A fascination with a cartoon The animal and a Class V river lured her to the empty wilderness of Tasmania. Turns out the raw side of Down devil Under offers an made me amazing number of pristine places to camp, surf, hike, mountain bike, and kayak. STEPHANIE PEARSON goes all in.
Bruny Island, off Tasmania’s southern coast do it
68 outside magazine Cocooned in my sleeping bag, I stare a foot by the Franklin. Fewer than 500 people per vish that zoomed around like a tornado, above me at whorls of coral and register that year attempt it, and some don’t come out the slicing through boulders and trees. In 2000, I’m lying under thousands of tons of over other end. In 1822, eight convicts fled into the I cycled and road-tripped for six weeks hanging rock. We’re camping alongside the Franklin watershed to escape Sarah Island through mainland Australia while reading Franklin River at the Newlands Cascades rap prison, the British Empire’s version of the Robert Hughes’s The Fatal Shore, a history ids, in the shallow caves that form the base of Gulag Archipelago, on Tasmania’s west coast. of Oz’s settling, in which Tasmania played a aThe limestone wall 100 feet high.cave I can make out Only oneis man, Alexander like Pearce, walked out acritical and darkwomb. role. In 1803, the British cap a delicate web on the ceiling, likely the work alive—after killing and eating five of his fel italized on the island’s isolation, colonizing it of a Tasmanian cave spider, and wonder if a low escapees. The river’s namesake, colonial as Van Diemen’s Land, the dumping ground tiger snake, the world’s fourth-deadliest ser governor and Arctic explorer Sir John Frank for repugnant criminals, harmless urchins, pent, will slither past. But that’s not my most lin, crossed the waterway but never paddled and homeless women. It took the penal col pressing concern. its length. (He died of starvation in 1847 while ony just 73 years to wipe out the estimated The rain has been pouring down in sheets searching for the Northwest Passage.) And in 4,000 pure-blood Aboriginal people, whose for the past 12 hours, and the thundering 1994, author Richard Flanagan wrote Death lineage here dates back 40,000 years. It took rush of the swiftly rising Franklin is just 30 of a River Guide, a grim read based on his own only 60 more for the motley crew, along with feet below. The 78-mile-long, pool-drop near drowning on the Franklin. The book is the few free settlers who chose to live among river boils with technical Class III–VI rapids sitting next to my sleeping bag. them, to hunt the thylacine, or Tasmanian crashing through the nearly impenetrable Fernon’s oft repeated mantra echoes tiger, to apparent extinction. But the convicts Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, through my brain: “You can never be too para who managed to stay out of trouble served in the heart of the 3.5-million-acre Tasma noid down here.” He would know. The so- their seven years of hard labor and took ad nian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Its called Godfather of the Franklin has paddled vantage of the freedom in Tasmania. Even Surf break on tannin-stained water is as dark as Guinness the river more than 200 times in the past 26 today, the state’s license plate reads Explore the Tasman Peninsula beer but so clean we drink it straight, with no years. A lanky six foot one, he’s a registered the Possibilities. filtration. The Franklin flows through a deep nurse and Sydney native, and he resembles Because their ancestors forged civilization ravine (1,300 feet at its deepest) and is so wet a bird of prey, with winged graying hair, a out of ferocious wilds, many Tasmanians (100 inches of precipitation per year fall in beaked nose, and fierce intensity when he’s have a deep love and respect for untouched some places) that just two inches of rain can on the water. When he’s relaxed, he unleashes territory. More than 40 percent of Tas cause it to rise ten feet in two hours. Which is a goofy, talkative side while whipping up din mania’s landmass is protected in reserves, what I fear is happening now. ner. Fernon’s seen it all down here, including World Heritage Areas, and 19 national parks. The river has risen 13 feet since our seven- runaway rafts, snake-infested campgrounds, “In a world where wilderness is perhaps person group—four