Part II – Tasman Seascapes

Touring Tasmania in a van was an unforgettable experience, and it deepened my eagerness to explore. Tassie is filled with natural beauties, and the diversity of landscapes you’ll encounter is staggering. One of the most prevalent type of landscapes on the island is, you guessed it: seascapes.

This is the third article of the Tasmania Series. Check out the other parts:

From Living in Paris to Touring Tasmania in a Van

Part I – Discovering a Tasman Jewel: Cradle Mountain

One of the many advantages granted by travelling in a van is the absolute freedom you get. Instead of getting pinned down in one place, we were freely roaming the roads, soaking in as many experiences as we could.

As we began our journey around Tasmania, we were greeted by terrible weather.

For the first two days, we didn’t have the van yet, as it wasn’t available at the time; we were instead in two rather small cars, and let me tell you living in your car, for 2 days, with 3 other guys, is not the most comfortable setting you could think of.

Add to that heavy rain, muddy puddles instead of tracks, and you start to get a feel of what the situation looked like.

The upside of this situation is that it created a unique mood, and let us experience Tasmania in a different way. Trying to always see the bright side of the picture is one of the main life philosophy I’m trying to live by. Even when everything goes wrong, I stop for a minute and ask myself: “What can I learn from this?”

“Every situation, every moment has its ups and downs. If you choose to focus on the good, you’ll start enjoying the instant a lot more.

You will be able to benefit from any positive or negative experiences. The choice is yours to make.“

We first went to Maingon Bay, on the recommandations of a local we met on the road.

It’s an awesome location for surfing, with great waves, so if you have a surfboard or just want to watch surfers, it’s definitely the place for you. If you go there at low tide, you can go down a set of wooden stairs to the beach, and you’ll find The Remarkable Cave, which is an opening in the mountain from the beach to the sea.

Pretty uncommon sight, I really recommend it if you have time (sadly didn’t have my camera with me when I went down there, sorry!).

The other time we had an overcast weather during the trip was when we were in Stanley, known mostly because it is located at the base of The Nut, an old volcanic plug.

You can take a chairlift to the top, but it will cost you $16 per person. We walked instead, but we were not expecting such a steep hike! Worry not, for there are benches every 100 meters (328 feet). I tried climbing in the chairlift to take a picture, but was just a tad too low to reach it. Oh well.

On top of the Nut, there are several viewpoints, offering you a quite impressive 360° view of the area. The middle of the plateau is a forest, where you can see dozen of wild wallabies.

I’m not sure whether it happens all year or not, but when I was there, we were literally covered in sand flies. If you don’t know what a sand fly is, it’s basically a mosquito genetically modified by Satan himself. It makes you wish it was only a mosquito.

To prevent getting bitten and sucked to death, dress yourself up entirely, and wear light-colored clothes. You can also use the inside of a banana peel, just rub it on your hands and other exposed body parts.

The foul weather we had on that day made for some crazy view of the bay, with waves thundering as they crashed on the shore.

The first seascape we got to enjoy with a fully sunny view was from Cape Raoul; we started the hike first thing in the morning, and walked through a dense forest for the first part of the walk, thus not having any idea what the weather would look like later on.

When we got out in the open, we were thrilled to find the sun was shining bright (and the heat was on, too!).

One of the next seascape highlights was the “Bay Of Fires”. What do you think of when you read that name?

Well, this place located on the northeastern coast of Tasmania gets its name from the fiery colors of the beach and the many rocks laying along the shore (thanks Sherlock).

I’ll let the pictures explain.

The island state is also home to many beautiful and deserted beaches. You don’t need to fight with 2,000 other sea addicts just to find a towel space; in fact, we were really often the only ones on the whole beach, except for the occasional adventurous kangaroo jumping in the warm sand.

The last part of our trip was something different all together; we drove miles without meeting a single soul, passing through small abandonned villages, and finally reached the end of the road after driving through Strathgordon. The road literally stopped there, on the edge of a cliff.

“Why would you drive all the way over there?”, you ask. To see the Gordon Dam. We spent the night out there, enjoying the view at both dusk and dawn, and made our way back to Hobart in the morning to catch our plane back to Sydney, Australia.

Touring Tasmania in a van for 2 weeks was really a one of a kind experience. You learn to live with only what you truly need, and you find pleasure in the simplest things, such as enjoying a warm shower or drinking ice cold water after an exhausting day.

We were living only with the bare minimum, exploring and going on outdoors adventures all day. This kind of trip really does put your life in perspective, and with seeing all that nature has to offer, you only want to keep seeing more.

While I know spending your whole life living this way can be far-stretched for some, I strongly encourage you to embark on epic wild journeys at least once a year.

Crafting the Mood – Editing

When shooting on location, I’m shooting RAW. This means the file has more data, allowing you to edit the picture afterward with much more depth. However, it also means the pictures don’t look that good straight out of the camera.
To me, the edit is as important as taking the shot. That’s when I’m really creating the mood for my images, and deciding what emotions I want to create for the viewers.

You can see below the before/after of the pictures (tap on the pictures to see the before/after)

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