill as the other travels down. Quaint would be the description. This morning's descent was uncrowded and smooth.

Old world charm

The Big Bus was waiting patiently for our arrival at the funicular stop. We presented our pre-purchased tickets and were waved inside by a disinterested staffer. Apparently the concept of service in Hungary is different to that of the western world. We should be grateful the staff are favouring us with their attention. It is most certainly not a case of the customer is always right - and to be honest, I'm OK with that. Anyway, no one checked our tickets which meant they weren't activated, not Pete Evans style, but on the computer that registers we have commenced our 24 hour ride period.

The ubiquitous Parliament

The first two stops were not particularly populated although the bus became very crowded at Parliament. We had chosen to sit upstairs in the open air, well, for COVID risk management, (and also because it brought back childhood memories of travelling with my grandfather in Sydney, as I always made him sit upstairs). As we pulled out from Parliament, the women behind us began to cough. No masks. Not happy. Having come this far, we don't want to catch the plague right before we go on the cruise. The coughing continued intermittently until our stop, Heroes Square in the City Park. Now you understand the title for this post.

On the way to the Park, we stopped outside the Opera House. The one that doesn't appear in the Lonely Planet Guide. We did not alight from the bus. I guess the reality of seeing more golden, over the top decadence was, well, too much. Maybe next time. With a recital.

The Heroes Square is a massive open paved area. In its centre is a 36m tall obelisk topped by the Archangel Gabriel holding the crown of Hungary he/she (do angels have gender? oh, yeah, Catholic church) allegedly offered to St Stephen. Behind it, on both sides are two arced structures, each bearing 7 statues of some of the Kings of Hungary. Very Romanesque, in fact it reminded me of the forecourt at the Vatican. Before the obelisk lies the tomb of the Unknown Soldier (minus any bodies as no one is actually buried there).

From the "Park", we walked to one of the hidden treasures of Budapest, the Vajdahunyad Castle, modelled on Dracula's castle in Transylvania. This had been recommended by Emoke, our tour guide on day 1. We didn't go inside. It was all rather crowded, so we walked the paths outside and photographed statues, as you do. One particular statue, named, wait for it, Anonymous - yeah, I don't get it either, was supposed to be some charm for writers. If you rub the nib of the pen in the statue's hand it improves your prowess as a writer. So, my dear reader, you have noticed the difference in my prose? I rubbed his nib. It's size and shape felt strangely familiar and it all felt wrong somehow.

Nice view with the light poles

Anonymous

The hidden gem castle has the most pathetic moat I've ever seen.  No, seriously, it's dodgy. I could walk through it. And, in a way that even the French would be impressed by, they destroyed the best photographic opportunities by placing large poles in the middle of the vista. We have since learnt that these light poles are there in the middle of the water because the manmade lake becomes a winter time skating rink.

There were still things to explore in this area, but we decided to head back to the bus stop and onto our next destination: the most beautiful café in the world. Allegedly (I don't want to offend anyone).

The New York Café. Special. Cool. Whatever. We made it inside. Just. The waiting area was woefully inadequate for the volume of trade they were doing. There was a mass of people, mostly seated. We weren't seated and weren't likely to be before the coming of the Messiah. First or second coming, depending on your religion. So, like the Australians we are, we left. It's a special space, but really, you're just having coffee. Or worse, tea.

I always look at the ceiling while drinking coffee, generally when it's bad...

Whatever. Hot and tired, we returned to the Big Bus and headed back across the river to Buda and the funicular. There was a queue here as well but it moved at reasonable speed and, given we had tickets from the morning, we were able to skip ahead of a few people who needed to buy theirs.

The plan, when we got to the top, was to head to a bar and have a beer. That was the plan. Reality had other ideas. Every bar was packed. There were tour groups everywhere. OK then, let's head to the Hotel. The Rooftop bar doesn't open until 4pm, so that was out. The downstairs bar, yep, it was also full. There was no room at the inn. The only option was lunch. We repaired to the restaurant and had a typical tourist lunch, the signature burger and a bottle of Hungarian red wine. The view from the restaurant is stunning. It looks across Fisherman's Bastion to the Parliament. It is a vista I never tire of, with the added bonus of people watching.

They serve McGuigan's wine! That was unexpected.

Post lunch it was time to blog and process some photos. Then happy hour in the Executive Lounge. Sadly the children had departed and it was much quieter and more enjoyable without them. 

The following morning was breakfast and packing. We left the hotel to transfer to the AMA Venita that was waiting for us on the Pest side of the Danube. We checked in, left our bags and walked along the river bank towards Parliament. About 300 metres south of the Parliament, there is a memorial to the Jewish people who were shot and thrown into the river during the Second World War. It is a series of period shoes, cast in iron and attached to the promenade. They depict the fact that, before they were shot, the victims were instructed to remove their shoes as these were a valuable commodity in wartime and could be resold. 

Memorials are one of those things. There were people taking selfies or having their photo taken with the shoes. One child had his foot a shoe and was photographed by his mother. All entirely inappropriate. We witnessed similar disrespectful behaviour at the 9/11 memorial in New York.

We then headed back to Duncorso for a lunchtime beer and some people watching before we eventually walked back to the ship. The Venita has a capacity of 164. There are only 71 passengers on this journey so there were plenty of people opting for a cabin upgrade. Having already unpacked, we were not interested.

