8 Weeks in Tassie - part 5.

We’d heard a lot about Queenstown, and because of what we’d heard, we were planning on driving straight through without staying.  But because of the long weekend, we thought we’d give the caravan park there a call and see if they had any space, as we thought Strahan would be busy.  The park had received good reviews on Wikicamps, and with a booking made, we headed off from Derwent Bridge to travel the 86km to get there.

The road down into Queenstown is said to have 99 bends and again, is a favourite of motor bike riders.  I wasn’t looking forward to the journey, but Doug didn’t seem to be worried.  As it turned out, for the most part it wasn’t too bad - certainly nothing worse that we’d done already - except for maybe the last 6-7km.  As we snaked our way down into Queenstown, round very narrow, sharp corners, I was holding my breath.  There was an awful lot of “down” on my side of the car!!

The deep, eroded gullies and naked, multi-coloured hills surrounding Queenstown, leave you in no doubt that it was a mining town.  The destruction of the surrounding area is a direct result of this industry, as are the now ghost towns of Linda and Gormanston on the outskirts.  

They have been mining gold here since the 1880’s till 1994. It was once the third largest town in Tasmania and by the 1920’s, the rain forested hills around Queenstown had been stripped bare, the timber being used to feed the furnaces smelting the gold.  Uncontrolled pollution from the smelters was killing any vegetation that hadn’t already been cut down, and bushfires raged through the hills every summer, fuelled by the sulphur-impregnated soils and dead stumps, until there was no regrowth at all.  The rains washed away the exposed topsoil until only bare rocky hills remained.  You can see why were had planned on just passing through.

But there’s scrub and trees returning to some of the hillsides and the landscape isn’t as stark as it once was, and Queenstown is making a real effort to promote itself as a tourist destination, especially now that the historic Abt mining railway between Queenstown and Strahan has been reconstructed.  And the couple running the caravan park (just bought 10 months ago) are also making a real effort to turn the park around - it was a lovely stay.  Queenstown has heart.

Queenstown in the sunshine

You can see that it has been a bustling town and although a lot of the businesses have closed, there’s still a good vibe in the main street.  We spent the day strolling through the old buildings, taking in all the information and displays in the town’s museum and driving out to various lookouts around the town.  We stopped to watch the heritage railway engine come into the station with it’s carriages full of people who’d enjoyed the trip, but we decided we weren’t going to take a ride this time.  We have to leave some things for the next trip!!!

Heritage railway

Lake Burbury from Mt Juke

Miners memorial in Queenstown

We moved on to our next destination, Strahan on the Sunday of the Labour Day weekend.  Strahan is 40km from Queenstown (big drive that day!) on Macquarie Harbour.  The little town of Strahan and Macquarie Harbour have played important roles in history, from the penal settlement of Sarah Island in the late 1800’s, to the hub of forestry and mining activity and, in my memory, the summer of 1982-3, when the town became the focus of the largest conservation battle ever fought in Australia: the battle to save the Franklin River from the construction of another HEC dam.  

It’s a sleepy little place, with lots of holiday accommodation and not much more to recommend it.  The reason we were there was for its location - the western wilderness and the wonderful Macquarie Harbour and Gordon River.  We had had our tickets booked for our Gordon River cruise for weeks now and were really looking forward to it.  

After setting up camp at the golf club (another great little free camp), we had a look around town at the various shops offering all things wooden.  In my last post, I explained that Huon Pine is only found in a few small areas now, and on the banks of the Gordon River in this wilderness area is the main one.  

Permission is now being given to harvest controlled amounts of fallen huon pine from the forest floors or from under the waters of the Gordon for commercial use.  There’s a great old sawmill on the foreshore of Strahan harbour which sells slabs of huon pine, smaller pieces and bits that have been turned into all sorts of wondrous things.  If we’d wanted some 2000 year old huon pine benches for our kitchen, this was the place to get them - for a cool $20K.  We also took a walk up to see Hogarth Falls, which lies at the end of a rainforest walk.

