Couchsurfing in Tasmania

For the masses unfamiliar to the concept of couchsurfing, it consists of an online community, where you register, contact people from places you’re planning to visit, arranging to stay at their place for free, and most of all, meeting people and getting the best tips from the locals. Most of these are people with a great appeal for multicultural interaction and the travel bug. My DNA exactly.

Just before xmas I went to Tasmania. The least I can say is I have an attraction for remote places, and it doesn’t come much more remote than this. When I got there, the bus driver at the airport said: “welcome to paradise”. Oh God, here’s another pathetic over patriotic geeser, I thought. Little did I know…
On my first night in Hobart, I stayed with Gail and Jed, the dog! She told me there was another couchsurfer that night staying at her house. What she didn’t say was that it was a 70 year old American woman, travelling on her own, to do the 65km long world famous overland trek. Youth has no boundaries.

Tasmania was a great surprise. The coast is a dream, the inland a collection of incredible sceneries, lakes and valleys, and the people, a well spirited bunch! Images will speak more than any words, and still, fall short of the in loco experience.
On my last night, I couchsurfed with Ivo and his mother Iva, in Launceston. Besides a great welcome, we went to meet some friends having a bbq. No one could grasp the concept of Ivo and I meeting for the first time 2 hours before, but that home brewed bitter was totally spot on! Another great encounter.
I had the Alps and the Atacama desert as my top spots so far. Tasmania just joined that club.

Hobart at sunrise from Mt. Wellington

Wineglass Bay

Lake Dove and the Cradle Mountain