So finally back to my travelogue. After leaving Strahen we headed back to Queenstown, then over the mountains to our next stop at Richmond. Its a bit long trip but we plan some stops along the way as we cross through the wilderness regions of Tasmania. The weather is rather cold and wet when we leave but improves slightly as we pass through Queenstown, stopping for some scenic views of the famous moonscape terrain.
Over the ranges and past Lake Burbury, one of the earliest of the hydroelectric dam lakes and through the Wild Rivers National Park. Stop part way for a short walk to view the Franklin River, but by the time we climb to the look out there is horizontal rain and then snow. Once more Siobhan learns a lesson about why we hassle them to dress appropriately. Lunch in the rain in the car then onto Lake St Clair.
The views from a short walk by the lake promise to be magic but when we get there they are magic for a different reason, snow! Wild rivers plunge into the lake and we briefly walk the end of the overland trail, so now we can say we walked both ends of the famous overland track, just not the bit in between.
Lake St Clair has an impressive ranger station and cafe so we settle down for hot chips and hot chocolate to wait out the storm. Then it is on to Richmond and after surviving the traffic jams around the Derwent we eventually arrive at old Richmond town, only to discover we weren’t really sure where our accommodation was. Fortunately Richmond isn’t too big and after 3 laps of the town we eventual find our luxury accommodation amongst the orchards and vine trellises, avail our self’s of their lovely restaurant and settle in for the night on the edge of the country side.
Sarah Island was meant to be the harshest penal colony in Tasmania prior to the setting up of Port Arthur prison. It was also the starting point for the story of the “ship that never was”, the last escape from this inescapable prison. Here we once again met the cast from the 
Hope we got everyone back, but I don’t remember seeing those Round Earth blokes again?
At Strahan our accommodation was spacious if a bit patchy and rather expensive. Ah well been good so far, and we can cook here.
Day 2 in Tassie and we are now fully set up for our stay in Cradle Valley. After a recce and some planning we hope to do a half day walk around Dove Lake before the walk to Cradle Lake tomorrow. Or at least that was my plan.
Having spent a morning on rushing around and last minute jobs we drove to Port Melbourne, only getting slightly lost, before joining a queue to wait.
. Despite some grief trying to get Siobhan to buy some sunglasses we did see some great murals, an impressive old merchants store and the alpaca man and it wasn’t even lunch!
Strangely there was no mobile phone reception but unfortunately plenty of television reception plus the odd visitor.