Hogarth Falls - Strahan

That night we took in a show!  It’s the longest running play in Australia, running for 24 years - The Ship that Never Was, which is performed in an amphitheatre on the waterfront every evening during the summer.  It’s a hilarious rendition of the true story of convicts stealing a ship from Sarah Island, the penal settlement in Macquarie Harbour in the 1800’s and is performed by just two actors (locals).  They cleverly erect the set as the story progresses and involve all the audience, getting some to join them on stage and all of us to perform sound effects etc.  It really was fabulous fun and I’d recommend a trip to Strahan for the show if nothing else.

The Ship that Never Was

Our river cruise was the next morning, and alas, the skies were grey and gloomy and there was drizzle not far away.  We had had such great weather up till then.  But we were determined to make the best of it.  Our cruise was with World Heritage Cruises (or the red boat).  There’s two cruise lines that operate out of Strahan and both cruises are similar, so we were told, but the red boat was a locally owned and family operated tour so we were keen to support them.

The Red Boat

The red boat is a large, two level vessel and we were allocated seats.  But once underway, we were able to wander around the boat as much as we liked.  It was a marvellous day out.  We first went through the heads of the harbour, called Hells Gates, and out into the ocean.  Thankfully the swell wasn’t too rough (but I’d taken my Kwells anyway).  

Lighthouse at Macquarie Point - Hells Gates

Macquarie Harbour is six times the size of Sydney Harbour so our day was spent cruising to various locations of interest in the harbour itself and then making our way into the Gordon River wilderness.  The harbour has a rich and dramatic convict and pioneer past. From 1822 to 1833, Sarah Island was the home of a harsh convict settlement, with logging and boat building from the locally sought Huon pine being the main trade.  We stopped off for a fascinating tour of Sarah Island, run by very entertaining and knowledgable guides (the same characters that performed in the play the night before).

Convict gaol on Sarah Island

Old bakers oven

A wonderful buffet lunch was served on board (fantastic local smoked salmon) as we slowly cruised up the Gordon River, and with a watery sun trying to show itself, we were stunned at the pristine wilderness we were seeing.  We had the chance to get off at a small jetty called Heritage Landing and do a boardwalk loop through the rainforest of Huon pines, then back on board to re-trace our steps down the river, back into the harbour and the throttle was opened up for our last leg back to Strahan.  This was one of the highlights of our time in Tassie and I’d recommend it to anyone.

Gordon River cruising

The long weekend was over and hopefully the crowds were abating, so we left Strahan and started making our way up the west coast.  We drove through the town of Zeehan and were hoping to stop for morning tea.  Of all the struggling towns we saw, Zeehan had to be the saddest.  It had been a vibrant and busy town in its heyday, with a Main Street over 2 miles long.  Now that the mines have closed, there’s rows of empty houses (miners accommodation) and shops and businesses closed down.  You really feel for the people left behind.

We moved on, trying to find somewhere to camp for the night nearby, as we wanted to do the walk in to Montezuma Falls, but we were struggling.  The free camp we had originally planned on turned out to be a bit dubious so we kept on driving.  We resigned ourselves to not doing the walk, although both of us were disappointed.  

We came across a little town called Tullah, another hydro town that had been abandoned after the power scheme had been built.  We spoke with the lovely ladies in the cafe/post office who gave us directions to a great little clearing beside Lake Mackintosh where we could camp for the night.  It was just beautiful.  Just goes to show, keep in with the locals.  We went back the next day to grab a coffee by way of thanking them, and stayed for a while, learning about how the town used to be when it was thriving.  There had been over 200 children at the school in the 80’s; now the school was closed and there was only 160 people in the town in total.

After leaving Tullah, we travelled all of 53km to the little town of Waratah, a heritage mining town on the edge of the Arthur-Pieman Wilderness area.  We made camp on the banks of the river in a great little caravan park and planned to explore the area for the next couple of days.

