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Category Archives: Tasmania
Australia day 14 – Queenstown to Lake St Clair
The Lyell Highway winds for 56km through the heart off the World Heritage-listed Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park between Queenstown and Lake St Clair. The park covers 440,000 hectares and is the epitome of magnificent scenery; forested valleys with fast-flowing rivers, deep narrow gorges; button grass plains and mountains carved by glaciers, the most notable being the grey/white, slanting peak of Frenchman’s Cap There are several short walks into the wilderness areas along the route and we make stops at Nelson Falls, Donaghys Lookout and the Franklin River arriving at Lake St Clair late afternoon.
The Nelson Falls are an easy 20-minute walk through the rain forest. What started out as a misty and dismal day has turned into a warm and sunny one by the time we arrive at the start of the walk. The waterfall turns out to be quite spectacular and with plenty of water tumbling over the 85ft drop.
Our second stop is a short 40 minute walk to Donaghys Lookout which affords spectacular 360 degree views of the wilderness mountain tops and the Franklin River and a button grass plain way below from a rocky outlook point.
The Franklin River walk through the temperate rain forest runs, for part of the way, alongside this well-known wilderness river, and the Surprise River. There are numerous kinds of fungi, and mosses and litchens the latter cloaking everything. Towering trees reach skyward, fast-flowing, gurgling rivers and fallen and decaying tree trunks and branches cover the forest floor offering a glimpse into the beauty of this wilderness landscape.
It’s late afternoon by the time we reach Lake St Clair. We haven’t booked any accommodation hoping that we will find something reasonably priced on the edge of the National Park. Fortunately there is camp ground with cabins right on the edge of the lake and we take what is called a ‘dorm’ room but is is in fact what Andy likes to call a bed-in-a-shed. A basic room with shared use of the site amenities. Since I was last here some 25+ years ago a huge visitors centre and cafe have sprung up to cater for bushwalkers making the 5 day trek along the Overland Track which runs between Lake St Clair and Cradle Mountain. A bit of a shame as it rather spoils the isolation of this beautiful lake.
It is a glorious evening, sunny and still. The lake is perfectly flat, not even a ripple disturbs the surface and the silence is only broken by birdsong (and a couple of people sat chatting further round Cynthia Bay. We take a short stroll around the shore line before dinner. It’s been impossible to find anywhere to buy any food since we left Queenstown and there is only a very limited selection of groceries on sale at the visitors centre. We manage to cobble a meal together out of bits and pieces we have with us supplemented by a rehydrated pasta meal.
Afterwards we take a torch and out in search of wildlife – much of which only comes out after dark. Immediately we see a possum. Possum are extremely common here as in New Zealand and more often seen dead on the roadsides; this is the first live one we’ve seen this trip. There are also some wallabies about, but no platypus which are notoriously shy and hard to identify.
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Australia day 13 – Strahan to Queenstown
After spending some time booking a campervan for pick up in Darwin and buying a replacement phone for Andy – his current one is no longer charging – we take a look round Strahan. It’s a small township on the north-west shores of the beautiful and unspoilt inlet that is Macquarie Harbour. Neat, Federation-style buildings built from local Huon pine line the harbour front, most, if not all, of which are either cafes or hotels, and several tour operators offering cruises, seaplane and helicopter excursions and the scenic rail journey to Queenstown. We shun these latter in favour of a walk through the Peoples Park and a drive out to Macquarie Heads. The track in the Peoples Park runs alongside Botanical Creek as far as the small but rather beautiful Hogarth Falls. The park is 70 acres of native rain forest which was donated to the township in the 19th century. It is a lovely area to stroll through, particularly today with the dappled sunlight penetrating through the tree canopy. There are Black Gum, Blackwood, Dogwood and Sassafras trees as well as enormous tree ferns, all towering above us. We picnic above the falls from where we can watch the water cascading into a dark pool beneath.
