Wednesday, 26 November 2014

A Sampler Tour of Tasmania. Day 19

The day started out clear and pretty chilly but not too much wind. I had a nice breakfast and headed off to explore the Highland Lakes via Poatina. There is a hydroelectric station here and that means that there will be a steep climb up to the hills behind it, roughly 1000 metres in only a couple of kms. 

Up high in the hills it got very cool with the external temperature dropping to around 7 deg and then the wind chill factor from the strong winds needed to be subtracted from that. Needless to say I didn't get out of the car very often to take photos. I had a look at Great Lake and then turned off to Arthur's Lake before taking a rather narrow unmaintained track to meet up with the turnoff to Interlakan. This small spit of land between two lakes is quite picturesque and the camping grounds seemed pretty good. 
From here it was back to the main highway at Tunbridge and turning north before taking the backroads to Cressy as they followed alongside the Macquarie River. At Cressy I had an early lunch and caught up quickly with Chris, one of the Overlander forum folks. Then it was north to Launceston where I went to have a look at Cataract Gorge which is very close to the centre of town. 


This is a beautiful spot for a picnic and a walk.  As I was feeling somewhat energetic I ignored the chair lift and walked along the track across the swaying suspension bridge to the lookout on the other side. The gardens here are very nice but not all that quiet as the Peacocks were making quite a bit noise. 


Then it was a quick walk down beside the gorge before returning the kiosk where I indulged in quite a nice cappuccino before heading back to camp. 


Along the way I took the chance to refuel the car for the last time before returning to the northern island tomorrow night. Back at camp I had a relaxing few hours watching the ducks annoy other people and the fishermen steadfastly not catching fish. 

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