Franklin River

Today the weather alternated between rain and sunshine. It felt really warm when the sun was out, and decidedly chilly when it wasn’t. We started the day with another big breakfast and had planned to do a waterfall walk before heading to Strahan, but decided against it when it started raining. Instead we packed the car and left.

We stopped at a little playground in Rosebury, Nathan and Andrew looked at some trains in Zeehan that were part of a museum, and made it to Strahan for lunch. The kids both fell asleep in the car, so they missed the incredible sand dunes before we got to Strahan. The sand dunes are 30 metres high and extend 15 km north along the coast from Strahan. They change as humans, vegetation, and the Roaring Fourties winds influence their shape.

We had planned to stay in Strahan for the night, and do a cruise along the Gordon River. However, we had not realized that the cruises were 6 hours long. They all left in the early morning, so we had missed any chance of a cruise today, and we didn’t have time for one tomorrow. There is a cog-wheel railway in Strahan as well, but it was the same story as the cruise in that it only went once in the morning, and you didn’t get back until the afternoon. We had some lunch and decided that we would push on to Derwent Bridge so that our trip to Hobart tomorrow won’t be so long. We did visit Ocean Beach before leaving Strahan. It is the longest beach in Tasmania and had stones and large shells scattered on the sand.

Queenstown has the most incredible looking bare hills around the town though, of course, they represent at ecological disaster caused by the mining industry of yesteryear. I was interested to see tall, reed-like grasses to be growing over the hills. I can’t remember if the hills had anything growing on them last time I was here….some 25-ish years ago. We stopped on the way out of Queenstown to look into an open cut mine and then it was on to Derwent Bridge for the night.

The road between Queenstown and Derwent Bridge was magnificent. We were in National Parks the entire way. Unfortunately it was getting late in the day, and we didn’t have time to stop and explore some of the short walks from picnic areas along the way, though we did stop to look at the Franklin River when we crossed it.

Finally we made it to Derwent Bridge where we are staying at the only hotel in this small town

Ocean Beach

Cold and windy on Ocean Beach

Poo with a view! Between Strahan and Queenstown

This morning, after (a big) breakfast, we went for a short walk (~30 minutes) from our accommodation called Enchanted Walk. It was really lovely, with moss and lichen everywhere, and waterfalls along the river. There were even three little tunnels with pictures on both sides for the littlies who did the walk. We saw a pademelon at the start, a wallaby further along the track, and a platypus once we got back to the dam near the lodge.

We made some sandwiches for lunch, packed our wet weather gear, beanies, sun hats and sunscreen and drive back to Dove Lake. We were prepared for all weather, but decided to just take the gear for wet and cold weather on the walk.

After slathering on the sunscreen (and we still got sunburnt) Andrew and Nathan entered the details of our walk in the Walker Registration book. Toby went unhappily on my back, Andrew had our gear, food and water in a backpack, and Nathan had his own backpack for his raincoat, sandwiches and drink bottle and set off on the Dove Lake circuit, gazetted as being 6 km long and expected to take 1-2 hours. Andrew had a GPS app that seems to think we walked 7 km. Whatever the distance, it took us 4 hours all up, including stops for photos, lunch, drinks, rain, hail, Toby complaining and probably a bunch of other reasons.

It was a stunning walk, and Nathan walked the entire way without complaint. I think the thing that Nathan enjoyed most was that there was so much water around that one part of the track was more like a river than a foot-track. He ended up walking through so many puddles and running water that he was drenched from the knees down. Toby would have loved to walk, but it was too hard for him with all the stones, ad he fell over after about 3 steps every time I put him down.

Pademelon

Tiny pink-orange fungi

Along the Enchanted Walk

Nathan amused himself by banging two stones together to make ‘music’.

I have been fascinated by all the red growth we’ve seen on rocks

An old boat shed near the end of the walk.

Hellyer Gorge river walk

Toby has been saying “next stop Tasmania” for several days now, and last night it was finally true. We boarded the Spirit of Tasmania at around 6:30 pm and left the dock at around 7:30 pm. It was an interesting night, with both kids not wanting to go to sleep in our 4-berth cabin (bunk beds) and the vibrations, noise of the engine chugging along and some slightly rough sections of the crossing. It was reasonably comfortable, though, and we were driving around Devonport after clearing quarantine by 7:30 am this morning.

We had a lovely breakfast at Laneway Cafe, and Andrew said the coffee was very nice….always a good sign if you can impress a coffee snob. :D. Then we hit the road, taking a detour off the freeway to go through the township of Penguin where we saw a big penguin. We stopped in Burnie for some essentials (food, mostly….we can never get far with the kids if we don’t have food!) and then found a little playground to burn off some energy.

We stopped for lunch at Hellyer Gorge where we went for a nice little stroll along the Hellyer River. The kids had a ball throwing stones into the water. With rain threatening, we got back into the car and drove to Waratah. It was a little detour to look for petrol, so it was a great surprise to find a big waterfall practically right in town. It was stunning.

Finally we made it to our destination of Cradle Mountain Lodge where we are staying for two nights. After booking in we drove down to Dove Lake, a very beautiful spot. We couldn’t see many of the mountains around due to low cloud, and it started raining as well. Hopefully the weather will be a bit better for walking tomorrow.

Hellyer River

Waratah waterfall

Waratah water wheel

Dove Lake