First on our list was a trip through Savage River down to Corinna.  The dirt road was in great condition so the trip only took us about 90 minutes.  Corinna is a tiny settlement on the banks of the Pieman River with no more than a pub, a few miners cottages, now restored for holiday accommodation and the national park campground.  And of course, the Fatman barge across the Pieman, Tasmania’s last surviving cable barge.  We had a walk around the settlement and stood watching the barge transport one or two vehicles at a time across the river.  The barge driver came and had a chat and asked if we’d like to take a trip across and back.  Well, we got to chatting so much that we actually took four trips across and back and at the end of that time, we’d been offered 5 weeks’ work - if we could start straight away.

Fatman Barge - Corinna

We did much humming and hawing on our way back out the road to Waratah, weighing up the pros and cons.  We both thought it would be an excellent opportunity and good fun, but we would have to change our ferry booking back to the mainland from the beginning of April to the first week of May.  With a large van in tow, spots on the ferry for us were very limited, and we’d heard of people not being able to get a berth until July.  So reluctantly, we contacted the people at Corinna and turned it down.  But who knows - there’s always another time (and I rather think Doug fancied himself as the ferryman!!!)

The afternoon was sunny but breezy and we enjoyed the sunshine and a G&T and as the sun set, we finally had our platypus moment.  In the river we saw not one, but three of them playing away without a care.  Doug was a happy man at last!!

The best we could do in a hurry

The next day we had planned to drive in to Cradle Mountain, but the weather wasn’t on our side again.  It was cloudy with the threat of rain.  Did we go?  Did we not?  We waited. We even accessed the webcam on the national parks website which shows what the conditions were from the carpark at Dove Lake to try and decide.  We had been told to not bother if the weather wasn’t good as the view of the “cradle” will be minimal.  But we decided to take the chance, hoping that the weather would clear for us.  The forecast for the next few days wasn’t to get any better, so why not?

Cradle Mountain is probably the most visited tourist attraction in Tasmania after Port Arthur, and as such we were braced for lots of people.  But because we had waited till nearly lunch time before arriving, the worst of the crowds had passed.  Either that or they were put off by the weather.  You arrive at the visitors centre and park, and then get a shuttle bus 8km down the road to Dove Lake.  There’s other stops along the way, with walks of varying degrees of difficulty from each stop, but Dove Lake is the trump card.

Cradle Mountain in the clouds

After registering ourselves for our walk, we set off on the 6km circuit around the lake, walking under the base of the “cradle” as we went.  Most of the walk was on boardwalks or rough pathways, and about half way round the rain started.  We had managed to sit and have our lunch in the dry, but after that, it was wet, wet, wet.  But the scenery was still stunning and the spectacular mountains, shrouded in mist and cloud added dramatic effect.  We completed the walk by around 3pm, and were thankful for those new rain jackets we’d bought in Hobart.  We hitched a ride on the shuttle bus back up to the visitor centre where a very welcome coffee was had.  It had been a wonderful walk - and we would just have to come back again for that money-shot of the mountain in sunshine.

Dove Lake Circuit walk

The Ballroom Forest under the cradle

Wet, wet, wet!

The weather continued to be wet, windy and now cold too so there was no sitting out with a G&T that day - we retreated inside the van and used our gas heater for the first time in Tassie that night.  Waratah is quite elevated and gets snow in winter - not that it was that cold for us, but after shorts and t-shirts recently, it was a bit of a shock.  Friday was to be no better, so we were faced with the decision - do we sit and shelter in the van in Waratah or do we drive further north in the hope that the weather improves.  No brainer really!!  Packed up and on the road again in record time, heading north.

8 Weeks in Tassie - part 4.

We seem to be unwittingly switching to the grey nomad mindset!  I swear it’s not a conscious thing, but it seems to be happening.  Tassie is very busy just now, with lots of vans and motorhomes (owned and hired) and of course, the ever-present Berts.  Free and low-cost campgrounds fill up early in the day, so if you want a chance of a spot, you need to be there by early afternoon (at the latest!!!!).

So where we used to leave at a leisurely 10am, and do a bit of touring around on the way to our next destination, we now plan an earlier departure and go straight to our next camp.  We can then leave the van and have a look around, knowing that we’ve got somewhere to stay that night.

