Tassie Trip 2015
Day 13
Hobart - New Norfolk - Mt Field National Park (Russell Falls) - Tarraleah - The Wall (Derwent Bridge) - Lake St Clair National Park - Franklin/Gordon River NP - Nelson Falls - Franklin River - Queenstown - Strachan
Today's theme was water.....it was everywhere . It fell from the sky (lots), it rushed passed us at a rate of knots and we drank lots of it. Today was pretty hectic actually.....wet and hectic. Added to that our temperature varied today from a mild 6 degrees to a balmy 9 degrees- all day!!!
We headed out of Hobart just after 8.30 and headed towards the Mt Field NP. We did a drive by of New Norfolk where the Norfolk Islanders were resettled following the demise of the island as a convict settlement. It has the oldest Anglican church and he longest continual pub licence at the New Norfolk hotel - what's that saying?? Really it was only worth the drive through - we had lots more to do today.
Driving on, we drove through the townships of Glenora and Westerway. Whats made with water? Beer! Glenora and Westerway are pretty much towns growing Hops.....lots and lots and lots of hops. Fields of dreams.....
Onward we drove and arrived at the Mt Field NP and the Russell Falls. By this stage it's raining one minute and hot sunny blue skies the next. It repeated every couple of minutes. The walk to the falls was through lush rainforest greenery - ferns and fallen miss covered trees everywhere. The falls were spectacular. You know that rain we've been having the last few days....yeah it was coming off those mountains at thousands of litres a minute. The lookout was awash with the force of the spray coming off the falls. A quick shot and time to clean the camera lense! Spectacular. We walked up to Horseshoe Falls as well about 20 mins from Russell Falls.
We traveled on..
We stopped for lunch at Tarraleah which was the first Hydro electricity plant in Australia. Driving into the town you drive over rivulets that herd thousands of litres of water down and over the 6 massive pipe to the turbines. 7000 litres of water per minute go through each of those 6 pipes to power the turbine. Per minute....Lunch was reading all about the start and building of the hydro scheme in the 50's in a lovely 6 degrees. Summer Toasty!
Back in the disco we warmed up and drove on to Derwent Bridge where and artist Greg Duncan has created a 100m sculpture wall of timber that he has spent the last 10 years hand carving - and he's still go about 18 months to go till he finishes. It was lovely and warm in his 100m gallery. A beautiful open fireplace with chesterfield lounges at one end and a huge potbelly stove at the other. We could have stayed their for the rest of the day but we needed to continue.
It was sunny when we left the wall and raining when we arrived at the Lake St Clair NP a short drive later. Lake St Clair is the deepest inland lake in Tassie and we did 2 walks to Watersmeet and to Platypus Bay. Again the water coming down those rivers was awesome. We hiked in pouring rain, sleet like rain and glorious sunshine. This weather is weird!
From there we drove into World Heritage Listed Franklin - Gordon Rivers NP. The mist hung over towering cliff tops as we drove by as the weather dropped to the 6 degrees mark that travelled with us all day. Windy roads took us through mountain ranges and valleys - fun in the rain with the van and 35k turns!! After turn after turn, we finally arrived at Nelson Falls in pouring rain. By the time we parked and got out of the Disco and grabbed a raincoat, the sun was back out with blue sky! Nelson Falls didn't dissapointed either - the volume of water was much the same as the the other falls we saw today - just massive.
From there we drove into Princess River Conservation Area and past the beautiful Lake Burbury. This was a highlight of today for us. Towering cliffs surround the massive lake and to see it in cloudless blue skies briefly was magnificent. They didn't last long though as it was back to rain by the time we had driven round it.
From there it was on to Queenstown and a contrasting view from today. Queenstown is a copper mining town. They call it the Wild West of the west coast. I'm sure that most habitant carry gun belts..... We were glad just to be passing through . The narrow winding roads from the top of the mountain to the township was pretty scary whilst towing as well- glad we only have the Dove!
The narrow winding 35k turn roads continued for about 50 kms to the township of Strachan and our stop for the night. We only drove about 320kms today but it was a real effort!
Tomorrow we will explore this little hamlet of Strachan and the waters that surround it.
Today's echidna count was 3.