People choose their travel destinations for a complicated set of reasons -- some pragmatic and some highly personal.
The existence of The Devil's Playground and Tourism Tasmania's the sponsorship of me as a participant in their Visiting Journalist Programme were two of my pragmatic reasons.
The kind assistance of some competent Tasmanians moved them from the "pragmatic" to the "personal" category.
As I got to know travel educator, Sally Wise, and her two students, Olivia Dewhurst and Kate Peters, I learned more and more about the beauty and ammenities available in Tasmania for travelers with disabilities. They have done their homework!
Martin Buggy, publicist for The Devil's Playground, seems to have sensed my weakness from the beginning. He opened up so any more opportunities in Tassie than I could possibly follow through on during this short visit. He has succeeded in selling me on a return visit -- maybe more than one!
Kerry, Jane, and Cherie at The Devil's Playground have also been most accommodating and gone out of their way with hospitality.
But, as someone raised in the Pacific Northwest, I know a special eco-system when I come across one. And in Tasmania there exist certain microclimates where native lily species from Washington and Oregon thrive. I've traveled halfway around the world to find a little bit of home. A personal reason for the trip.
It's a bit deceptive seeing nativized daffodils along the road, tulip farms, bare apple and pear trees -- and the Spotting black Swans, Native Hens, or Playpus We spent about an hour watching four near Beauty Point on the Tamar River yesterday.
Tomorrow we'll move into Tasmanian Devil country as we travel up to Cradle Mountain. As insruance that we'll actually see some of these noctural critters we will be stopping in on a captive collection along the way.
Tonight we'll stay in Tullah. This is a largely depopulated company town formed to serve a hydroelectric project in rainy (rainforested) Western Tasmania.
Posted by rollingrains at September 14, 2004 12:31 AM | TrackBack