A short drive out of Strahan is an unsealed road leading to Ocean Beach, a 30km, wild and windswept stretch of sand which, judging from the swirls of tyre marks, is a favourite spot for 4wd-ing. Gusts of sand are being blown into the air as we make our way onto the beach to watch the pounding surf of the Southern Ocean. A further 11 kms brings us to Macquarie Heads. Known as Hell’s Gates this is where the calm harbour waters clash with the ocean beyond. We walk along beach to the point at which the it turns up the coast .battling against the winds that blow the sand in rivulets along the beach. Wild, windy and isolated.
The drive to Queenstown takes about 45 minutes along windy roads. The approach into the town is quite striking; the surrounding mountains long-since laid bare by a combination of logging, bushfires and erosion and stained purple, grey and pink by the sulphur fumes from mining processes. Strangely beautiful and yet at the same time starkly ugly, it is a landscape that engenders mixed reactions. Queenstown itself is small and very quite, in fact is appears almost deserted – where is everybody? We’ve booked a room in the Empire Hotel, a rather grand Victorian building opposite the ABT railway station. The interior has seen better days and would benefit from a facelift, but it does boast a magnificent National Trust staircase which was made in England using native Australian wood.
Andy goes in search of the football (tonight there is an England match at 2am) drinks until the early hours in the hotel across the rroad, in the vain hope that they remain open until 4am. Always unlikely. He is turfed out, worse for wear and doesn’t return to our room until 5.30am! Apparently he had spend the intervening hours collapsed in another room in the hotel.
There is an England match on the television at 2am, so while I snuggle up in bed, Andy goes the bar across the road in the vain hope that they will remain open to show the match. Always unlikely, he is turfed out in the early hours rather worse for wear and having seen none of the match. He returns to our room a 5.30 having apparently spent the intervening hours collapsed in another room in the hotel. Or so he says…
Australia day 12 – Stanley to Strahan
The wind has dropped, the temperature is mild and there occasional bursts of sunshine. So we decide to tackle The Nut. Avoiding the chair lift as the wimpy option we climb the steep ascent surprisingly easily and quickly, discovering that it is less exerting to walk up the path backwards and doing so has the additional benefit of allowing us to take in the rather impressive view of the surrounding coastline as we go. It’s a 40-minute walk to circumnavigate the top of The Nut, which is a lava plug rising to 153m with sheer cliffs on three sides On our walk we come across several wallabies and even more remarkable a shearwater fledgling hunkered down in one of the many holes in the ground, which up that point Andy had been convinced were rabbit warrens. We follow this up with an hour’s walk along the ‘endless’ beach where there must be dozens of dead starfish and several dead fish including a ray. After lunch we drive south to Strahan on the west coast. The route takes us through some impressive indigenous forest, pine plantations and windy mountain roads as well as some areas that have been ruthlessly devastated by logging and left strewn with the unwanted detritus. The descent into Strahan gives a glimpse of the wild Southern Ocean. Strahan is a tiny village of 600 which caters for visitors who come to cruise the Macquarie Harbour and Gordon River or ride the scenic railway to Queenstown. And the prices are marked up accordingly.. Here a basic cabin with little more than a bed and a few sticks of furniture and no heating is $75 compared to Stanley where we had a cabin with cooking facilities for $55.
The caravan parks in Tasmania are rather shabby and dated in comparison with the big franchise operations like Top Ten and Kiwi in New Zealand and are far more expensive. Maybe we have been unlucky, but The Big 4 site in Strahan definitely could do with a facelift and there is no heating in the cabin.
In fact the cost of living here is quite a lot more expensive overall compared to New Zealand. Prices are higher dollar for dollar and the exchange rate against the pound is about 25% lower. All of which is puts our modest budget under pressure a bit of pressure..