The 300 year old acacia. The oldest tree in Budapest we are told.

We have met many people already and we were invited to the smaller dining room for dinner to get to know some other passengers. The food was lovely as was the accompanying wine. It was a later night than anticipated which is why this post has now combined two days and is still a day late.

Getting back to the favourite child situation ... the bunker has just made a decision ... it's coming through now ... it's Caitlin.

Until tomorrow.

Under Pressure (Talbot Bay, Horizontal Falls)

Another post card morning, although this time as we woke up, we were moving towards Talbot Bay and had yet to move through the narrow channel. I'm sure it has a special name, but I can't recall, as Ronald Reagan said so often.

The view at breakfast

It was breakfast at 7am so we could see the journey through the islands and particularly the tight navigation through what is known as "the narrows". We scored a breakfast table outside and enjoyed the relative peace of the early morning while the staff fussed over us. Another day roughing it on an expedition voyage.

Post breakfast we went up to the Observation Deck on Pont 6 to enjoy sailing through the narrows. It was a beautiful morning, turquoise seas, sunshine and then wind in your face on the observation deck. Actually wind doesn't quite sum it up. I fought to open the door, removed my lanyard and glasses, placed both in my pocket and bravely pushed forward to a place at the rail. I'm not sure how they measure wind speed up here dear reader, but it was strong enough to blow a dog off a chain.

The second set of narrows

After having every wrinkle from my face smoothed out and my receding hairline moved another few centimetres up my head it was time to seek the relative safety of the cabin.

Random observation: it is difficult to not to observe other people's knees when seated on the pumped-up sides of a zodiac. Aside from hearing aides, the other go-to accessory appears to be vertical scars from the top of the shin to above knee. Neither Jayne nor I have this accessory or the other - and that is good.

From our initial observations, Talbot Bay is as busy as Pitt Street, Sydney at this time of the year.  There are a number of vessels, some private, some commercial, as well as a seasonal boat/pontoon complete with live-in staff and a helipad to receive the constant influx of visitors who fly in by sea plane or helicopter from, most probably, Broome.  The big draw card you ask?  The Horizontal Waterfalls to which we are headed both this morning and again this afternoon.  

The seaplane/helipad/fast boat pontoon and Le Lapérouse

This phenomenon that David Attenborough described as "one of the greatest wonders of the natural world" is a pair of breaks in a mountain range that has narrow entry and exit points through which the massive tidal flows of the Kimberley try to squeeze.  These create a huge back up of water on alternate sides of the gap which results in a tidal difference of almost 11 metres.  This massive movement of tidal water between the sides of the gap is a "horizontal waterfall" of up to 4 metres.

The trip out this morning was very wet, courtesy of the wind and the swell it whipped it up. I was saturated before we'd gone more than 100 metres. I shifted my back pack further down the zodiac to Jayne's care to protect the camera.

Note the water level

We observed the falls at a distance but were restricted in how close we could go. We could have certainly passed through the falls but the 70 horsepower of the zodiac outboard motor is not sufficient to come back against the tidal flow, such is its power and speed.  Had we gone through, we would not have been coming back any time soon.  At least until the change of tide. Therefore, we observed from a distance the powerful (1200 horsepower) fast jet boats that take tourists backwards and forwards through the gap and then we headed out to explore Cyclone Creek and its amazing rocky cliffs, bird life and river whirlpools.

An hour later - look at the water level

After the falls, we zodiaced (is that a word?) around the waterway into Cyclone Creek and a few other quiet waterways. We saw abundant birdlife in one of the backwaters, Brahminy Eagle, Whistling Kite, Friar bird, Rainbow Bee Eater, Honey Eaters, the list goes on.

The geology and geography is fascinating and far too complicated for this simple mind my dear reader. Perhaps photographs might display some of the curiosity of the area. The geology also provides today's title, that classic collaboration between David Bowie and Queen, Under Pressure. It was pressure that has created the twisted and tortured rock formations of the Kimberley.

Rocks ... under pressure

Back home it was time to reapply sunscreen and attend to lunch and the magical Rizal who appears at Jayne's shoulder with a bottle of French Rosé as soon as she is seated. Then back to the computer to work on the blog before this afternoon's trip through the falls on the fast boat.

The fast boat trip was, well, fast. As one might expect. It did have 4 x 300 horse power outboard motors to ensure passage against a  very strong current. In the time we had been back on board the tide had turned completely and was now running in the opposite direction. The driver told us that, at the change of tide, the falls are actually still for less than one minute before they resume their passage through the gap. We crossed back and forth through the gap a few times, but were unable to get through the second narrower set of falls.  The driver informed us that they will not pass through these unless the tidal difference is less than a metre. As with everything in this area, the tides rule and if they aren't right then you alter your plans.

It looks calm enough

Until you get closer

The tide is on the way out

The second falls- a no go zone today

The fast boat was a great experience and we didn't even get wet, something that is becoming increasingly unusual on our excursions. Back to a warm shower and a quick G&T and the daily recap. The G&T was quite pleasant, replacing the variable quality of the Piña Colada and confirming that I make a bad G&T - I have never mastered them at home.

Dinner was the usual 5 course affair on Deck 4.

Tomorrow we are up early again for a trip to Montgomery Reef. We board our Zodiac at 6:30am and we have been warned that, due to the predicted wind and swell, we will get wet.

Until next time ... internet connection willing.