TheLostGlobe

Sometimes the easy way is just boring and the route we took to my sisters house for Christmas day is testement to this, the alternative to the Lyell Highway is the Midlands Highway and then doubling back down the west coast, athough this way is longer than the Lyell the road is much better and straighter which makes it 30mins to 1hr faster. The trade off is the Midlands Highway is deathly boring and I’d recommend vistors to [tag]Tasmania[/tag] avoid it at all costs unless you are genuinely interested in the history of the small towns along it. So we set off from [tag]Hobart[/tag] , the Lyell heads north-west roughly skirting the edge of the great south-west wilderness passing some spectacular scenery along the way.

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Before reaching the wild west the highway winds through hilly grazing land before reaching the centeral plateau just after the small Hydro “town” of Tarraleah, although a very small mark on the land from it cutting through the forest is a long line of high voltage overhead powerlines. Our next stop was Lake St Clair the deepest in [tag]Australia[/tag] and during the walking season the end of the famous [tag]Overland Track[/tag]. The lake was an imaginary halfway stop for us where we broke for lunch but unfortunately that was all we had time for. This area also marked the beginning of these somewhat amusing signs.

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The scenery becomes progressively more and more inspiring, passing dolerite mountains, some well known Tasmanian bushwalks and rivers like the Franklin which has been the object many a enviromental debates over the years and into amazing valleys. Unfortunately the rain began to set in now and the views were limited by the low visability but did not lose any character. Soon we were entering Queenstown, we knew we were because the mountains changed, the thick inpenatrable rainforest had gone COMPLETELY. In the town’s earlier mining history the trees were used in the smelters and it has had a devestating effect on the area, although regeneration was started some time ago the thin topsoil on the effected mountains went with the heavy rainfall the west coast recieves making regeneration progress very slow. [tag]Targa Tasmania[/tag] pass through the town attracted by the extremely windy road over the mountain into the town. When we arrived in Rosebery it was mentioned more than once “The best view of “Queeny” is in your rear view mirror”.

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We spent 2 nights in Rosebery for Christmas with family, it rained the whole time, it might have even snowed in the higher areas, this is completely foreign to me as Christmas is normally associated with 30C days although I can’t die happily without one day seeing a white Christmas, rain is different though, it’s gloomy and very unfun.

We left for [tag]Cradle Mountain[/tag] on Boxing Day and on the drive the weather kindly cleared a bit for us. We decided to walk up to Marions Lookout from the Dove Lake carpark which is about 3 hours return and graded moderate, although there are a few sections that would pass as difficult but the view from the top is well worth the effort, Cradle Mountain really does have some of Tasmania’s most spectacular scenery. I’m thinking it would be a really nice place to go to annually so we might go next year too and do the Overland track then.

[tag]Australia Day[/tag] is fast approaching and we have planned 2-3 nights walking down on the [tag]Tasman Peninsula[/tag] so I’m hoping for some good weather and hopefully I will be able to write about it a bit sooner than I have on this trip, which was now 3 weeks ago. I’ve updated the Gallery so please check out the other photos from the trip there, I think some of them aren’t actually too bad.

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