Australia day 11 – Shearwater to Stanley
Our first task today is to deliver a copy of Steve’s father, Ben’s memoirs to his sister, Pat, in Ulverstone, about half-an-hour from Shearwater. Lost to her brother, Ben, for 30 years, Steve has recently managed to locate Pat in Ulverstone whilst researching the family tree. Research that has also uncovered a cousin of ours in New South Wales. We’d talked a couple of weeks ago about delivering a letter and photos to Pat, but it wasn’t until last night that we got a message from my sister to ask if we would deliver the manuscript. As luck would have it, we are leaving Shearwater today and driving through Ulverstone today on our way to Stanley on the north-west coast. But life rarely runs smoothly; there aren’t any printing facilities at the house in Shearwater, so Andy goes to the local internet cafe to print the manuscript from the internet while I pack our stuff and tidy the house. But it takes two visits to the internet cafe and a couple of calls to Steve before the memoirs are located on the internet and the 68 pages printed. In the meantime Steve’s learned from an electrican working in Pat’s home that there has been a fire and she has had to move out temporarily to stay with friends leaving no contact address, so we’re unlikely to be able to deliver the manuscript to her in person. We find Pat’s house easily and leave the manuscript with the electrician. We’re shocked to discover the extent of the damage; apparently the fridge had caught fire during the night gutting the kitchen and causing smoke damage in the hall. The rest of the house seems intact, but Pat was lucky – it could easily have been much worse.
From Ulverstone we drive along the coast road, making a detour to Table Cape for some great views up and down the coast. Interestingly Alexander of the Alexander Technique fame was born close by and there is a plaque in his honour on the cliff top. The stretch of coastal hinterland between Ulverstone and Stanley is vibrant green pastures in contrast to the yellows and browns of the countryside between Hobart and Shearwater. The earth is a rich, rust red. and the air is reputedly the cleanest. The coast is dotted with small villages, rocky outcrops and sandy beaches. Stanley is a small fishing village of 600 people in the remote north-west dubbed the ‘edge of the world’. Sitting at the end of a 7km isthmus and tucked under the striking rocky outcrop known as the Nut, it faces a seemingly endless arc of white sandy beach on one side and a crescent beach on the other. The historic centre has many pretty colonial weatherboard houses with picket fences and wrought iron detailing. Almost all given over to providing accommodation for holidaymakers. It’s very windy today; the sea is full of white horses and the chair lift to the top of the Nut is closed. Too windy to make the climb to the top of the Nut an inviting prospect ….perhaps tomorrow.
Australia day 10 – Shearwater
Last night we were in the emergency department of Latrobe Hospital getting my arm checked out. I’ve been getting shooting pains in my upper arm as well as continuous ache and restricted movement for the last five or six days. It finally got so painful that we we went down to the local community hospital in Latrobe at 3am. The registration process included such questions such as ‘Are you an indigenous or Torres Strait Islander?’, ‘Is there another name for UK?’ and ‘What’s your mother tongue?’ (asked after confirming I was English). I didn’t have to have to wait very long to see a doctor who gave me some heavy-duty pain killers and sent me home with instructions to come back in the morning for an X-ray. So 8.30am saw us back at the hospital. The X-rays showed nothing (not surprisingly), and the doctor’s diagnosis is muscle strain which most probably happened when we were canoeing about 10 days ago. No quick cure though, just anti-inflamatories, pain killers and possibly some physio if things don’t improve. What a pain!
We drive to Launceston is Tasmania’s second city in the afternoon. It is situated 64 km from the Bass Strait in the wide river valleys where the North and South Esk Rivers meet to become the Tamar River. On the way we detour down the west side of the meandering Tamar River valley as far as West Head retracing our steps and crossing the curiously named Batman suspension bridge and coming down into Launceston on the eastern side of the river. This is glorious countryside taking in wineries, orchards, and farms as well as historic towns, fishing villages and mining settlements.
We’ve come to Launceston primarily to walk the stunning Cataract limestone gorge which is only a few minutes from the city centre. . There are numerous walks along and up the sides of the gorge. We opt for the easiest; the 1.6km route along the face of the cliff to Cateract Cliff Grounds where a vertiginous chair lift crosses the gorge a the point where it opens out into the First Basin lake. We give the chair lift a miss and cross the gorge at Alexander Bridge, an attractive suspension footbridge that was first build in 1904 and subsequently restored after being washed away in the floods of 1929, and walk about 15 minutes further up the gorge along Duck walk towards the hydro dam before turning back. The gorge is littered with huge boulders and its dark waters are controlled by the hydro dam further up the gorge. At First Basin there is a large park and reserve as well as a huge outdoor swimming pool. Despite warning signs counselling against swimming in the river pool there is a wet-suit clad woman swimming across it. We finish our walk just as it starts to rain and since it is late afternoon by this time we decide to forgo any further sight-seeing. The drive back up the West Tamar Highway provides some stunning views of the river valley despite the rain and poor visibility.
