After another cold night, I continued my journey an hour and a half south to the small fishing town of Triabunna. I parked and cooked breakfast (eggs) as I waited to board a ferry to Maria Island. The island, a former convict settlement turned town turned National Park, is Triabunna’s main and just about only attraction. The ferry operators say it really helps boost the town economy. They were very happy we came in the winter as well, because it is generally slow. If you ever visit Tasmania, go in the winter. I think I have already listed multiple reasons why. The ferry left at 10:30 and it was smooth sailing for a half-hour until we reached Maria.
At Maria, you have the option to stay for only one day (last ferry leaves at 3:30 in winter, first leaves to Maria at 10:30) or you can stay for multiple days. Maria is a pretty big island so if you stay and camp for multiple days, you can really explore the interior and the rest of the island. Since I was only there for the day, I stayed in the convict/Darlington town area. Nevertheless, there is almost no one on the island (about 10 or 15 of us)- and it is a huge island. It was really cool that you had the island to yourself and you could do what you want. There were plenty of old ruins to explore and wombats, wallabies, and these neon-green beaked geese were everywhere and you could get up close to them. I also did a hike to these brightly colored cliffs called the Painted Cliffs. You have to go in the time span of two hours as you have to go during low tide or else it becomes hard to reach. I hung around the area for a while exploring the cliffs and the surrounding tidepools. I then found a way up to the top and had lunch while sitting at the edge of the cliffs. When I was younger, I had a deathly fear of heights; a few years ago I could never have imagined doing that.
In the morning and late afternoon, it was cloudy and chilly, but during most of my time on the island, it was 60 degrees and sunny, and absolutely beautiful afternoon. After those cliffs, I made my way back to the town area via a fairytale-like wooded path. It didn’t take long either- about 30 minutes. From there, I went the opposite direction of where I was just at to Fossil Cliffs.
Fossil Cliffs was another shortish walk, but longer than painted cliffs, through grasslands. Along the way, I encountered more ruins, wombats, wallabies, and geese. After about 45 minutes of hiking, I found myself at the edge of the cliffs. While the painted cliffs were about 10-15 feet high, The Fossil Cliffs were 300 feet high. At one point, there is a way to go down some of the cliffs. The cliffs are named so because, you guessed it, there are fossils everywhere. In the area where you go down, the rocks and cliff faces are just embedded with all kinds of ancient sea-life fossils from hundreds of millions of years ago. Neat. After checking this out, I made my way back to the town area. Along the way, however, I found a nice barn filled with old farm tools. It was also Thucydides and write in this until it was time for the ferry to take us back. So I did that for an hour and a half before the ferry took me back at 3:30.
Once I got back, there was a food shack right next to where I parked my van that cooked up freshly caught fish. For the $12, I bought the “tackle box”, which turned out to be a cone of fried seafood goodness. Literally just what I needed. I ate that as I drove an hour south to a tiny town called Dunalley. There was this place called the Dunalley Hotel ( it was more bar than a hotel) which allowed campers and caravaners to stay in a nearby field for free. So that’s where I stayed for the night. It should also be known that Dunalley is where the Tasman Peninsula in southeastern Tassie connects to mainland Tasmania.