A Hot Time in Tasmania

Australia has been in the grip of a truly nasty heat wave this week. “Aaaargh,” go the southerners, “Hooray!” go the climate change fanatics and “on holidays” goes Garry.

I was heading to Tassie, which would normally be a location for jumpers, sachets of pre-mix hot chocolate and a good book or two. But this time, in the wake of the hottest day Hobart had ever had, I was pumped and ready for a super southern summer holiday.

It was thirteen degrees when I got off the plane in Launceston. Tasmania can’t even get a bloody heat wave right.

Before my grandmother died, my family used to spend a lot of time on the North coast of Tassie. I remember it fondly as a great place to walk around aimlessly in the cool weather, eat lunch and read books. But this time we weren’t here for Christmas in my grandmother’s unit on the North West coast. We were here for my uncle’s wedding in Scamander on the east side.

Those East side Tasmanians are a different bunch. They come across as the quiet, rural type, but beneath the half asleep exterior lurks the beating heart of an angry Thylacine. That feisty little Tasmanian Tiger is also half asleep, and extinct to go with it, but that’s not the point. The point is…

…

The wedding was at two o’clock in the function room at the Scamander Social Club. At 1:30 in the afternoon they opened the bar, which promised to make for an interesting afternoon. Just after two o’clock my auntie-to-be arrived on a golf cart and walked into the hall to the rousing cheers of the rest of the assembled guests, which was basically everyone in town.

My ordained Anglican priest of a great aunt performed a suitably short ceremony, and then it was back to the drinking and photo taking and drinking and barbequing and drinking and I think there was a band at some point and drinking. In traditional Tassie style we all ate and drank enough to get us through two weeks and took three plates of left overs home each to go with it.

I only had a couple of days in Tassie. The day after the wedding the fine weather gave up and it came over all cloudy and rainy, so we stayed inside and watched the cricket. But overall I was impressed with Scamander. It was everything a sleepy little fishing village should be.

If only I liked fishing.



Garry with 2 Rs