塔斯馬尼亞——美如伊甸的“惡魔”之島

當初記住了澳洲塔斯馬尼亞這個地名，是由于某電視臺的一檔飲食節(jié)目。這個充滿陽光與海灘，布滿新鮮美味海產(chǎn)的地方實在讓好吃惡勞的小編一見傾心！后來經(jīng)過一番資料搜集，發(fā)現(xiàn)這里更是一個“有故事”的地方，集“天使”與“魔鬼”的魅力于一身。身處中土的寒冬，澳洲的盛夏讓人向往，而塔斯馬尼亞的美著實不能忽略。

It is always wet on the west coast,” says my guide, Rosemary, drily. “Hence the rainforests.”

We are standing on Sarah Island, in Tasmanias Macquarie Harbour, as the wind whips the rain into a 1)frenzy. All around us are the overgrown ruins of the most feared penal colony in what Europeans used to call Van Diemens Land: the 2)solitary confinement cells, the administration buildings, the tannery, a bakehouse. This penal colony was for the worst offenders, 3)scourged and 4)dragooned into 5)logging and shipbuilding.

“The ‘new penitentiary was blown up in 1926 by a local mining engineer who wanted to 6)eradicate all traces of that dark period,” says Rosemary. “We werent even taught Tasmanian history at school—it was considered shameful.”

We drip back aboard the Lady Franklin and negotiate the notoriously narrow and 7)treacherous entry into Macquarie Harbour, which the convicts, for obvious reasons, dubbed Hells Gate. Then, from the drama of the Southern Ocean, we sail up through the Edenic serenity of the Gordon River. Today, 160-odd years after the end of transportation and the name change from Van Diemens Land to Tasmania, Sarah Island is part of a Wilderness World Heritage Area, and convict sites form one of Tasmanias biggest visitor attractions.

西岸這里常年潮濕，”我的導(dǎo)游露絲瑪麗干巴巴地說到。“于是便有了這些雨林?！?/p>

我們站在位于塔斯馬尼亞麥加利港的薩拉島上，雨絲在海風(fēng)的鞭打下狂舞。環(huán)繞我們周圍的是雜草叢生的遺跡，曾屬于一處令人相當恐懼的罪犯流放地，歐洲人稱之為“范迪門斯地”，包括：獨立的監(jiān)禁單間、行政大樓、皮革廠和一座面包烘房。該罪犯流放地是專為罪行最重的罪犯而設(shè)的，以鞭笞和各種殘酷的手段強迫他們?nèi)シツ驹齑?/p>

露絲瑪麗說：“‘新監(jiān)獄的稱謂是1926年由當?shù)匾幻傻V工程師提議的，目的是要根除掉黑暗時期的所有遺跡。過去，學(xué)校課程里根本就不會講到塔斯馬尼亞的歷史——被認為恥辱感太重了?！?/p>

我們慢慢地走回到富蘭克林夫人號上，小心翼翼地穿過那出了名險惡的狹窄入口，駛?cè)臌溂永?，那里被罪犯們封為“地獄之門”，原因顯而易見。接著，經(jīng)歷過南冰洋的喜怒無常，我們沿戈登河那伊甸園般的寧靜順流而上。流放的終結(jié)，“范迪門斯地”更名為“塔斯馬尼亞”，時至今日已過了一百六十余年，薩拉島亦成為了一個荒原世界遺產(chǎn)區(qū)的一部分，而這些罪惡遺址則成為了塔斯馬尼亞最大的旅游勝地之一。

Sarah Islands surroundings of impenetrable temperate rainforest, which made escape all but impossible, have—since protesters in 1982 blockaded the Gordon River to prevent a hydroelectric project that would have flooded this pristine region—become a 8)rallying point for ecologists. Grateful visitors flock to see the primeval forests of myrtle, sassafras and a 2,000-year-old Huon pine.

