One discovers the light in darkness, that is what darkness is for; but everything in our lives depends on how we bear the light. It is necessary, while in darkness, to know that there is a light somewhere, to know that in oneself, waiting to be found, there is a light.
A Brilliantly Detailed Map Of Medieval Trade Routes & Networks
This is Australia’s best road trip — and it’s not where you’d think
Tasmania is a magnificent place to drive, with smooth surfaces, superlative scenery and clear signs, all in English. Like all of Australia, on this island state 150 miles south of the mainland they drive on the left side of the road here. Yet, owing to a miscommunication, rather than have a car waiting for me for a self-drive experience, I was given a chauffeur for a multiday private tour. I tried to shrug it off. Sometimes things go wrong even for experienced travel writers, I told myself, though I wondered how this surprise change of plan would affect my first visit to the island.
I had flown to Hobart from Melbourne (you can fly here via other Australian cities) to see the little penguin, the smallest of the 18 penguin species, which is found in several sites along the Tasmanian coast. I also wanted to visit the town of Penguin on the north shore, but having travelled so far to reach this distant island state, it also made sense to explore more widely. I wasn’t driving and my time wouldn’t be my own, but considering my profound jet lag this didn’t seem too terrible an idea.
Having been whisked out of Hobart, I was driven to a salt farm just a few hours after landing. My brain felt like a lava lamp, globular and weird, time stretching and splitting, then reforming with a strange glow. Through the haze I learnt that Tasman sea salt is harvested from one of the cleanest oceans in the world, and comes in four flavours, all based on island botanicals. I sat through a salt sommelier class, but further details have been lost in my mushy head.
We continued up the east coast. A benefit of not driving soon revealed itself: I could drink. This was especially good news in Tasmania, which has a large and growing wine industry and arguably the best whisky in the southern hemisphere. On the second day my driver, Junaidi Sustantio, pulled us over at the Gala Estate winery, where I was soon sat in front of an array of Tasmanian wines, cold climate chardonnays and pinot noirs far better than I could have believed before trying them (tastings from £5; galaestate.com.au).
The serpentine roads passed through thin forests and sprawling pastoral land. Everywhere there were signs warning of the strange fauna found around Tasmania. One thing you should know about this island: the roadkill is extraordinary. There are warnings about running over everything from penguins to platypuses, from wallabies to wombats. Each morning an upsetting number of carcasses were strewn along the sides of the road, most of them unidentifiable to my novice eyes. I wondered if this was part of the reason I’d been given a driver — a visiting writer adding to the body count might give the wrong impression.