NB: With this post, about a place I visited before the lockdown, I want to bring you some positivism, beauty, and also reassurance that we’ll all get the chance to see great different places again. Meanwhile, I encourage you not to violate the stay-at-home regime. Instead, I hope you’re using this time for catching up on what you never seemed to find the time to do… ‘before’ :).

We finally make it to the Tasman Peninsula. First on the tourism menu here – a remarkable cave. A remarkable cave that’s so remarkable it’s called… Remarkable Cave!

Indeed: remarkable. ‘The cave itself is a long tunnel eroded from the base of a collapsed gully’. Probably some 100 meters long.

Read on…

NB: with this post – about a place I visited before the lockdown – I want to bring you some positivism, beauty, and reassurance that we’ll all get a chance to see great different places again. Meanwhile, I encourage you not to violate the stay-at-home regime. Instead, I hope you’re using this time for catching up on what you never seemed to find the time to do… ‘before’ :).

Back behind the wheel and back on the road, off we sped on our round-the-island tour of Tasmania en route to our final destinations – the Tasman Peninsula and the town of Port Arthur. And this is where the tourisms took off in terms of quality – or should I say, KKKKwality? )…

Here’s Tasmans Arch. Hmmm. Rather grandiose, I’d say. Accordingly, 3Ks awarded! A natural bridge formed by sedimentary rock having been washed away over the millennia leading eventually to a collapsing cave:

Read on…

NB: with this post – about a place I visited before the lockdown – I want to bring you some positivism, beauty, and reassurance that we’ll all get a chance to see great different places again. Meanwhile, I encourage you not to violate the stay-at-home regime. Instead, I hope you’re using this time for catching up on what you never seemed to find the time to do… ‘before’ :).

Next up on our Tasmanian tour – red rocks. Actually, regular gray-colored rocks, but with an orangey coating. Like this:

These pics were taken at the Bay of Fires, named, curiously, not after the fire-colored rocks…

Read on…

NB: with this post – about a place I visited before the lockdown – I want to bring you some positivism, beauty and some reassurance that we’ll all get a chance to see great different places again. Meanwhile, I encourage you not to violate the stay-at-home regime. Instead, I hope you’re using this time for catching up on what you never seemed to find the time to do… ‘before’ :).

Onward we drive on our tour of Tasmania. Our next stop – the city of Launceston, whose Cataract Gorge came highly recommended:

Very picturesque! Great for walkies too…

Read on…

NB: with this post about the place I visited before the lockdown I want to bring you some positivism, beauty and the reassurance that we will all get a chance to see great different places again. Meanwhile I encourage you not to violate the stay-at-home regime. Instead I hope you’re using this time for catching up on what you never seemed to find the time to do… ‘before’ :).

The western Tasmanian coastal town of Strahan is pretty and cozy, but besides fishing and the nearby disused mine, plus a for-tourists railroad, there’s nothing to do here. It is the very definition of a ‘sleepy’ backwater town.

However, a little to the west of the town there’s an awesome sandy beach, of a length of… wait for it… 30 kilometers! It’s called, appropriately, Roaring Beach, but it’s not just for sunbathing on. You can race along stretches of it. Which we did. Which I recommend!

Read on…

NB: with this post about the place I visited before the lockdown I want to bring you some positivism, beauty and the reassurance that we will all get a chance to see great different places again. Meanwhile I encourage you not to violate the stay-at-home regime. Instead I hope you’re using this time for catching up on what you never seemed to find the time to do… ‘before’ :).

For my further tales from Tasmanian side I’ll be leaving the very best ‘icings on the cakes’ until, appropriately, dessert. I’ll start out with the also-rans. Accordingly, overall, the plan goes like this: First check out the whole of the island, then the Tasman Peninsula, and then the Tasman National Park and its Three Capes Track. But before any of that – you need to get to Tasmania in the first place…

You get to the island in one of three ways from the Australian mainland: (i) on a ferry from Melbourne (12 hours; suitable only if you’re bringing your own car); (ii) on an airplane to Tasmania’s second city, Launceston (100,000 population); or (iii) on an airplane to Tasmania’s capital, Hobart (250,000 population). The best way is the latter, preferably in the evening. Then you can be up early the next morning, get a rental car, and off you pop in the direction of the west coast; next – north coast; then – east coast; followed by the Tasman Peninsula; finally – back to Hobart, having come full circle. That works out at 1300+km. But we were kind of making the route up as we went along; thus, we were zigzagging quite a bit, which added around 500km to our route. The car rental folks were really quite astonished by 1800km in a mere three-and-a-half days ).