Now I’m not saying we’re as bad as some of the nomads we’ve encountered.  There has been days when we’ve heard vans leaving before it’s daylight proper, but we do find that we need to be on the road sharp if we want to stand a chance of a decent camp.  We can then sit back under our awning at 4pm with a G&T in hand and scoff at those hopefuls that pull in and look for a spot.  “Surely they can’t expect to get someone at THIS time of day!!!”  

And so it was that we left Hobart and headed down the short drive to Kettering to catch the 9.30am ferry to Bruny Island.  It’s a short, 15 minute crossing to the island, and the ferry doesn’t take bookings; you just rock up and join the queue.  We were lucky with a calm and sunny day to make the journey across and soon we were disembarking on the western side of North Bruny. 

On the ferry to Bruny

Bruny Island is actually almost two islands.  North Bruny is separated from South Bruny by a 3km long isthmus.  It looks so narrow that one good storm could actually make it two distinct islands.  

Our camp for the next three days was to be at a National Park campground called The Neck, which is just at the end of the isthmus as you reach South Bruny.  It was a lovely, sheltered camp in the trees behind the dunes of the incredible Ocean Beach, so it was a short walk out onto the beach but tucked away from the wind.  We found a spot that gave us a bit of space, but also one that didn’t allow anyone else to come and set up camp under our awning.  We’d heard that it could get a bit busy later in the day - and they were right.  Just down the road was the penguin rookery, where each evening hundreds of Little Penguins would come in from the sea and make their way up the beach and into the dunes to find their nests.  They just completed major building works on the roads here to make sure that the penguins are protected from the passing traffic; there’s penguin underpasses and little bridges for them to get over fences.  Great to see.

Looking over the rookery and The Neck

Bruny is promoted as a nature lovers and foodies paradise and it was true.  There’s beautiful beaches and coastlines and lots of tasty places to visit.  We drove around North Bruny one day, which is mostly cleared farmland and took the time to visit the old Quarantine Station at Barnes Bay.  A fascinating part of Australian history that we had no idea of.  Soldiers returning WWI all had to come through this station before being able to return to their homes, as there was a worldwide pandemic of Spanish Flu.  They were stripped, given a Lysol bath and clean clothes and had to remain in the dormitory for a week.  Those who showed any symptoms were isolated and quarantined until they recovered (or died)!

We also visited some of the tourist hot-spots - the Whisky House, Bruny Island Cheese Co. and the Bruny Island Chocolate Shop.  We were really disappointed in all three places.  As I mentioned, Bruny is marketed as a foodie mecca and is a comfortable day trip from Hobart.  As a result, there’s lots of little bus tours beetling about the island, taking visitors to all the “must-do” venues (“Right everybody, back on the bus!).  If you were an ordinary, self-guided visitor to these places, you had to pay to sample anything.  Yes! You had to pay $5 to taste any of the cheeses, $25 to taste the whisky and you couldn’t taste anything at all at the chocolate place (even though the bus tour was sitting down with a big tasting plate in front of them).  Needless to say, we didn’t stay and didn’t part with any of our money.

Friday came and that was a day we were really looking forward to.  We had booked ourselves on the yellow-boat Bruny Island Cruise, which saw us in a big jet boat heading out from Adventure Bay on South Bruny and travelling down the spectacular coastline out into the Southern Ocean.  What a ride!!!  The cruise went for three hours and we were able to see parts of the coast that can’t be accessed by car or on foot.  Absolutely wonderful - we’d really recommend this one.  

Breathing Cave 

Seals galore

The yellow boats

The afternoon was capped off nicely by a visit to Get Shucked Oyster Farm, where we indulged in a mixed dozen and a cooling beverage.  A lovely day all up.

Doug's first oysters

Our last day on Bruny was spent visiting the far south of South Bruny.  We drove right out to Cape Bruny to visit the lighthouse there and while driving through the national park, decided to take a detour to Jetty Beach.  What a fabulous spot!  If you’re ever down this way and you have your own accommodation with you, be sure to spend some time here.  Just a short stroll down and you have a beautiful, secluded white beach on your doorstep.  

