Australians with a yen for Nordic-style saunas won’t have to wait for international travel to resume next year; Tasmania has the answer, in the form of a floating sauna on Lake Derby.
Located in a former tin-mining area that has become a mecca for mountain bikers and trail enthusiasts. the country’s first floating sauna comes complete with a ‘sauna master’ to guide visitors through different levels of heat and steam, followed by a plunge into the lake’s icy waters. Or a gentler entry.
Owner Nigel Reeves, himself a mountain biker and local hotel owner, thinks that the exhilarating combination of cold and heat will become popular with bikers and others drawn to the area by 125 kilometres of purpose-built bike tracks. Last year, 30,000 visitors used the trails.
Reeve, who is charging $45 Australian (about $60 US) for an hour, points out that there’s plenty of room to grow: “It’s nothing new in countries such as Finland which has 2 million saunas in a country of 5 million people.”
