We chilled out in Hobart for the rest of the time we had there and then decided to head off for Strahan. It was going to be a long day and we had to set off early. We followed the road LP describes as stunning to get to Mt Field NP. It is not the impressive, but a pleasant drive. We did not have time to do all the things in the park so we just did the short walk to Russell Falls which is not bad, but nothing too special. Then we hopped in the car and shot up the Lyell Highway. Until Lake St Clair there is not a lot to see, but once we got there we stopped for lunch. Its not bad, but nothing too special. Its from here that the road becomes really stunning. It enters Franklin Rivers National Park and the drive is spectacular, passing through fields, forests and mountain valleys. All of the side walks are quite pretty but it is Donaghy's Lookout that you simply have to stop to. Seemingly everyone else skipped it, but it is a beautiful short hike. Its quite amazing that after just 20 minutes of walking you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere. Amazingly peaceful. Its 20 minutes off the highway, but it feels like 20 hours away. Well worth the time. Eventually we rocked up in Queenstown and went up to the viewpoint. Wow. I had not been expecting that. You can see down into the mining pit. Its very beautiful although the wind is super strong up there. People had told us that it was a shithole, but I think its quite a cute little town. We were running out of time so we carried on to Strahan, which is a cute little waterfront town. We stayed in a B and B here and decided to go for a nice meal in the expensive restaurant in town. The oysters were great and the pudding was fantastic, but the rest of the food was somewhat disappointing. Shame as it cost us quite a bit.
In the morning we laid in and chilled out before setting off for Cradle Mountain. The road is the usual winding Tasmanian road and it is quite pretty along the way although there is nothing specific to see. We got to Cradle Mountain around 1.30pm and the woman at reception told us that we should hurry to get down to the mountain that night as the weather was likely to be shit for the next few days and we needed to be able to see the mountain. We dropped off the car and took the free shuttle down to the lake. I found it really beautiful there as we had a clear view and the trees were half orange with the autumn change of colour. Cannelle just thought that it was nice. We went for a little walk around dove lake but we had to get the last bus back which was a shame as it would have been nice to do some hiking. Tomorrow we would go back. If I had known how the weather would have been the next day I think I'd have gone hiking that evening. We saw a few wombats and wallabies in the evening but went to bed early.
The next morning we got up to go hiking but it was caining it down with rain. Shitty. We tried to wait it out for a bit and then just decided to hike anyway. I had wanted to do the Cradle Mountain summit hike but when we got there it was obvious that it was too foggy to do it. We opted to hike to cradle lake, which is probably stunning when you have a clear day. The hiking was still very pleasant even in the rain, so its probably really cool on a good day. We just did a short hour long walk and headed back to the cafe to wait until the end of the day. I really wanted to go looking for a platypus as I know they are almost impossible to see and I was disappointed with my semi view in Canberra. We decided to try down by Ronny Creek as it had been recommended. We didn't see any, but we did see loads of wombats and again a lot of wallabies. On the way back we saw a lot of pademelons around the lodge. In the evening we got chatting with some people in the campsite and they had seen a platypus in the lodge pond so we decided to try there in the morning.
We got up early and braved to rain to see the platypus. When we got there it was close to the bank so we went there quickly only to see it disappear when a loud middle aged group of Australians came and made so much fucking noise that they scared it off. We spent the next 40 minutes silently stalking the pond until we got some great close up shots of the platypus. At last I can say I have seen one and they are super cute in the water. We have seen almost all of the big ticket Australian animals in the wild now. Its nowhere near as difficult as people say it is. We hope to get some of the desert creatures in the outback and the only ones we will miss will be the tree kangaroo and cassowary in queensland as we are not heading over that way. Have to save it for another trip. We left and headed for Sheffield. We decided on the way that we didn't want to go to Mole Creek NP as it was just some caves and we would be pushed for time. Sheffield is a cute town and well worth a stop with all the murals there. The best ones are in the centre of town and its worth stopping by the mural park to see this year's competition. We spent and hour or two looking around. Afterwards we headed back to Launceston, only being a little worried when a piece of plastic hit the car tyre and then it swerved a bit. We though we may have a flat but it looked as though it was just wind. Eventually we got the car back to the airport and took the bus back to Launceston. We went to Burger got Soul which is really good if a little overpriced and then I called the passport people because I was beginning to get worried about why they hadn't received it yet. They told me that they had received it on the friday and so they at least had the paperwork. Lets hope it doesn't take too long. The next day we just headed to the airport and had an hours delay before taking the short flight back to Melbourne. Tasmania is a great place to visit. There is nothing world class, but there is nothing less than great either. Everything is super cute and there is so much to see and do that its definitely an amazing place to go for a two week holiday. Well worth the trip.
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