A scenic flight by seaplane is 9)de rigueur to appreciate the scale of the landscape—from the little fishing town of Strahan to the sweep of Macquarie Harbour, the immensity of the rainforest backdrop and the vast contortions of the rivers that carve through this landscape. Flying is also the only way to reach Sir John Falls, a magical spot where a limpid waterfall cascades into a pool tinged a vivid orange by the peaty ground, and dappled light filters through trees jacketed in brilliant moss.

We then 10)bid farewell to Strahan, and drive along country roads to Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, in the Central Highlands, for walks over button-grass plains and wildlife encounters, dining on marinated wallaby and sleeping in comfortable wooden cabins perched above gurgling creeks.

When not served up on a plate, wallabies hop trustingly through the undergrowth, while furry 11)wombats display 12)circumspection born of experience, and dash down burrows at human approach.

Tasmanian devils provide evening entertainment at a local sanctuary set up to safeguard these 13)endemic creatures from the facial tumour disease which is ravaging their numbers. A little devil called Windermere is summoned blinking to meet us, her apparently 14)cuddly 15)demeanour belying a 16)carnivorous bite force of 1,220lb—shown to good effect at feeding time with her screeching, squabbling siblings.

要逃離薩拉島幾乎是不可能的，因為島的周圍密布著無法穿越的溫帶雨林。自從1982年抗議者封鎖戈登河，阻止一個會引發(fā)水災(zāi)覆沒這片原始區(qū)域的水力發(fā)電項目后，這里便成了生態(tài)學(xué)家們的大本營。大批幸運的游客蜂擁而往，到這片原始森林來看桃金娘、黃樟，以及一棵已有兩千歲的水松。

只有在水上飛機上好好地欣賞整道風(fēng)景線才對得起這里的美景——從思特雅寒的小漁鎮(zhèn)到麥加利港的狂風(fēng)，從巨幕般廣闊無垠的雨林到雕刻在大地上眾多蜿蜒的河流。飛行也是唯一能接近約翰公爵瀑布的途徑，在這個美妙的地方，透明清澈的瀑布飛流而下落入透著鮮橙色泥潭底的水塘里，并在覆滿鮮艷苔蘚的樹上照出斑駁的光影。

告別了思特雅寒，我們沿著鄉(xiāng)村道路一直駛向位于中央高地的搖籃山圣克萊爾湖國家公園，到那里是為了在扣子草平原上漫步，與野生動物們邂逅，享用以鹵汁烹調(diào)的小袋鼠肉，并在筑于潺潺溪流上的舒適小木屋里睡美覺。

那些還沒被奉上餐盤的小袋鼠們會天真地在樹叢里跳來跳去，而毛茸茸的袋熊則表現(xiàn)得謹慎老練得多，一發(fā)現(xiàn)有人類靠近就立馬沖下來躲到洞穴里。

“塔斯馬尼亞惡魔”——袋獾因長期受著臉部癌癥的折磨而數(shù)量銳減，因此人們?yōu)楸Ｗo當?shù)鬲氂械纳锲贩N建立了本土避難所，而它們則在夜晚時分為大家提供娛樂。一只名叫溫德米爾的小“惡魔”聽到召喚后撲閃著小眼睛前來與我們相見，表面上她討人擁抱，舉止可愛，掩飾了那肉食本性的1220磅撕咬力——進食時伴隨的尖叫聲及同類的吵鬧聲，那獸性完全展露。

If the west coast of Tasmania was hell, the dry and sunny eastern shores were known to the convicts as paradise; the paradise of the Freycinet Peninsula, a projection into the Tasman Sea, named after a 19th-century French explorer who wrote of “picking up shells and chasing butterflies in an age of Revolution”. It seems an innocent enough pursuit, but the merest hint of French interest was enough to 17)spur the English into colonising Van Diemens Land.

A 18)rose-tinted vision of pink granite mountains, the peninsula is thickly wooded with dry 19)sclerophyll forests of 20)eucalyptus and 21)casuarina, fringed with white sandy coves and lapping turquoise waters. I spend three days walking its 22-mile length, through woods alive with birdsong and the screech of yellow-tailed black 22)cockatoos, over 23)terrain that Nick, our young guide, 24)euphemistically terms “undulating flat”, and which leaves me gasping for breath.