Flinders Island
I'm home after 6 days on Flinders. Here's a bit of a rundown:
Day 1: Seth, Alex and Tim picked me up a smidgen after 5am and we drove up to Lonnie to catch the 8am flight to Flinders. We flew on a 12-seat Cessna.
Having arrived on the island, John picked us up and took us back to his place where Owen and Andrew were finishing breakfast. We decided to hit the golf course and consequently spent the next few hours scrambling through thick bush. Our group of 7 zigzagged our way across the course finding lots of balls and losing almost as many.
That afternoon/evening we went out to Trousers Point and hit the water with snorkelling gear. Lack of weight belt made things a wee bit difficult. There weren't actually many good eating fish about - wrasse, banded morwong and the odd boarfish (boarfish are illegal to spear but taste good). But it was, nonetheless good to hit the water.
Andrew is a cooking genius and was heavily responsible for the bbq that we enjoyed that evening.
Day 2: We scaled Mt Strzelecki. It's about 750m high and we started at about 20m elevation. So quite a solid climb. I managed to conquer it in 65mins, a feat I was quite chuffed with. And the views were grand, overlooking the Furneax group, as well as giving us a view all the way to the Tasmanian mainland, some 20km away.
Again, that afternoon, we hit the water for a snorkel.
Day 3: It was a Sunday, so very few things were open. We had to go to the next town to find an open shop - where they charged us some $6 for a red capsicum... That afternoon we headed to a different beach/dive spot. This time the place was crawling with leatherjacket. Leatherjacket a good eating, but not great. Either way I speared a few of them and we managed to find a couple of size abalone.
Day 4: This was the highlight of the trip: a boat charter where we stopped at a couple of dive spots and did a spot of fishing and it coincided with New Year's Eve, so we had a seafood banquet followed by a few other shenanigans.
The first dive stop was at a ship wreck. Lots of chunky ship paraphernalia lay strewn through the water and on the rocks. Again, there were leatherjacket aplenty. The guy who took us out went down with SCUBA gear and picked up the biggest cray I've ever seen. The carapace was over 20cm long. You needed two hands to pick it up. The second dive spot was the place for abalone - we picked up 8 of them and there were plenty more to be had if we wanted them. We stopped for a fish and landed a some very nice size flathead. The flathead on Flinders are massive.
That evening we cooked up the seafood and feasted. John had the idea of replicating one of his science pracs after dinner: making Coke bottle rockets. A couple of minutes after midnight we had the rocket ready, complete with a bicycle flashlight and parachute. We gave it a couple of successful launches before settling down to watch the lightning storm as it approached. We lay on the grass for some time before we noticed some heavy water droplets falling on us occasionally. Quarter of an hour later, tucked up in bed, the heavens exploded releasing a phenomenal amount of water.
Day 5: We took out the coke bottle rocket, and rather than sending up flash light and torch, we sent up eggs - sending them about 40 - 50m into the air. Then the tennis ball got launched. Based on s=ut+0.5at^2, we calculated a height of about 60m, having allowed a bit for air resistance. Not a bad effort for a bit of compressed air and water.
That afternoon we went to the beach and attempted to play beach cricket. It was going swimmingly until the tide began to come in and engulf the pitch. Our tennis balls split as well, which didn't help our cause...
Day 6: The final day. We went up another mountain - a solid 45min climb up rather steep, rocky terrain. We came across a lovely big echidna and a not so lovely black snake - probably a tiger snake. There were so many flies at the top, but much to my relief, they seemed to congregate around people other than me. There were a few skinks and there are a fair few blue tongues over there too.
We managed to get ourselves packed up in time for the 5pm flight... quite happy with that effort.
Day 1: Seth, Alex and Tim picked me up a smidgen after 5am and we drove up to Lonnie to catch the 8am flight to Flinders. We flew on a 12-seat Cessna.
Having arrived on the island, John picked us up and took us back to his place where Owen and Andrew were finishing breakfast. We decided to hit the golf course and consequently spent the next few hours scrambling through thick bush. Our group of 7 zigzagged our way across the course finding lots of balls and losing almost as many.
That afternoon/evening we went out to Trousers Point and hit the water with snorkelling gear. Lack of weight belt made things a wee bit difficult. There weren't actually many good eating fish about - wrasse, banded morwong and the odd boarfish (boarfish are illegal to spear but taste good). But it was, nonetheless good to hit the water.
Andrew is a cooking genius and was heavily responsible for the bbq that we enjoyed that evening.
Day 2: We scaled Mt Strzelecki. It's about 750m high and we started at about 20m elevation. So quite a solid climb. I managed to conquer it in 65mins, a feat I was quite chuffed with. And the views were grand, overlooking the Furneax group, as well as giving us a view all the way to the Tasmanian mainland, some 20km away.
Again, that afternoon, we hit the water for a snorkel.
