We decided to give the Gordon Dam a miss. Our fuel was again running low and with all the driving at high altitude we could not predict how far we could get on what was left in the tank. So now we hit the main highway into Hobart. An intriguing little place called Salmon Ponds was a slight detour. This was the first salmon and trout hatchery in the southern hemisphere and still supplies many of the fingerlings for the stocked dams around the state. The tourist...

Our nice campsite became less so at 4am when bloody roosters decided to crow up a storm - why didn't anyone mention that on Wikicamps?? We headed into Mt Field NP. Here is some serious high country with some winter ski fields at their heart. We joined the throngs from the bus tours to walk to Russell and Horseshoe Falls. All this talk of waterfalls is starting to sound like Iceland! But they were excellent and as always, a good waterfall is worth a walk! Gett...

We decided that we'd done enough strenuous walking for a while so opted to take the ferry boat all the way up the lake - and all the way back. Lake St Clair is a natural lake, the source of the Derwent and the deepest in Australia at 175m, formed from glacial action in the last Ice Age and from a fault along its length which dropped away the ground on one side of the lake. The lake is long and very beautiful and we enjoyed the relaxing cruise. There were some sho...

It poured overnight and the wind howled as well. Everything was soaked. We spread tarps over everything before closing up the camper to prevent the wet canvas coming into contact with the seating and the bedding. The low cloud hung around for a while as we headed out through Queenstown towards the east. The landscape around the town is famous for its desolation. Here are the results of mining gone mad: trees and vegetation dead, the earth eroded and scoured by ru...

At Zeehan, we stopped for a few hours at the West Coast Heritage Museum housed in the old School of Mines building. Here is a wealth of history exceptionally well set out with photos and documents relating to each of the local regions. There is a marvellous mineral collection with some wonderful crystalline specimens, and outside, sheds full of old machinery, cars and an old Huon Pine boat. The adjoining buildings are the old police station and courthouse, the ma...