Australians, one South African, one Austrian, and me—arrived at the “In a world where campsite two days ago with dramatic flour ish. Right before eddying out, Ron Wiffen, wilderness is perhaps and t hethe a 63-year-old plumber from Queensland, pristine values of nature are being destroyed at a great rate, and Graham Freeman, a 25-year-old from fastest-disappearing natural resource Johannesburg, who were powering the front Tasmania is like a Noah’s Ark,” says Bob Brown, a medical of our 15-foot rubber raft, were deep-sixed doctor and the state’s most iconic environmentalist. headfirst into the 50-degree water after we banged into a boulder. The next day, which we spent exploring, bones and boats cracked in half, and heli the fastest-disappearing natural resource went smoothly. We swung like monkeys on copter evacs. But he feels at home on the and the pristine values of nature are being branches, bushwhacking through the tem Franklin, even as it’s threatening us. “We’ve destroyed at a great rate, Tasmania is like perate rainforest, a primeval garden of giant been trapped by Mother Nature,” he says. He a Noah’s Ark,” says Bob Brown, a medical man ferns, sassafras, pandani, and rare, slow- sounds exhilarated. doctor and the state’s most iconic environ growing, 130-foot Huon pines that were here mentalist; he was the head of the Wilderness before Christ, in wilderness so empty that The Franklin River is a fitting metaphor Society, then went on to spend 16 years as a we’ve seen zero people in six days. But the for Tasmania: beautiful, terrible, sublime, Green Party senator in the federal govern rain started late that night and has remained bizarre, and very, very remote. This West ment. “Our glory days are ahead of us, but steady, stranding us for the foreseeable future. Virginia–size island invented the bushranger not without eternal vigilance.” Brett Fernon, our 53-year-old Aussie guide (the Oz version of an outlaw hero), gave Holly There’s a lot worth protecting. Of Tas and the owner of outfitter Water by Nature wood Errol Flynn (who was born in Tasma mania’s 500,000 residents, 212,000 live in Tasmania, tells me that this is the highest level nia’s capital, Hobart), and established the Hobart, a funky waterfront city on the slopes he’s ever seen. “Bloody hell! I don’t think it’s world’s first green party in 1972. of 4,166-foot Mount Wellington, with paved peaked yet,” he says, scanning the narrow I’ve been obsessed with the island’s ex and off-road hiking and mountain-biking sliver of sky. “It’s a bit tricky trying to get out tremes for years. I was raised on Looney trails in every direction. The city sits on the The Overland of here at the moment.” Tunes, and my interest was aroused by the mouth of the Derwent River, which flows Track
We’re not the first party to be buggered Tasmanian Devil, a.k.a. Taz, a whirling der into the Tasman Sea, and its convict-built, SMITH/REDUX. MAURICE DAVID SEAN DAVEY/GETTY; TOP: FROM PAGE, OPPOSITE HOENNER/GETTY. XAVIER PAGES: PREVIOUS
70 outside magazine outsideonline.com 71 waterfront sandstone facades have been ren ment and log in the World Heritage Area. higher, so I cover my head with my sleeping ovated into hipster hotels, restaurants, and Meanwhile, many of the remaining disease- bag and wait until whichever comes first: bars—at least five floating shacks sell fish- free Tasmanian devils live in the Tarkine, a dawn or drowning. and-chips in the harbor. They’re all packed 1.2-million-acre unprotected wilderness At 6:55 a.m., it’s still raining, and the water with locals, climate scientists on break from also in a conservation battle. Environmental level is now two feet higher than Fernon has Antarctica, or Asian tourists dining on the ists are lobbying for national park and World ever seen it, but it miraculously retreats day’s oyster and seafood catch, accompa Heritage status, but competing for space are enough for us to consider launching into a nied by pinot noirs produced sketchy Class IV wave train. At just down the road. One reason 10 a.m., the rain stops. We load, the state is getting an infusion launch, and paddle, whooping of international travelers is like rodeo cowboys. Beyond MONA, the Museum of Old the first hurdle, the river is so and New Art, a $200 million Bass Strait swollen that the rapids have steel bunker dreamed up by disappeared, replaced