After heading through the remote Lakes Highlands, Tasmanian West Coast, and The Tarkine, we started to head back toward relative civilisation, or at least more people.
Cradle Mountain is the most popular hiking spot in Tasmania, with picturesque mountains and lakes. If you can see them. Instead we had low cloud, steady drizzle, cold and wind, Tasmanian summer! Did a quick lap of Dove Lake but didn’t venture up to Marion’s Lookout given that I couldn’t see it from the lake, and therefore probably couldn’t see the lake from there…
It was a ridiculously busy place without the landscape that would seem to justify it. Like the Milford Track I suspect the Overland Track (which starts here and finishes at Lake St Clair) is good but nowhere near as good as the level of hype it gets. Of course soon after we left the weather improved just a little!
Another very twisty drive (Western Tasmania is not for those who get car sick!) took us past a few reasonable mountains to Trowunna Wildlife Refuge, home to wombats and Tasmanian Devils. Animals aren’t really my thing but I did enjoy a refreshing frozen yogurt…
Some more visible natural beauty was found at Alum Cliffs, nice lookout and lots of sunshine!
Then arrived into the bustling metropolis of Launceston, Tasmania’s second largest city, population about 105,000. I spent the evening running around taking photos of heritage buildings, pretty standard behaviour for me. There was a wealth of beautiful old buildings though. The evening ended sat on a grassy bank overlooking the river, eating dessert as the sun set, and a random bagpiper played at the pub behind me!