Cape Bruny Lighthouse

Jetty Beach

We drove out to Cloudy Bay and walked round the point to sit and watch the surfers for a while.  It was pretty rough that day, but they were making the most of it, taking their lives in their hands as the waves broke just metres from the rocks.  We then took a 3km drive along the beach to check out the campground at the far end and stopped to enjoy lunch on the glorious white beach in the sun.  Last but not least, on the way back to camp, we had to tick off the last place on  our trail and visited Bruny Island Wines.  Ok, we’ll call that a day.

The beach at Cloudy Bay

The grey nomad mentality was alive and well the next morning, as we were up, packed and on the road in time for the 9.30am ferry back to the mainland.  Well, the little mainland (as opposed to the big mainland, when we arrive back in Melbourne).

After disembarking, we turned left when we rejoined the road, and followed the coastline around the D’Entrecasteaux Channel through little towns like Flowerpot, Gordon and Eggs and Bacon Bay.  Such a beautiful area and this time of year is when it’s at its best.  We stopped in Cygnet, a slightly larger small town, and visited the local market that was in full swing.  

Cygnet could be likened to St Andrews or Daylesford in Victoria - a little bit alternative, and full of organic produce and rainbow fashions.  We made our purchases from the market (a lemon drizzle cake and a second hand novel) and got back underway.  The area around the Huon River is renowned for its apples and it was harvest season.  Everywhere we looked there were fields full of apple trees, all laden with beautiful fruit.  We stopped and bought some from a roadside stall and not long after, stopped at Pagan Cidery.  They make wonderful cider from the local fruit, and some of that made its way into the car also.

Cygnet market

Our destination for that day was the little forestry town of Geeveston at the foot of the Hartz Mountains.  This was going to be our base for a couple of days while we explored the area.  We set up camp in a great area the town have set aside for travellers and for $5 per night, we thought we were doing well.  It was mild and sunny that afternoon, so we sat and enjoyed the sunshine.  There was a nearby walk along the creek, and there’d been lots of reports of seeing platypuses in there.  We’re now convinced they were all lying - there’s not any that wanted to be seen by us.

During our stay at Geeveston we took a drive down to Cockle Creek, which is the most southerly place in Australia you can reach by road.  We took the road less travelled, and drove round the coast via Police Point and Surveyors Bay which gave us great views of the incredible operations of the Huon salmon farms.  Their netted rings went for kilometres.

There’s beautiful camping down at Cockle Creek when the weather is good, but we weren’t lucky, and the rain welcomed us as we got out of the car.  Cockle Creek is also the starting point of the South Cape Walk, which takes you to the most southerly point of Australia.  A 15km return walk in the rain wasn’t really something I was looking forward to (I’m a fair-weather walker), so we abandoned that idea and put it on the list for next time.  

Cockle Creek - whale sculpture

Furthest road south in Australia

We did, however, take time on the way back to stop in and visit the Hastings Caves and thermal pools.  We thought we’d kill two birds with one stone, and enjoyed a wonderful hour in the pool, followed by a great hot shower.  The thermal pool is fed from a spring at a constant 28 degrees, so it wasn’t super warm, but just pleasant.  The hard part was getting out and getting to the shower!  Once dressed, we took a lovely walk through the rainforest trail (again, no platypus to be seen!) and then enjoyed our picnic lunch.  I’d definitely recommend this place, just lovely.

Hastings thermal pool

Platypus Walk - no platypuses

We also had our sights set on the Tahune Air Walk while we were staying in Geeveston.  We took the drive up through the wonderful, dense forest for about 40km to arrive at the base of the walk.  There’s 3 different trails to follow, and we decided if we linked them all in a figure-8 we’d be able to cover the 5 or so kilometres easily.  The first walk took us through old-growth forest through a stand of Huon pine.  Huon pine is perhaps Tasmania’s most famous native plant.  It’s prized by boat-builders and furniture makers for its wonderful properties.  But unfortunately it grows very slowly and has barely survived the massive logging that was undertaken in the early years of settlement.  There’s only a few areas remaining now where Huon pine can be seen.

