Very frosty start to the day, ice on the windscreen so a few minutes waiting in the car with the heater on high before we could get going. Two hour drive to Lake St Clair and of course through beautiful national parks, my navigator actually took us on a wrong turn and we ended up driving through Tarraleah, past Bradys Lake and Bronte Lagoon (which is the geographical centre of Tasmania) which was actually the scenic route, so hats off to the navigators!! We got some fuel at Derwent Bridge, a couple of kilometres from the lake. One thing about driving through the wilderness of Tasmania in winter is the lack of traffic and a huge choice a car parks.
We were the only ones in the visitors centre when we arrived so it was straight into coffee and cake for smoko. A short walk around the Lake Clair jetty, beach and visitors centre to walk off the cake.
After smoko it was off to Deloraine, another two hour drive broken in the middle by a couple of lookouts over the Tasmanian Lakes District, dominated by Great Lake right in the centre of the island. Once again I think my navigators dozed off and we ended up on the Marlborough Highway, which as Highways go, was a bit of a disappointment. It was about 40 kilometres of dirt road broken only by a million potholes. Once again it was the scenic route through small villages we judged to be either holiday huts for keen fisher people or hermits who have had enough of civilisation??
Once again we drove through about 6 different environments from heavy timber, alpine vegetation to large agricultural plains.
Arrived in Deloraine and hit the jackpot for a 2pm lunch of burgers and stuff, best we've had. Deloraine seems to be a very wealthy area and the town is well maintained with beautiful river walks and renovated old buildings. It also has a Woolworths where we stocked up on goodies for our three nights in Launceston. Arrived at our accommodation at about 4.30, just in time to unpack and open a beer.
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| Lake St Clair - both the start or the finish of the Overland track between Lake St Clair and Cradle Mountain. |
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| The path to the pier |
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| Browns cows |
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| Still cold - so no swimming today |
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| Even though the water is crystal clear |
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| Back to the visitors centre |
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| We've decided it must be busy in summer |
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| Lake St Clair beach |
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| Great Lake from the lookout |
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| Babbling brook |
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| The end of the road for someone |
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| Marlborough Highway |
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| Rocky mountain high |
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| Can't go anywhere without someone looking over my shoulder!! |
Three times I’ve stood in front of that Overland Track sign - when was that you say? Well let me tell you! First time was when I completed the 6 day walk, in 2003, starting at Cradle Mtn and finishing at Lake St Clair, 2nd time was when we took Mum and Dad there in 2004 and 3rd time was last year 2025 when we visited Josh and Brendan. We were on our way home from Strahan and decided to pop in for the fabulous scallop pies I’d had there twice before! No longer made them! 😤 life can be very unfair sometimes! Again photos look good as does the weather!
ReplyDeleteYes we've done this and that, good times, every time!!!
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