by swirl local gambling tycoon David TARKINE ing boils. We book it 26 miles WILDERNESS TASMANIA Walsh that is full of provoca downriver to the confluence Cradle Mount ain– On the Launceston tive works—like a defecating of the Gordon, which was Lake St. Clair Overland machine that unleashes “feces” dammed in 1972, in record- National Park Track at 2 p.m. every day. CRADLE MOUNTAIN–LAKE ST. setting time. An hour before CLAIR NATIONAL PARK Beyond Hobart, there are Cradle we reach the shelter of a hydro- Mountain Mount Freycinet Ossa countless treks, including National workers’ hut, the pelting rain Cape Park The Franklin seven Great Walks, and 3,355 Queenstown resumes. “This is the moment Raoul Strahan Franklin River Wineglass River miles of coastline. The an Bay I question my sanity,” says Ron Macquarie Derwent River Freycinet nual Sydney-to-Hobart yacht Harbor Peninsula Wiffen, who was ejected out of Indian Gordon River race, a 628-mile sufferfest, is Ocean the raft a few days ago. Maria one of the most coveted cups Island Possibly hypothermic, or in sailing, and surfers flock to TASMANIAN maybe just euphoric to have WILDERNESS Hobart Tasman Sea the consistent breaks near the WORLD HERITAGE safely shepherded everyone off AREA Tasman east-coast town of Bicheno or Peninsula the Franklin, Fernon stands up Port Arthur to the more extreme swell at NORTH HARTZ in the raft, shakes his fist at the MOUNTAINS Hartz Shipstern Bluff off the Tasman NATIONAL Peak sky, and yells at the top of his 50 miles PARK Peninsula, renowned for 40- Bruny Island voice in mock-apostle style: foot waves, great white sharks, “Is this all you’ve got?! C’mon! and the possibility of crashing Bring it!” into a 200-foot-high cliff. Our floatplane is grounded And Tasmania contains a number of ani timber leases and proposals for ten new tin in Hobart, so the next day at dawn we catch mal species that live nowhere else, includ and iron-ore mines, slated to roll into opera a ride with a yacht that motors us six hours ing marsupials like the Tasmanian bettong, tion over the next five years. across Macquarie Harbor to Strahan, where eastern quoll, Tasmanian pademelon, and, It seemed like a good time to explore the a van drives us six hours back to Hobart. But
some scientists believe after alleged recent state’s rawness and dichotomies, in the fickle first we raise our plastic glasses of Shiraz in a er lk sightings, the Tasmanian tiger. There’s also height of spring, when the lilacs bloom, hor toast to a perfect trip. a the notorious Tasmanian devil, a skunk-size, izontal snow falls, and the sun beats down, “Who wants a life that goes according w carnivorous marsupial, which is sadly being all within a few hours. And there’s no better to plan?” says Dave James, a 38-year-old ustin ; j ; driven to extinction by devil facial tumor dis place to start than the Franklin, a flash point consultant and outdoor-education guide in ers k ease, a cancer that has likely killed 80 percent in Tasmania’s conservation history, too: led Hobart and the only native Tasmanian in our a The coastline looks like an impenetrable prison fortress. As the trail winds upward, I learn just how of the species. by Bob Brown, 2,500 protestors formed a group. “There’s no fun in that.” b bl masochistic Knight is. In less than three dec ro But there’s a flipside to all this wonder. human blockade in 1982 to stop a hydro That’s part of the charm of Tasmania—the ; But it’s impossible not to laugh out loud as the boat ades, he has crossed the Southern Ocean 66 ert Tasmania is the poorest state in Australia, electric dam. (Their efforts were rewarded.) weather can derail even the best-laid plans. A b times as an Antarctic guide, run an off-the-
ro gyrates among dolphins, and it has a fierce loyalty to forestry, mining, I’d heard about the river a couple of years day after I’m off the river, I meet up in Hobart couch Antarctic half-marathon fueled by Red ean and hydropower. The state’s resource battles ago from Peter Grubb, the founder of Idaho- with a rugged, 28-year-old, fifth-generation j ; white-bellied sea eagles, Bull, and become the youngest Australian to are reminiscent of environmental fights based Row Adventures, who described an al Tasmanian named Rob Knight, my guide for ski to the North Pole, which he did with a bro