Tall trees at Tahune

The second stage took us up and along the Air Walk.  It’s a giant gantry structure which you climb and it allows you to walk amongst the canopy of the trees, looking down on the forest floor, culminating in a long cantilevered lookout over the Huon River.  It was a spectacular view, but a little unsettling as the lookout swayed and bounced.  

Airwalk in the canopy

Doug on the lookout

We finished the afternoon but walking up, through the forest, along one side of the Huon River to the confluence with the Picton River, and crossing over two suspension bridges and walking back down the other side.  Great walk - and fun to be had on the bridges.  A great day was finished off by - you guessed it - great fish and chips from the little shop near camp (and still no sign of a platypus during our after-dinner walk).

Geeveston is a great little town with a big heart.  Like so many small towns in Tasmania, it relied on its industry for survival.  In Geeveston’s case it was forestry.  Now with automation and with the forestry commission pulling out of the town, they’re working hard to keep things going.  Their low-cost camping initiative is one element, as is the volunteer-run information centre, which serves as a bit of a museum also.  All hoping to serve the ever-growing army of travellers.  We loved Geeveston.

We were doubling back on ourselves a little when we left Geeveston, heading back up through Huonville (stopping for supplies) and through Hobart (not stopping) to head out the Lyell Highway, taking a westerly direction for the first time.  We were looking forward to Mount Field National Park, which was to be our next stop.  Being only 80km from Hobart, it’s a favourite of both locals and tourists, so we weren’t sure if we’d get a spot in the national park campground.  Our grey nomad training came in handy again, as we rolled into the campground just around 1pm, and nabbed one of only 4 remaining spots.  Happy with that!!!  Also happy about the campground having a washing machine, which got rid of the mountain once again.

In the lower section of the park is lots of lovely walks through dense rainforest with abundant wildlife (including the possum who danced on our roof most of the night) and three beautiful waterfalls.  The upper part of the park is mountain scenery and alpine moorlands and lakes and longer walks through glacial valleys surrounded by steep cliffs.  

We walked among the tall trees marvelling at the size of the swamp gums (the world’s tallest flowering plant).  You get a different perspective on trees when you travel with an arborist, and I tried to convince him that the rangers might not be too happy if he got his climbing gear out and started scaling the giants.  

Horseshoe Falls

Russell Falls

We also took in the waterfalls.  Russell Falls is the major attraction of the park and can be reached very easily from the visitor centre.  It’s pretty, but much nicer was Horseshoe Falls, which is a little further on and took a little more effort.  And if you continue round the circuit you reach Lady Barron Falls, another beauty.

Rather than drag the van in the long windy road to Strathgordon, we chose to leave it at the national park campground and do a day trip in.  The 98km drive is through the beautiful wilderness of the Southwest National Park, through the flooded Lake Pedder, ending at the Gordon Dam.  The dam was built in the 70’s by the Hydro Electric Commission (HEC) and is part of the Gordon River Power Scheme.  A huge hydroelectric plant is built underground near the dam and is the largest in Tasmania.  What they don’t tell you is that it wasn’t really necessary for the state’s electricity needs, but it went ahead anyway.

The scenery through this area is just stunning.  Every corner brought more fantastic views of lakes and mountain ranges.  The dam wall is impressive and you can’t help but appreciate what went into such a construction, but now that the power station is established and running almost automatically, the HEC have pulled out of maintaining the rest of the area.  Everything looks a little sad and neglected, from the railings and what used to be the visitor centre (now closed), to the signage and lookouts.  Doug was keen to go out onto the wall, but I chose to do my admiring from the safety of the top.   There’s a company that takes groups abseiling down the wall and Doug would have signed up if we had managed to get in touch with them before we went.  Nutter!!!!

