Tasmanian challenge

You don’t have to take part in a gruelling charity event to explore this beautiful island

While the bushfires which devastated parts of the state earlier this year may have brought Tasmania to our attention, the island has been a destination on the British radar ever since being established as a penal colony in the 19th century.

Now attracting international visitors for an altogether different form of punishment, “Tassie” is home to the annual Mark Webber Tasmania Challenge, named after the Australian Formula 1 driver who set it up to test individuals to their limits, and to raise money for charity.

There were enough wallabies to remind us this was australia

A gruelling race across some of the most dramatic scenery the country has to offer, the event, held every December, welcomes teams from Europe and Asia as well as Australia and New Zealand.

After steeling myself for a week of running, cycling and kayaking, however, I arrived in the city of Launceston in the north of the island to the happy discovery that my planned itinerary and that of the 230-mile event would diverge enough to allow for a rather more sedate stay.

Tasmania’s second largest city with a population of 68,000, Launceston was my base for the beginning of the challenge, which would see competitors dash across the city before whitewater rafting down the stunning Cataract Gorge.

Arriving a day before the start of the event on a turbulent flight from Melbourne, my one-hour crossing of the Bass Strait marked the end of an epic air journey which saw me leave Glasgow around 24 hours earlier.

Sitting at the confluence of the North and South Esk rivers, Launceston began to be developed in the early 19th century, and retains many of its pretty Victorian and Georgian buildings today.

After a quick coffee at a cafe in town, my guide Rob and I headed for Barnbougle Dunes, one of Australia’s top public-access golf courses.

Based on a Scottish links course – its originator had the idea while working as a caddie at the Old Course in St Andrews – Barnbougle sits on a gorgeous strip of coast, with some fantastic holes. Despite its similarities to a Scottish course, there were enough wallabies, blue-tongued lizards and patches of “snakey”–looking rough to remind us this was Australia and not Fife.

Opened in 2004, Barnbougle has since been joined by a second course, the Lost Farm. Following a quick nine holes in the morning and a lunch at a nearby winery, it was time to meet up with the Webber Challenge at Country Club Tasmania in Launceston. After the relaxed surroundings of Barnbougle, the sight of super-fit competitors lining up their kayaks and preparing their mountain bikes for action came as a bit of a shock.

The challenge, which has grown in popularity since its inaugural outing in 2003, sees competitors run, cycle and paddle across the island.

While journalists from other newspapers had competed in previous years, I was delighted to learn that mine would be more of a watching brief, allowing me to break off from the 5am starts and race meetings to explore what else the island has to offer.

Roughly the same size as Ireland or Sri Lanka, the entire population of Tasmania is just 500,000, making it one of the most sparsely populated places on earth. And while much of the scenery, not to mention place names, will remind Scots of home, the empty beaches of the Freycinet peninsula are like nothing which can be found in the UK.

Webber, who finished sixth in the 2012 F1 season, has become one of Tasmania’s biggest fans after deciding more or less on a whim to use the state as the challenge’s home.

“We were brainstorming back in the UK one night about where we would hold the challenge,” he said. “It needed to be somewhere remote, and it needed to be somewhere rugged. It was a nobrainer. I had raced here in 1994, but I had no affinity with the place back then.

“For people back in the UK, it’s maybe not what they expect of Australia. It’s a beautiful place, but it’s not the Outback.”

Such is his commitment to the event,