Headed West....and north.

This past weekend Leanne and I decided to do some more exploring so we loaded up the van and drove up along the Northwest coast of Tasmania. Leanne had read about a place called The nut in a tourist guide that looked interesting, the tulip farms were supposed to be in season, and it was a bit too hot to be trying any of my climbing projects anyway. So off we went.

The North coast of Tasmania is separated from the mainland of Australia by about 270 miles of ocean called the Bass Straight. Although I’m sure the swells can get substantial at times, I think it’s generally calmer than what roles up on the west or south of the island and on this occasion the sea was definitely very tranquil. Like the rest of the coastline we’ve seen, it’s generally quite rocky with the occasional sandy beach thrown in.

The rolling hills that rise up from the north coast have quite rich soil and pastureland that has resulted in the areas prevalent dairy and tulip farms. The high-nutrient soil and cool climate are apparently what you need to grow tulips, and for around a month or so at this time of year the tulip farms are in full bloom.

After the tulip farms, we continued on to a rock formation that is known as ‘the nut’ which is a volcanic plug the rises from the tip of a peninsula and provides excellent views of the surrounding coast and sea.

From the nut we continued on to the west coast of the very northwest tip of the island to eat dinner and watch the sunset (sorry no pictures). We then drove back to a place near Rock Cape National Park on the North coast to do some rock climbing the next day. When we woke up we found that the weather had turned cloudy and windy, but it was still a nice place to wake up.

The rock was a bit slick, as the already slippery water polished quartzite had acquired a bit of sea spray, but we still were able to some nice climbs. I don’t have pictures of as it was just the two of us (somebody’s gotta belay the climber), but one of these days we’ll go climbing with some other people and take some photos. Till then-