Open spaces - Tasmania's priceless asset

There is no greater contrast than that between Tasmania and the global tourist magnets like Venice, Dubrovnic and Santorini. If you hate crowded places and massed humanity then Tassie is the place for you.

Tassie is mostly green, clean and pristine open spaces. Half the state is tree-covered wilderness and national parks, the other half is mostly farming country. Loggers, miners and dam builders have been doing their damndest over the decades but have mostly, but not completely failed to fuck up the Tassie environment.

The only thing standing between a Tasmanian-latitude, coast-to-coast uninterrupted global circumnavigation across 3 oceans is Argentina & Chile far to the west and New Zealand to the east; the Roaring Forties slamming into the west coast after building up speed across 11,000 kms of lonely southern Atlantic and Indian oceans. And Antarctica is the next stop should you head south.

All of that makes Tassie sound chilly and windy and damp. But Hobart is on a latitude similar to Rome's. It is closer to the equator than it is to the South Pole; it is closer to the equator than most of Europe, and all of Canada and Russia. I don't care what the meteorological records say, it still gets frikkin' cold, particularly in a wind, and the west coast is constantly wet. We experienced glorious sunny times and freezing, wet times - often at the same places on the same days. That's not a whinge, it's just an observation; Mother Nature seems to be more routinely in-your-face in Tassie.



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