Dot and I are back home after a month on the road and, during that time, we travelled widely across the beautiful state of Tasmania and then roamed around the equally impressive region of the Kimberleys in Western Australia's far north-west. The latter is around 424,000 square km, which is much larger than the UK's land area of 242.5 square km by a factor of 1.75! Guess its resident population size. It's only 35,000, which means the Kimberleys are virtually empty of people. Tasmania is small - only 68,000.5 square km and its population is just a little over half a million. That's a population density of 7.5 per sq km compared with the UK's 248 people per sq km. So it, too, is comparatively empty.
Both domains are mountainous and have exquisite waterways amply supplied with waterfalls. Both are generally well-vegetated and have many different and sometimes exciting faunas, though their portfolios of species are very different. Those differences are fully explained by their respective latitudes: Hobart is almost 43 degrees south, not far off the 50 degrees of southwest England. On the other hand, Broome - the largest town in the Kimberleys - is under 18 degrees south and exquisitely tropical, while the region's top end is just 14 degrees south. Their climates therefore vary hugely. Tasmania is the coolest state in Australia, while the Kimberleys are amongst the continent's warmest parts. Remember that May is the equivalent of November in the northern hemisphere. How warm does the UK at that time of year? Well, the maximum is about 12 C (54 F), but during our 'end of Autumn' trip the daytime maxima varied between 29 C and 37 C (84 to 99 F), with most days nearer the hot end. Both states / regions are moderately wet, but have very different distributions of rainfall. Hobart averages about 626 mm (25 inches) while Tasmania's west coast, which we visited, receives 2400 mm (94 inches). That rainfall is distributed fairly evenly across the year. You'll gasp at the rainfall figure for Broome! It's average is not too different to Hobart, but in the summer of 2017-18 it has already had 1634 mm (c. 65 inches). Admittedly, there will be almost nothing in the rain gauge from now on - the dry season that all monsoonal regions experience.
During our stays in both Tasmania and Broome we had virtually no rainfall and masses of sunshine, which enhanced our experiences.
The Tasmanian odyssey was organised by Rebecca and involved not just ourselves but also grandson Max who was on school holidays. So the four of us travelled in a hire-car and stayed in pre-arranged accommodation, sometimes booked through Airbnb. I have to say that the Airbnb accommodation was very good - as indeed was the whole trip. Dot and I booked a formal tour through APT and everything was arranged in advance: accommodation, meals, the 4WD bus (seating 20), side trips, guides and so on. This was high-class and highly recommended. We had just 12 travelling companions and got on well with all of them. Our schedules, however, involved some weird hours since we frequently arose at 5 am for early breakfasts and departures to this or that attraction. Why? The answer is simple: walking on tracks and climbing rocks is best done before things get too hot!
Some final observations. Both trips entailed lots of sailing on boats, while we also flew in a helicopter, travelled on an historic steam railway, and - in my case - rode a camel. And my camera got a fantastic workout. I estimate that I took in the region of 1,200 photos! And those populate what is going to be a large number of posts in this blog over the next week or so. Please stay tuned.
AS
Both domains are mountainous and have exquisite waterways amply supplied with waterfalls. Both are generally well-vegetated and have many different and sometimes exciting faunas, though their portfolios of species are very different. Those differences are fully explained by their respective latitudes: Hobart is almost 43 degrees south, not far off the 50 degrees of southwest England. On the other hand, Broome - the largest town in the Kimberleys - is under 18 degrees south and exquisitely tropical, while the region's top end is just 14 degrees south. Their climates therefore vary hugely. Tasmania is the coolest state in Australia, while the Kimberleys are amongst the continent's warmest parts. Remember that May is the equivalent of November in the northern hemisphere. How warm does the UK at that time of year? Well, the maximum is about 12 C (54 F), but during our 'end of Autumn' trip the daytime maxima varied between 29 C and 37 C (84 to 99 F), with most days nearer the hot end. Both states / regions are moderately wet, but have very different distributions of rainfall. Hobart averages about 626 mm (25 inches) while Tasmania's west coast, which we visited, receives 2400 mm (94 inches). That rainfall is distributed fairly evenly across the year. You'll gasp at the rainfall figure for Broome! It's average is not too different to Hobart, but in the summer of 2017-18 it has already had 1634 mm (c. 65 inches). Admittedly, there will be almost nothing in the rain gauge from now on - the dry season that all monsoonal regions experience.
During our stays in both Tasmania and Broome we had virtually no rainfall and masses of sunshine, which enhanced our experiences.
The Tasmanian odyssey was organised by Rebecca and involved not just ourselves but also grandson Max who was on school holidays. So the four of us travelled in a hire-car and stayed in pre-arranged accommodation, sometimes booked through Airbnb. I have to say that the Airbnb accommodation was very good - as indeed was the whole trip. Dot and I booked a formal tour through APT and everything was arranged in advance: accommodation, meals, the 4WD bus (seating 20), side trips, guides and so on. This was high-class and highly recommended. We had just 12 travelling companions and got on well with all of them. Our schedules, however, involved some weird hours since we frequently arose at 5 am for early breakfasts and departures to this or that attraction. Why? The answer is simple: walking on tracks and climbing rocks is best done before things get too hot!
Some final observations. Both trips entailed lots of sailing on boats, while we also flew in a helicopter, travelled on an historic steam railway, and - in my case - rode a camel. And my camera got a fantastic workout. I estimate that I took in the region of 1,200 photos! And those populate what is going to be a large number of posts in this blog over the next week or so. Please stay tuned.
AS
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