We stopped to admire the view of Lake Pedder and the surrounding mountains on the way back, and to grab a bite of lunch at the Lake Pedder Wilderness Lodge (all that’s left of the town of Strathgordon).  The lodge is built in what was once a thriving HEC town while the dam was being constructed, and now that the company has pulled out, they are trying to re-establish themselves as a tourism venture.  It’s a bit of a strange place, but they’ve restored some of the buildings and are trying hard.  And with the beautiful backdrop of the lake, we really hope it is a success.  The views on the beautiful day we were there were, in my opinion, better than Cradle Mountain.  Just breathtaking.

Lake Pedder

Reflections in the water

The Sentinel mountain range

The road is a favourite drive for motorbike riders and our drive back to camp that afternoon was made a bit more dramatic by coming across a group at the side of the road.  One young lad hadn’t managed to take the corner and had slid off the road.  Thankfully he wasn’t badly hurt - maybe just his pride - and after offering what help we could, we left them to wait for the flatbed.

We moved on the next day, saying goodbye to the beautiful Mount Field National Park and heading further across the Lyell Highway towards the west.  The term “highway” infers that it was a major road, which in fact, it is.  But it’s narrow and windy and steep in parts and our short journey of just 130 or so kilometres took us till lunchtime.  We stopped for a cuppa in a small town called Tarraleah.  Well, we thought it was a small town, but it turned out to be another of the towns left behind after the HEC built its hydro scheme - just a ghost town.  

But this one was a bit different.  The town was constructed as a residential village for the HEC staff, but much of it was sold off in 1998 and the rest was abandoned.  But a local family bought what was left in 2006 and started creating a “resort”.  There’s a restaurant, cafe and caravan park and the little weatherboard cottages that remained have all been renovated for accommodation and painted in pastel colours.  It’s a bit “Stepford Wives”ish and it felt all the more eery because there was hardly a soul there, apart from the staff.  But they make good coffee!!!

Cottages in Tarraleah

The 130km took us to a little town in the mountains called Derwent Bridge, famous as the entranceway to the southern end of the Cradle Mountain/Lake St Clair National Park and for being the home of The Wall in the Wilderness.  We stopped in a free camp in the pub grounds and grabbed some lunch in the glorious sunshine before heading off to visit The Wall.

There’s so much information available on The Wall, I’ll leave you to google that further.  Suffice to say it’s an exhibition of one mans art, two huge 50m-long panels of wood carvings depicting stories of struggle and loss.  Absolutely everyone we spoke to who’d been to Tassie advised us that we “had” to visit The Wall.  To say I was a little underwhelmed might describe my reaction.  I have no doubt at all that the man is incredibly talented and what he has presented is phenomenal.  But there was quite a bit of unfinished work, and by all accounts it will never be finished, so it just falls that tiny bit short of being brilliant.  My opinion only - you will have to judge for yourselves.

The pub where we were staying is an old mountain-lodge type establishment - a massive, high-roofed structure featuring lots of wood and stone.  The secret weapon, though, is the Sri Lankan chef they have in the kitchen, Ami.  His curries are the stuff of legend (at least on Wikicamps) and we couldn’t not go in for dinner!  A wonderful meal and a bottle of wine later and we slept like kings.

We were a bit indecisive the next morning - do we stay or do we move on?  We decided to hedge our bets, and go off and explore the Cynthia Bay area of Lake St Clair, before making up our minds. We drove the 5km into the park and left the car in the carpark before heading to the visitor centre.  This centre is the southern point (or end) of the famous Overland Track, a spectacular 80km walking track which links Cradle Mountain in the north to Lake St Clair in the south.  It’s a popular walk so the centre was busy with people who’d just finished the trek, all laden with packs and gear.  We felt a bit like “wanna be’s” as we were only doing the 6km circuit along the foreshore of the lake and back through the forest. 

Lake St Clair

We got back to camp at lunchtime, and after a bite to eat, we decided we’d push on a bit further and head for Queenstown.  It was to be a long weekend in Tasmania (and most other states) and we were conscious of avoiding crowds, so we thought a couple of days in the caravan park in Queenstown would be a good idea.  As it turned out, it was.