Read on…

NB: with this post about the place I visited before the lockdown I want to bring you some positivism, beauty and the reassurance that we will all get a chance to see great different places again. Meanwhile I encourage you not to violate the stay-at-home regime. Instead I hope you’re using this time for catching up on what you never seemed to find the time to do… ‘before’ :).

These here tales from the Tasmanian side hail back to the pre-lockdown era. When planes flew in the skies, ships sailed upon the seas, more than just a trickle of cars drove on the roads, and similarly more than just a few folks walked along sidewalks. Alas, that’s all in the past; in the future too, eventually, but who knows when? All the same, I’m going to write this here blogpost as if we have traveled forward in time – to when planes actually take off and land around the world!

Now, Tasmanian tourism, at least for folks who don’t live in the southeastern corner of a world map, well, it suffers a bit a ton for one simple reason: its very location. See where I’m going with this? Here’s a clue: to get to Tasmania you first need to fly to the nearest (enormous) land mass and then take a connecting flight. And there’s that (not small) simple reason I mentioned – mainland Australia (let’s not forget that Tasmania is an island state of Australia)! And as you’ll probably know – especially if you’re a regular reader of this here blog of mine – mainland Australia is off-the-scale oh-my-grandiose when it comes to its many tourisms. I mean, there’s Sydney. There’s Surfers Paradise. There’s Ayer’s Rock (pics only; Russian text). There’s Kimberley. And a whole lot more. Accordingly, normally you need to be one of two kinds of folks to ever get as far as Tasmania: either (i) a tourist from afar (e.g., Russia!) who’s been to Oz, done Oz, and already lost the t-shirt somewhere long ago; or (ii) someone who lives in Australia! And when it comes to the mix between (i) and (ii), it’s the latter that make up most of the tourists who come visit the island.

So, considering that most of you, dear readers, have never been to Tasmania, and maybe never will (this is rather a depressing thought, as this place is outstandingly beautiful and deserves hoards of incoming tourists), I think it’s only right for someone who’s been to share with you his experiences while there and also all his photos. And so that’s just what I’ll start doing in this here post and future ones in a mini-series. So. Ready? Popcorn procured? Nacho sauce nicely warmed? Beverage of choice poured? Let the show begin!…

Read on…

NB: with this post about the place I visited before the lockdown I want to bring you some positivism, beauty and the reassurance that we will all get a chance to see great different places again. Meanwhile I encourage you not to violate the stay-at-home regime. Instead I hope you’re using this time for catching up on what you never seemed to find the time to do… ‘before’ :).

After we’d checked it from a chopper – it was time for a cable-car ride up the hill that’s a whopper: Table Mountain!

We got up to the top in a funicular car, which has a rotating floor (like in some TV towers) so you get to see all 360 degrees of the view below!

Backgrounder (including its height – 1085 meters above today’s sea level):

Off we go!…

Read on…

NB: with this post about the place I visited before the lockdown I want to bring you some positivism, beauty and the reassurance that we will all get a chance to see great different places again. Meanwhile I encourage you not to violate the stay-at-home regime. Instead I hope you’re using this time for catching up on what you never seemed to find the time to do… ‘before’ :).

As promised in my previous post, herewith, a continuation of my Cape-Town-tourisms text and pics for your visual-curiousness-educational pleasure. Time for a chopper ride. A nice clean shiny bright red one at that…

First off – what we saw earlier, but from up in the sky. The Cape of Good Hope:

Read on…

NB: with this post about the place I visited before the lockdown I want to bring you some positivism, beauty and the reassurance that we will all get a chance to see great different places again. Meanwhile I encourage you not to violate the stay-at-home regime. Instead I hope you’re using this time for catching up on what you never seemed to find the time to do… ‘before’ :).

Once upon a time, long ago – in the spring of 2011, I found myself in the glorious city of Cape Town, the southernmost city of the continent of Africa and the country of South Africa. And it’s an amazing city! The Cape of Good Hope, penguins under palm trees, and the main thing – Table Mountain, which rises up above the city. We took the funicular that goes up it back then, but we were in a real rush with just half-an-hour to spare. This is way too short a time. You need hours to stroll around up top, and then to descend back down on foot (the path is only 700 meters long). This year, we had more time – but still not several hours! Oh well, at least I was here for the second time: I’d been dreaming of returning for a full nine years. So here I was. And I did manage to walk back down!…

I was in Cape Town, of course, not primarily for Table Mountain funicularing and strolling. I was here on business: our annual META-region partner conference (META = Middle East, Turkey and Africa) (though, technically Turkey is a Middle Eastern country!). As per, it was meetings, presentations, Q&As, formal dinners, partner awards, interviews, non-stop ‘cheesing’ for the cameras, and all that. And all that over and done with, also as per – micro-tourism!

Read on…