A day in the car today …. We set off early from Strahan as the plan is to get right over to the east coast by this evening – a drive of about six and a half hours. However, to break it up, we decided on various stops. The first one was at Nelson Falls about 35km to the east of Queenstown. The walk at Nelson Falls was only about 20 minutes in total, but was a lovely walk through rainforest to the falls – about 35 metres high and very beautiful with the sun just shining through on them.
The next stop was at Donaghys Lookout. This was a slightly longer walk – about 40 minutes return and a much steeper incline! It turned out that Donaghy liked looking out from a hill with a incisor-like peak. To try and make it safer for us they have built an observation deck at the top, but, despite all the cloud around, this still felt quite exposed. The view would probably have been stunning on a clear day, but it wasn’t a clear day! We could see a bit, but with the cloud cover coming in it blanked out swathes of the view. It was still well worth the walk, but Donaghy probably had a better view when he named it ….
The next stop was intended to be a walk along the Franklin River, but when we pulled in to the car park, we realised that this plan may not work. A raft of works vehicles and a woman in a hi-vis jacket walking over presaged disappointment, though she did deliver the bad news with a smile. It turned out that they were fitting toilets and had to close the track while they did it. So, we drive straight out again and headed on to Derwent Bridge. Derwent Bridge is not big – a population of around 40 people at last count (2021 census). There is though, an attraction there that attracts thousands of people every year – the Wall.
The Wall is a 100 metre long wooden sculpture representing the history of the central highlands of Tasmania. It is a powerful historical record of the work that went into creating the region – some positive, some negative and some perhaps negative with the power of hindsight. The struggles and perseverance of the people who farmed, hunted and built hydro-electric systems in the region are brought out in an incredibly powerful way – some symbolically, but some in almost photo-realistic style. Each of the 100 panels is around 3 metres high and much of it is done in Huon Pine. Some areas are left not quite complete to illustrate the working process, but this adds to the experience rather than detracting. A fascinating visit …..
From there though, we felt we needed to do some miles, so we spent a few hours getting all the way across to Ross and a bit closer to our destination. We parked centrally in the main town square which is known locally as The Four Corners of Ross. The corners each have names and are damnation (the jail which is now a private house), salvation (The Roman Catholic church), recreation (the old Town Hall) and temptation (the pub!). Our temptation was the local bakery with a nice drink and cream cake ….
From there it was just an hour and a half to our destination – the Freycinet peninsula. Our accommodation is just before Coles Bay and we have a small studio with a fantastic view over the bay with Maria Island in the distance. As dusk drew in the view changed as a our neighbours moved into the garden – Bennets Wallabies – at one time we counted nine of them munching away quite happily ….