urora albatross, a colony of seals, and a breaching around the globe, except here they’re on a most mythic Tasmanian wilderness, known the next eight days. Knight, who lives with a ken wrist. He has also kayaked the Franklin, a / er finite stage, which makes the island a sort among guides as having one of the most tech his fiancée on a 32-foot sailboat south of the b humpback whale. rite of passage for every budding Tasmanian o of petri dish for the rest of us. Last summer, nical whitewater runs in the world. I knew I city, has mapped out a 1,000-mile drive with k curves. Our objective the next day is to hike a ment huts with bunks, or book a trip through badass. In addition to guiding, Knight just Tasmania’s Parliament passed the historic had to see it for myself. stop-offs to explore the east coast’s vacant truncated version of the 40-mile-long Over an independent operator and end the day in launched a new company, the Bruny Island Tasmanian Forest Agreement, which will beaches and the state’s famous treks. “I like land Track, which starts at Cradle Mountain– a private hut with a hot shower, a few glasses Long Weekend. It’s a three-day, yacht-in, christian add 420,000 acres to the existing Tasmanian It’s 2:22 ,a.m. and the river is still rising. to come home bleeding and covered in mud,” : Lake St. Clair National Park and traverses a of Tasmanian wine, fresh bread, and a fluffy fly-out luxury escape on Bruny, a mountain eft
Wilderness World Heritage Area and transfer Fernon and his co-guide, a 38-year-old says Knight. “It’s a bit masochistic, isn’t it?” l World Heritage Area that includes Tasma bed. Instead of a through-hike, we’ll veer off- ous 62-mile-long stretch of land just down op t a total of 1.2 million acres of vulnerable native transplanted Austrian named Klaudia Marte, We make a quick first stop at Freycinet nia’s highest peak, 5,305-foot Mount Ossa; its track and climb 5,069-foot Cradle Mountain, the D’Entrecasteaux Channel from Hobart, forests from Forestry Tasmania to the Parks shine like apparitions in the glow of their Peninsula, 121 miles from Hobart, and walk deepest lake, St. Clair; and miles and miles of the most photographed feature in Tasmania, with world-famous oysters (which, I’m able to from
and Wildlife Service. If the right-wing Liberal headlamps as they drag the rafts 15 feet far to the overlook of Wineglass Bay, a famous ise wide-open views to the Pelion Range. Trek which looks like it has a handsaw blade for confirm when I visit a few days later, deserve
Party comes to power this spring, however, ther up the limestone shelf and place them on stretch of sand that’s like the Playboy center kw kers who do the six-day through-hike have a summit, and be back at Cradle Mountain their reputation) and an obscenely perfect oc its leadership has vowed to reverse the agree our stone dining room table. I can’t move any fold of beaches, with perfect, bodacious l three options: camp, stay in basic govern Lodge in time for dinner. continued on page 90
c seven-mile beach.
72 outside magazine outsideonline.com 73 tasmania continued from page 73 utes southwest of Hobart, past the logging jagged peaks that disappear in the fog. Some Given Tasmania’s notoriously fickle town of Geeveston, to the trailhead of Hartz where out there, miles and miles beyond the weather, our hike quickly turns feisty. We’re Peak. In a few hours, we’re at the 4,117-foot mountains, is the free-flowing Franklin. at 5,000 feet, but it may as well be 17,500. summit, a conical pile of dolerite. Despite the “There’s no way into this wilderness ex Near the summit—which requires postholing proximity to Hobart and it being a Sunday cept your feet,” says Knight. “It’s hard to through snow, followed by a slippery scramble afternoon, we’ve seen only three other hikers. believe there’s not a Tasmanian tiger in there over sandpapery dolerite boulders—the winds Directly east is civilization: a clear-cut for somewhere.” O amp up to 50 miles per hour. We slip and slide est and the pastoral orchards and vineyards to a hut at the base of Cradle Mountain to of the Huon Valley. To the west, clouds roll CONTRIBUTING EDITOR STEPHANIE warm up with a cup of tea before hightailing in from the ocean like waves. There’s snow PEARSON WROTE ABOUT DAVE KALAMA it five miles back to the trailhead. on the ridges of the Western Arthurs, a line of IN OCTOBER 2013.
