How I Explored Tasmania’s Hidden Southern Coast by Catamaran

Standing atop a mountain, looking over Port Davey — an inlet of the Southern Ocean in southwestern Tasmania — Pete Marmion instructed me the quirky manner wherein he measures our bodies of water. 

“It goes milliliters, liters, Olympic swimming pools, after which Sydney Harbours,” joked Marmion, an area information with greater than three a long time of expertise exhibiting guests round Tasmania. “Port Davey is thrice the scale of Sydney Harbour.” 

Sydney Harbour is 12 miles lengthy and has a complete space of 21 sq. miles; it’s one of many largest pure harbors on this planet. From the highest of the mountain, watching a torrential rain pour into the water far beneath, I thought Marmion’s estimate appeared sound. 

Port Davey’s darkish, tannin-stained waters lie on the toes of historical quartzite mountains that look as in the event that they’ve been squished, layered, and stretched towards the horizon like taffy. Only a few hours earlier, I had zoomed over those self same peaks in a seaplane to Port Davey Marine Reserve, a virtually 69-square-mile parcel of primordial shoreline in Southwest Nationwide Park. It’s a part of a sprawling UNESCO Wilderness World Heritage Space that makes up almost 1 / 4 of the island. There I boarded my floating dwelling for the subsequent seven days, Odalisque III. 

With no roads, cities, or lodging apart from campsites, the reserve as soon as primarily attracted die-hard campers and boaters accustomed to arduous crusing circumstances. However now Odalisque III, a shiny 78-foot catamaran from On Board Tasmanian Expedition Cruises, is providing unmatched entry to this stunning and rugged nook of Australia’s deepest south, which sits some 1,600 miles north of Antarctica. Sailings run from December to Could, throughout which era the area’s unpredictable climate abates for lengthy sufficient to permit for comfy exploration. 

After dropping off our baggage and being greeted by our bare-bones crew — Marmion, in addition to a skipper, a number, and a chef — our group of eight hiked up Mount Beattie, the primary of many excursions in retailer for us that week. “I deliver artists right here and it’s like watching a canine wag its tail,” Marmion mentioned. A local Tasmanian, he wears many hats: information for On Board, in addition to conservationist and writer of Hidden Worlds, a set of photographs and tales from his a long time exploring southwestern Tasmania. 

Marmion can be an irrepressible optimist. Though we have been each soaked to the bone, he predicted the climate was about to interrupt. In a panorama that suffers no fools, “you want to have the ability to see the brilliant aspect,” Marmion instructed me. Positive sufficient, the rain stopped, and we started our descent again to the pier as a rainbow appeared above our heads. 

Earlier than it began raining once more, we ducked inside Claytons Nook, a former dwelling turned public shelter on the jetty that has served as a reprieve from the weather for the reason that Nineteen Sixties. Our skipper, On Board founder Pieter van der Woude, stunned the group with oysters, glowing wine, and a roaring fireplace within the brick fireside. In time, I might look again at this second, after we have been cozy across the flames, and notice that it encapsulated every thing about my seven-day journey: untamed landscapes have been persistently tempered by chic magnificence, and short-term discomforts have been rewarded with luxurious.

At first of every day, we’d set off from Odalisque III in aluminum dinghies to discover the world’s creeks, bays, and channels. (Itineraries are formed by climate circumstances, which means that no two sailings are precisely alike.) At some point we’d putter down winding creeks seeking elusive black swans; one other we’d lace up for a mountain hike or go to an deserted tin mine.

One other afternoon we motored the dinghies across the Breaksea Islands, a set of jagged outcrops and caverns that guard the uneven mouth of the marine reserve. The waves heaved beneath our small boat on their option to batter the cliffs, giving us a small but thrilling style of what these seas are able to.

After every journey, I used to be grateful for a sizzling bathe in my small however practical cabin. There was additionally time to unwind earlier than dinner, eaten communally and designed to showcase meals native to Tasmania, like deliciously gamy wallaby roast.

On some nights I picked up a ebook concerning the reserve from the small library and loved a historical past lesson with a mug of spiced sizzling chocolate. On others, I joined my fellow friends in Odalisque III ’s plush lounge to look at a documentary or play a board recreation. Both manner, I at all times retired to my cabin by 9 p.m., prepared for the mild rocking of the boat to lull me to sleep. (Every night time the catamaran motored to a different website throughout the reserve, so we may get up in a brand new location.) 

Our luxurious expertise was markedly totally different from that of the handful of people that, regardless of the extremely difficult local weather southwestern Tasmania is understood for, as soon as managed to eke out a residing on this area. One morning we cruised to the distant locality of Melaleuca. Whereas the place was inhabited as soon as, it’s now primarily deserted, although frequented by hikers, tour teams, and bird-watchers hoping to catch a glimpse of the endangered orange-bellied parrot. We walked the backyard paths the place the late legendary outdoorsman and environmentalist Deny King constructed a house and raised a household whereas mining tin from beneath the thick peat. King’s daughter Janet Fenton nonetheless tends to her father’s beloved patch of wilderness. Strolling previous vegetable gardens and toolsheds, we felt like we have been trespassing — a way that solely intensified after we rudely interrupted a wallaby grazing beside a clothesline. 

Close by, we wandered alongside the sting of Melaleuca Lagoon, exploring an Aboriginal interpretive stroll created by the Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife Service and the Tasmanian Aboriginal Land & Sea Council. The quick path passes devoted re-creations of domed huts and paperbark canoes, providing a glimpse of how the Indigenous Needwonnee individuals lived and cultivated the land. Following British settlement within the early 1800s, aggressive relocation insurance policies eliminated all Aboriginal individuals from southwestern Tasmania. The Needwonnee have been a part of an extended chain of people right here, a few of whom tried to work the land to totally different ends — together with for whaling, mining, or tourism — however Port Davey has at all times proved untamable. 

And but, a whole lot of species of wildlife, on land and throughout the waters of the reserve, stay on. On Board is striving to guard the nationwide park by supporting applications that eradicate pests and rescue birds of prey, such because the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle, which is now endangered due to the disturbance and lack of nesting websites. Marmion himself has spent 35 years as a volunteer working to revive orange-bellied parrot populations in Port Davey; it’s estimated that there are fewer than 100 of those birds within the space at present. 

On considered one of our last days, Marmion was telling me tales of previous adventures round Tasmania over lagers within the lounge on the higher deck. We watched as a brand new tempest began to make its manner down the mountains, an incidence that occurred a number of instances all through the journey. True to kind, he instructed me to “simply give it a minute.” Just a few moments later, as if on cue, the clouds broke. 

4- and six-night expeditions in Port Davey with On Board Tasmanian Expedition Cruises.

A model of this story first appeared within the February 2025 concern of Journey + Leisure beneath the headline “Deep South.”