TRAVEL
PAMELA WADE HAS A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH THE AUSSIE WILDLIFE ON MARIA ISLAND
They were right about the wildlife. “Teeming”, they promised. “And so laid-back!” So, on day two of our four-day walk along the length of Maria Island, a National Park sanctuary up the coast from Hobart in Tasmania, we shouldn’t really have been astonished when a wombat trundled right up to us and sniffed guide Sharna’s boot.
We were less delighted when a tiger snake crossed the road ahead of us. They are highly venomous, so it was just as well
Sharna spotted it, looking just like a fallen stick, as we approached. From a respectful distance, we watched it slither slowly into the grass, before continuing our walk.
You can get to Maria Island independently, but one of the many excellent things about coming with Maria Island Walk is that those of us nervous about Australia’s less cuddly creatures are spared close encounters.
“You should have seen the size of the huntsman spiders I got out of your tents!” joked – or possibly boasted – Danny, once we’d reached Bernacchi House for our last night.
He was our other guide, and had welcomed us back from our first walk, to the southern end of the island, with a classy picnic laid out on a table on the beach.
It was an encouraging beginning, catering-wise: beer, wine, smoked mussels, cheddar and a delicious soft blue cheese, all local. We ate, watched by a nearby wallaby, as the crystalclear turquoise sea lapped onto the dazzling white sand that squeaked beneath our feet.
We were standing on the narrow isthmus, just 150m wide, that links the two halves of Maria Island. On the map, it looks as though it might snap in half at any moment, but it’s been here for ever, and the rocks prove it. The Fossil Cliffs at the northern end of the island are crammed with shells that date back to Gondwana, about 290 million years ago.
Even more impressive are the hexagonal dolerite columns that make up the Bishop and Clerk peaks we climbed on day three. From below, they are dark spikes rising from the surrounding woodland, reaching 599m. Starting at beach level, we climbed every centimetre to that height, over wombatnibbled lawns, through the gum trees and up a rocky section of scree, culminating with a scramble up the final steep boulders to the summit.
The views were worth every panting breath. Sea, sky, islands and coast: they are
simple words that sum up truly magnificent sights.
Maria Island isn’t just about the scenery, though, or even the wildlife which, as well as lots of birds, includes kangaroos, echidna, cute little pademelons and nocturnal Tasmanian devils, which are endangered due to disease on the mainland.
There is human history too. Some of it is dark: there were convicts here, and many buildings from those days remain in such good condition that it’s now a World
Heritage site. There was also whaling, and a scattering of bones lies near the jetty at the little settlement of Darlington.
At the other end of the scale was the Italian entrepreneur Diego
Bernacchi who, in 1884, experimented with products as diverse as silk, wine and cement.
The glory days when the population boomed to 250 are long gone. Now people like us come to enjoy the peace and natural beauty, and luxuriate in the company’s admirably sustainable glamping camp sites that sit lightly on the island.
Over long and delicious dinners, we heard stories and told our own, laughed and yawned, and then followed winding boardwalks through the trees and bracken to our comfy – and huntsman spider-free – tents, to snuggle down for a well-earned sleep.