Pulau Tioman, Malaysia

For our first break this school year in October, we decided to explore more locally.  We hired a private driver from Singapore to the ferry terminal in Mersing, Malaysia, then took a 1.5 hour ferry ride to Pulau Tioman to enjoy some beach time and diving. 

 

We stayed at Tioman Dive Resort, in the ABC beach area.  There are no cars on this part of the island, but there is small paved walking/motorcycle path so we explored a few other nearby beaches as well.  

  

We took a fun tuk-tuk taxi ride and made friends with the driver's children.

The coral reef right off the island is in quite good shape, so we spent part of every day swimming and enjoying the reef.  Cata joined us and really enjoyed snorkeling, although she can't quite figure out the snorkel tube just yet. Her favorite were the baby Black Tip Reef Sharks we saw in the shallows.  We both also got to dive, which was exciting, as it had been over a year. 

Tassie Winter Break (infrequent blogging continued)

These photos go back not to our recent winter break, but the previous one over a year ago. We have been enjoying the occasional revisiting of our previous travel blogs and thought we might make another attempt to keep it going.

This trip started with a flight to Sydney, Australia, where we met Matt's parents and spent a few days before moving to Hobart, Tasmania.

Sydney was not the  part of Australia we were most interested in exploring, but as usual we enjoyed wandering around, eating, drinking and letting Cata destroy a small car.

While small for her age, her strength and wrath remain unprecedented.

We flew from Sydney to Hobart and took a car ferry to nearby Bruny Island. Bruny was quiet, peaceful, and turned out to be a great for exploring beaches, forest hikes, wildlife encounters, and eating oysters.

Australian animals are weird. The Bennett's Wallaby is quite common in Tasmania.

 We also spotted a "white wallaby" near our rental, apparently an albino variant of the same species that only exists on Bruny.

The island is also a hotspot for bird life, including this Superb fairywren (female left and male right).

We returned to Hobart. Hobart is a historic city originating as a penal colony and whaling port. It has some trendy shops, restaurants, and a great farmers market. Hobart also has industrial vibe and one can look south from the port and imagine the wild Southern Ocean between this southern most Australian city and Antarctica a few thousand miles to the South.

We explored the Botanical Garden, had a fancy Christmas dinner, and visited the modern art museum. This museum has an incredible eclectic collection, including a machine that digests food and poops. 

In Hobart, we picked up a pair of camper vans and headed for the central highlands to enjoy some time  "camping" in the Tasmanian country side and to do some fly fishing.

While the fishing proved to be quite challenging with only a few trout caught in multiple attempts, the wild areas of Tasmania were a joy to explore. We found some gorgeous camping spots and had some time to hang out around the campfire.

We also had some interesting wildlife sightings. The echidna was one of our favorites. Although quite slow moving, we failed to photograph one. We also spotted possum, bandicoot, wombats, and a platypus.

We moved from the central highlands to the East Coast to visit Freycinet National Park and Maria Island.

Foggy day at Freycinet National Park

We went for a nice walk across part of Maria Island. The beach and grassland were fun to explore. We saw a number of birds not previously spotted and also looked for wallabies, kangaroos, and wombats.

Above Cata and Larry seek out the elusive wombat (there was actually one in the hollow log). 

Maria Island has no current permanent residents. Many people come in the summer to hike, camp and explore the abandoned settlements. The visitor center is housed in an old building that was once part of a convict settlement. 

We tried a delicious "Fume Blanco" Sav Blanc at Puddleduck Vineyard that we're still dreaming about. We also loved Pooley Wines.

We spent the last few days our trip exploring the Tasman Peninsula, doing some wine tasting and visiting the World Heritage site Port Arthur, another fascinating part of Australia's convict past. 

It was established in 1830 and housed some of the more serious criminals; due to its remote location, it was not an easy place to escape from.   

We found our last camp spot exploring the Fortescue Peninsula. 

The sun was out and the water was blue. It felt like our trip had turned into a tropical beach vacation.

Laughing Kookaberra at Fortescue Bay

We visited an "Un Zoo" which was essentially an old farm repurposed to attract the wild Australian animals in the area.

The "Un Zoo" did have a Tasmanian devil and it was definitely in an enclosure. 

Other Tasmanian Critters:

Black Swan

Opossum

New Holland Honeyeater

Bandicoot

Galah

Pacific Gull

Pied Oystercatcher

Hooded Plover

Brush Bronzewing

White-fronted Chat