B y tHE tIME we reach the Tasman Peninsula two days later, the sun is blazing. Just 90 min ACCESS + RESOURCES The view utes southeast of Hobart, the peninsula is Compact, English speaking, and easy to from the home to Capes Hauy, Pillar, and Raoul, which navigate, Tasmania is ideal for wanderers tub at rise hundreds of feet above the Tasman Sea who want to rent a car and go. Restaurant Cradle and will be connected by the 40-mile Three and lodging prices rival those in major U.S. Mountain Lodge Capes Track starting in the fall of 2015. We cities, gas is roughly US$6 per gallon, and (below) hike Hauy, then visit the gut-wrenching the exchange rate is almost exactly equal. World Heritage prison site of Port Arthur. How to Get There: Fly Qantas from It looks like a Scottish castle grounds, with Los Angeles, which stops in Sydney or imposing sandstone facades surrounded by Melbourne. Round-trip flights between lush lawns and rosebushes. But it’s the home Melbourne and Hobart on Tigerair (tigerair of many past horrors, including the Separate .com), Virgin Australia (virginaustralia.com), Prison, a chamber of solitary confinement and Qantas (qantas.com.au) can be as in which convicts weren’t allowed to speak low as US$80. Tourist visas are required and were forced to wear masks. The goal was upon entering Australia; start the process to break down the mind as well as the body, early by visiting immi.gov.au/Visas. perhaps one of the reasons the freed prison When to Go: During Tasmania’s summer, ers would later fare so well in the wilderness. November to April. Temperatures range Offshore, though, things get more fun. from the sixties to the low nineties, but Knight sends me off on Rob Pennicott’s 46- be prepared for sun, snow, rain, sleet, and mile boat tour along the Tasman Peninsula. wind any time of year. Fifteen years ago, the 48-year-old entre What to Do: Water by Nature Tasmania preneur founded Pennicott Wilderness Jour offers trips on the Franklin River from Octo- neys, a tour company that offers thrill rides ber to April. The ten-day full river trip gives in 43-seat rigid inflatables that can bash you a sense of the vast wilderness. For through the Tasman Sea to reach otherwise Class V thrills, opt for the seven-day upper; unreachable stretches of the coastline. Be for fewer rapids, sign up for the five-day tween the 1,000-foot stands of dolerite and lower (from US$1,781; franklinrivertasmania the 20-foot ocean swells, the coastline looks .com). The Great Walks of Tasmania is a like an impenetrable prison fortress. But it’s consortium of private concessions that bed jam factory, has a waterfront bar, impossible not to laugh out loud as the boat offer guides and luxurious accommoda- and is within walking distance of almost gyrates among dolphins, white-bellied sea tions on four-to-nine-day hikes (greatwalks everything (from US$333; thehenryjones. eagles, albatross, a colony of seals, and a tasmania.com). To DIY, the Tasmania Parks com). Downtown, Hotel Collins (from breaching humpback whale. and Wildlife Service website has de tails US$122; hotelcollins.com.au) is just a few Almost everyone I meet in Tasmania has on national parks, hiking, and camping on blocks from the water and has views of conservation on his mind. “My dad worked trails like the Overland Track (parks.tas Mount Wellington. In Cradle Mountain– for hydro, which dammed a lot of Tasmania, .gov.au), and DiscoverTasmania.com lists Lake St. Clair National Park, Cradle Moun- but I believe we have to have balance,” Pen accommodations, driving itineraries, and tain Lodge has a spa and an impressive nicott, who donates 25 percent of his com events. Pennicott Wilderness Journeys’ wine cellar (from US$180; cradlemoun-
pany’s profits to local environmental causes rigid inflatable boats offer access to the tainlodge.com (2) each year, told me when I met him in Hobart Tasmanian coastline that is otherwise .au). If a splurge is in the budget, book resort before the boat ride. “Economic development impossible, like the 46-mile, three-hour a night at Saffire Freycinet, in Freycinet is important, but sustainability is everything.” Tasman Island Cruise (US$114; pennicott National Park (from US$1,654 all-inclusive, The fact that I didn’t contract giardia by journeys.com.au). Book a three-day trip with spa certificate; saffire-freycinet.com mountain
drinking from the Franklin River sends shivers with Rob Knight’s Bruny Island Long Week- .au). Or camp at nearby Honeymoon Bay e l of hope for Tasmania down my spine. Before end. Yacht-in, fly-out, and bunk in deluxe or Richardsons Beach (parks.tas.gov.au). crad my odyssey with Knight ends, he shows me platform tents (US$1,350 per person; bruny On the Tasman Peninsula, Stewarts Bay of the eastern edge of the Tasmanian Wilder islandlongweekend.com.au). Lodge is an idyllic setting to drop out for a ness World Heritage Area, the opposite side Where to Stay: In Hobart, the 56-room day or two, with one-to-three-bedroom cot-
to where the Franklin flows. We drive 90 min Henry Jones Art Hotel occupies a rehab tages in a eucalyptus forest (from US$137; courtesy
90 outside magazine