45. Lap of Tasmania - Lake St. Clair to Strahan on the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia.
In this episode we are taking off on the first part of our lap of Tassie.
For those of you who don’t know me, I don’t like driving much especially on windy roads, I certainly don’t like getting lost and I am not keen on navigating somewhere I haven’t been before – so what could go wrong? Oh, and also, we won’t be using the “C” word on this road trip – camping – nope, no tents or campervans to be found.
We start off in Hobart and drive through New Norfolk where we first encounter a large group of motorcycle riders. Not like your stereotypical “bikie gang” more like the John Travolta Wild Hogs vibe.
We continue on our windy road to the beautiful Lake St Clair, but not before we tell you about the incredible 100m x 3m wooden sculpture that you can’t take pictures of and how we came across one of those Wild Hogs who had come off his bike.
Lake St Clair wilderness area and national park is spectacular, the lake is the deepest lake in the wilderness in Australia and is surrounded by walks and hikes of all levels and terrains. We share the ones we did and also where you can access the “60 great short walks of Tasmania”
We splurged a bit on our accommodation, and we tell you why we were pretty disappointed with it and also how I ended up on top of an anthill the morning we left.
We cover the next part of the journey to Strahan on the wild west coast. We stop on the way at one of our favourite little spots in Tassie – Nelson falls. It is just so pretty.
Then we arrive in Strahan, and just love this quaint little place which is the gateway to the Franklin Gordon River National Park. We take you on a sunset cruise to Hells Gates, the convict settlement of Sarah Island and the amazing Gordon River National Park as the sun is setting.
I save a very special and interesting fact about Strahan (that even Lyle didn’t know) to the end of the episode – so stay listening to hear that – you won’t be disappointed.
So please enjoy the first instalment of our Lap of Tasmania.
SHOW NOTES AND PICTURES BELOW
The drive from Hobart to Lake St Clair is 180km, but because the road is often windy in places it will take you about 2 and a half hours. Of course, it took us longer as we made a few stops along the way. The first stop was for coffee just 32km from Hobart at New Norfolk before stopping at The Wall in the Wilderness. This is a stunning art installation located close to Derwent Bridge Hotel on the way to Lake St Clair.
It is a massive one of a kind masterpiece. The wall is a stretch of wooden panels that are 100m by 3m high. The panels are carved with incredible detail to show the history of the central Highlands of Tasmania. Unfortunately, you can’t take pictures inside as they want you to buy their book, but I think they would get more publicity if pictures were allowed.
After a few exciting and upsetting events along our way (more info in the podcast) we set off to Lake St Clair. You have to have a National Parks Pass which you can buy at the tourist information centre at the Lake St Clair building.
The park is spectacular and has many tracks of different levels and distances. You can meander through ancient rainforests to alpine lakes and mountain summits. Lake St. Clair is Australia’s deepest lake in a wilderness. It was carved by glaciers. Early morning when the water is still is a great time to take some nice photos.
We did the Watersmeet and Platypus bay walk, which is 4.5km and quite easy and the Franklin beaches walk, which is 2 hours return. There is a walk to Echo point which is 11km and you can catch the ferry back.
There is a website dedicated to 60 Great Short Walks in Tasmania. See it here.
After our night at Lake St. Clair we headed on our way to Strahan on the west coast. It is a 132km drive, but once again it will take between 2 and 2 and a half hours. This part of the trip was particularly windy.
Just over an hour from Lake St Clair is a stunning little place to stop. It is called Nelson Falls and it is a 1.4km return loop just off the highway. You can park easily and do the lovely walk along the creek with ferns and moss covered logs all the way to the waterfall at the end. It is 30 metres high and quite wide and definitely worth a stop.
Strahan was our final destination for this part of our lap of Tassie. We arrived around lunchtime and found our accommodation easily. Gateway to the Gordon is an ideal place to stay with views of the harbour and town. The owners were so friendly and we would highly recommend staying here. It is an easy walk to town, Hogarth Falls and Regatta Point.
On our first afternoon we booked on the Sunset cruise on the Franklin - Gordon River cruise. It included a buffet dinner. We first went out to the edge of Macquarie Harbour to Hell’s Gates. There are two lighthouses to guide boats through this treacherous 80 metre opening into the Southern ocean.
After cruisng through the harbour we entered the national park. It was an amazing experience and so peaceful and beautiful. It was declared part of Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage area in 1982.
As the sun was setting we visited Sarah Island a former penal colony where they built many boats and we learnt about the island’s history.
The following day we had time to explore the quaint town of Strahan. We walked around the beautiful harbour and visited Morrisons Huon Pine Sawmill which is open to the public every day in the tourist season.
This is a great place to buy some wooden souvenirs to take home.
We finished our visit to Strahan by visiting the train station of the West Coast Railway which is a tourist train that runs between Queenstown and Strahan using the original locomotives. We enjoyed lunch there and were told that the best dinner in town was next door at the Regatta hotel as they served fresh Macquarie Harbour ocean trout each night from the day’s catch.
It was one of the best meals we had in Tassie, including the oysters.
One of the most interesting things about Strahan is their world record in water skiing. As promised in the podcast the link below will show the record winning attempt and some of the 10 failed ones as well.
CLICK ON THE PICTURE BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO OF 145 WATER SKIIERS BREAKING THE WORLD RECORD IN STRAHAN ON 27TH JANUARY, 2012, PLUS HOW THEY PLANNED IT.
Our lap of Tassie continues in our next episode. If you want to know when our new episodes are published then join our email list .
You can listen to all our Tasmanian podcasts and see the show notes and pictures by clicking the button below.