Australia day 9 – Shearwater
It’s grey and threatening rain when we set off to Cradle Mountain National Park. The journey is through lush farm land; a very different landscape from yesterday’s. The dead trees have disappeared to be replaced by ones with rich green foliage and lush farmlands. On the way we stop to look round Sheffield, a little town in the foothills of the Western Tiers, a spectacular range dominated by Mount Roland which today shrouded in low cloud. This historic, but rather faded town has come up with a clever marketing ploy to draw in the tourists and reverse its declining economic fortunes – murals. Now dubbed the ‘Town of Murals’ over 40 murals have been painted on the town’s buildings since 1986, including private houses and retail shops, depicting the history of the area. Every year, Sheffield hosts a Mural Fest where nine artists engage in a mural paint-off and more murals are added each year.
This an area of quirky place names such as Lower Crackpot, Nowhere Else and Promised Land. And quirky people … or at least one – an elderly gentleman sporting a Scottish beret complete with feather walks an alpaca on a lead up and down the main street. The alpaca sports a donation box around its neck and, judging by the interest generated amongst the visitors. probably earns the old boy a bob or two.
Leaving Sheffield the scenery starts to change as we climb up towards the national park; becoming much more rugged and dead trees start to re-appear. The gnarled, ash-white stumps and fallen branches littering the fields create a stark and eerie landscape. Cradle Valley is the gateway to the spectacular wilderness of Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. It is listed by the World Heritage Commission as one of the most precious places on earth and is reknowned for its stunning mountain scenery, glacial lakes, rain forests tarns and unique wildlife. There are numerous wilderness walks of varying lengths including the 5-day Overland Route from Dove Lake in the north to Lake St Clair in the south. We choose the much less challenging and considerably shorter two-hour Dove Lake Circuit, which actually takes us three hours as we take our time and detour to see Lilli Lake as well. The walk is mainly along boardwalks that run, in part, through dense forest. The lake is set in dramatic scenery; surrounded by craggy glacial peaks and dominated by the iconic outline of Cradle Mountain, its dark waters stained by the tannin from the surrounding button grass plains and tea trees.
Australia day 6 – Shearwater
Andy rustles up a full English and we have breakfast on the balcony taking in the panoramic views of the estuary, the long sandy beaches on both shores, the bush and mountains beyond. We drive to Latrobe with Helen and Adrian, stopping in Davenport along the way to inspect the statue of Neptune which has been the subject of an on-going controversy for the last four years as the local community have debated its artistic merit, cultural significance and position. In fact it turns out to be particularly unimpressive on all counts..
We take a walk through the small village of Latrobe with its historic streetscape dating back to the 1800s. It could be a Sunday – most of the shops close in the afternoon and there is a rather deserted feel to the main street. There are some attractive older-style houses and shops many with verandahs over the pavement, others with elaborate façades. We spend some time browsing Helen’s favourite shop, Reliquaire. It’s small frontage hides a maze of rooms crammed with a cornucopia of the weird and wonderful as well as the more mundane and ordinary. From puppets, painted dolls, teddies, gollies and whole room devoted to Betty Boop to toys, dressing up clothes, animatronics, ‘the tardis’. electronic games, jewellery, clothes, architectural salvage and English garden furniture and much more besides. It’s a browser’s paradise but we manage to tear ourselves away to meander on to an interesting shop-cum-cafe for scones and cream and another cholesterol-laden iced chocolate or, in Andy’s case, coffee. We decide to give the Australian Axeman’s Hall of Fame, which is not some gruesome memorial to an axe murderer but a museum celebrating famous lumberjacks, a miss.
Jenny and Kevin, long-standing friends of Helen and Adrian, come over for dinner and we have a delicious meal, lots of wine and entertaining conversation. Kevin is a pharmacist and he advises taking vitamin B1 for the prevention of mosquito and other insects bites. Apparently it comes out through the pores and acts as a repellent. We’ll give it a go and see how effective it is when we get to Darwin.
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