Day 3: It was a Sunday, so very few things were open. We had to go to the next town to find an open shop - where they charged us some $6 for a red capsicum... That afternoon we headed to a different beach/dive spot. This time the place was crawling with leatherjacket. Leatherjacket a good eating, but not great. Either way I speared a few of them and we managed to find a couple of size abalone.
Day 4: This was the highlight of the trip: a boat charter where we stopped at a couple of dive spots and did a spot of fishing and it coincided with New Year's Eve, so we had a seafood banquet followed by a few other shenanigans.
The first dive stop was at a ship wreck. Lots of chunky ship paraphernalia lay strewn through the water and on the rocks. Again, there were leatherjacket aplenty. The guy who took us out went down with SCUBA gear and picked up the biggest cray I've ever seen. The carapace was over 20cm long. You needed two hands to pick it up. The second dive spot was the place for abalone - we picked up 8 of them and there were plenty more to be had if we wanted them. We stopped for a fish and landed a some very nice size flathead. The flathead on Flinders are massive.
That evening we cooked up the seafood and feasted. John had the idea of replicating one of his science pracs after dinner: making Coke bottle rockets. A couple of minutes after midnight we had the rocket ready, complete with a bicycle flashlight and parachute. We gave it a couple of successful launches before settling down to watch the lightning storm as it approached. We lay on the grass for some time before we noticed some heavy water droplets falling on us occasionally. Quarter of an hour later, tucked up in bed, the heavens exploded releasing a phenomenal amount of water.
Day 5: We took out the coke bottle rocket, and rather than sending up flash light and torch, we sent up eggs - sending them about 40 - 50m into the air. Then the tennis ball got launched. Based on s=ut+0.5at^2, we calculated a height of about 60m, having allowed a bit for air resistance. Not a bad effort for a bit of compressed air and water.
That afternoon we went to the beach and attempted to play beach cricket. It was going swimmingly until the tide began to come in and engulf the pitch. Our tennis balls split as well, which didn't help our cause...
Day 6: The final day. We went up another mountain - a solid 45min climb up rather steep, rocky terrain. We came across a lovely big echidna and a not so lovely black snake - probably a tiger snake. There were so many flies at the top, but much to my relief, they seemed to congregate around people other than me. There were a few skinks and there are a fair few blue tongues over there too.
We managed to get ourselves packed up in time for the 5pm flight... quite happy with that effort.
posted by BSJ-rom at 10:30 am
6 Comments:
Sounds like you had a great adventure around Flinders: fishing, snorkelling hiking, good food, beach cricket, some wildlife... who needs the tropics?
Did I mention it was mid-thirties on the day we scaled Strzelecki?
That sounds phenomenally fun. I'm jealous. Was it a holiday? Do you know people on Flinders? I used to live on King Island and we went to Flinders Island. I have a pic of my family on a cliff top with Mt Strzelecki in the background! It's very Freycinet-like I reckon. Hey that part when it rained must have been cool. It's always fun camping in a tent in the rain. All those fish are all the same ones you find down on the peninsula. Didn't know you dived either.. have you been diving in Waterfall Bay and Cathedral Caves on the Tasman Peninsula? One of the top 10 dive spots in Australia! And we have wrecks down there too.
John Schuringa was working there as a science teacher for term three, so we were afforded the luxury of staying in the teacher accomodation that he has until a few days time. He's actually got a job on King Island for next year. They say it's a bit windier over there. Either way, King Island holiday is beckoning.
I've never actually dived on the Tasman Peninsula - I imagine that it would be mainly ideal for SCUBA rather than snorkel. You'll have to send me a brochure. (Do you do snorkelling tours?) I saw seahorses over the weekend too. Just around in North West Bay.
I agree with you, it's very "Freycinet" over there. Particularly Strzelecki.
Mostly SCUBA yeah. There are a few bays (like in Fortescue Bay) where you can snorkel around a wreck or in the kelp forest. There's a wreck off Cape Pillar in 46m of water, but you have to have a deep diving certificate or something. I would never go diving. How scary.. one word: sharks.
King Island is very rural and much like the north-west, for example Smithton or Wynyard. Very very windy too, and lots of snakes. And wild turkeys. But there is a very cool lighthouse. I can't remember much as you can see!! I'd like to go back there though.
Yeah, going to have to try Fortescue Bay sometime. The sharks, well, depends what kind they are, can be scary, but they're mainly little gummy or reef sharks around where I dive. It's the skates that are freaky - they're two or three metres wide and they stalk you. You feel very Steve Irwin...
I saw plenty of snakes on Flinders, so they're always fun and games. Not a fan of the snake.
I was surprised: we didn't have heaps of wind on Flinders. I expect King would be a fair bit windier. In fact, the two little wind turbines were actually at a standstill a couple of times.
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