Day 26: Lake St Clair to Strahan via Queenstown

It was windy roads all day this day

This was a day when we crammed quite a lot in. Sadly it was another Sunday where we couldn’t get to a church. We did listen to a couple of good podcasts that we’d downloaded prior to our journey (when we had WiFi, something that’s been hard to find).

We stopped at Nelson Falls and walked along a boardwalk off the road a couple of hundred metres. It was gorgeous, but also wet and cold. Some of the history of the place was written on signs around it and it's amazing to think that pioneers lived here once, while they were building this road through the mountains. What a difficult and somewhat lonely life that must have been!

Nelson Falls

Then we continued on to Queenstown, a place that is well known for its sulfur-burnt hills. This is a mining area, has been since the late 1800s, but in the early years they didn't look after the environment very well (nor the health of the miners or their families or those supporting the mining effort). The town and local environment is still scarred from those early days. This isn't a "cute" town, though you can see some efforts to make it more attractive. For example, they've created some mountain biking tracks on the nearby bare mountains.

We did grocery shopping in Queenstown. Curiously there are two IGA grocery stores only a block from one another in this small town (pop.=1,800). One stocks coffee beans (ground and whole), the other does not! This is a regional centre (the other place we could have driven to find a pharmacy two days earlier), which probably explains the two grocery stores.

Nelson Falls

We drove west from here to Strahan to find somewhere for the night. We ended up free camping at the golf course. A beautiful open area next to the actual course. There were a lot of others parked there also for the night. We didn't do any exploring, but did chat with our sons for a bit after we arrived. Our goal was to be close to the place where our next adventure took off from at 8.15 the next morning.

Nelson Falls: green everywhere

We saw many mountains this day

Queenstown

Parked at the golf course, we had a lovely view from our
dining room at the rear of the vehicle.

Day 25: all day at Lake St Clair

We had a slow start and then mid morning we walked over to “lodge” and visitors centre. This was an interesting place—it had cabins and places to camp. But also a hostel. The front desk is staffed like a hotel, which gives an interesting air to it all. The lodge contains a restaurant and cafe, but no accommodation. There is also an information centre about the area. It’s the official end point of the Overland Track—a hike of about 80 km through wilderness. Usually takes about 6-8 days. There are a few huts along the way but they’re very basic shelters. 

Cuvier River, I think

We spent time reading stuff in the visitor information centre and then settled down to using the WiFi that comes with our stay. I worked especially on catching up about on this blog. 

Back to the van for lunch and then we set out on a hike for a couple of hours. Not a difficult one, though choosing the appropriate level of clothing was hard. We both ended up wearing too much too much (the nights and mornings have been cold).

I returned to the lodge for another hour of work on this blog and then it was dinner time. We had leftovers. I’m still amazed at how little effort is required to feed the two of us, and how small the amount of food is that we consume! After more than ten years of feeding teenage boys, it’s a bit of an adjustment!

Hugel River or Cuvier...not quite sure which

This was the first day we didn’t drive anywhere in a week. Most days have involved 2+ hrs of driving. It was wonderful to stay put for the day (and to be feeling really quite well). 

Walking near Lake St Clair

Amazing tall tree. Much of this
forest had been destroyed by fire a few years earlier,
but we suspected this one escape.

 

Lovely reflections on the lake.

Day 24: Lake St Clair to Bothwell and back again

Lake St Clair at sunset

Last night I once again fell asleep before I got the end of the queue to talk to the online after hours doctor. But this morning I finally got to talk to a doctor about the radiology tests (my fifth in twelve days—I'd seen a doctor in Canberra, one in Bega at the ED, one on Easter Saturday, a dentist. and doctor on Easter Monday, then radiology on Tuesday). She agreed that it was inflammation of the sub mandibular salivary gland, but she wasn't happy with the level of inflammation on the scans, because they had been done after I'd already finished one course of antibiotics. My symptoms had improved, but not enough. So she prescribed another course. 

Sunset

It was then that we discovered just how remote we had, once again, ended up. The closest pharmacy was 90 minutes drive away (we were about equidistant from two). I was again frustrated. We'd hoped to go bushwalking that afternoon, but it seemed a drive was needed.

So we drove to Bothwell, a small, historical town in the centre of Tasmania. Making lemonade out of lemons, we discovered that there was a bit to see in the town. We chatted to the ladies at the information centre who pointed us to a walking tour and also to (in their opinion) the best place in town to have afternoon tea—the Post Office!

We eventually got back to Lake St Clair in time to make dinner and enjoy a sunset view at the lake.

A historic building in Bothwell with a short door.
David's standing there for comparison,
he's under 180cm tall.

Couldn't get enough of this lake!

Bothwell Post Office & Cafe

Yep, it's definitely autumn down here (feels like
winter, though, to us Queenslanders, who were
experiencing 30+ degree temperatures when we 
left home a month ago).

Nearly four hour round trip to get a course
of antibiotics. Some of this was on unsealed road too.

Day 23: Devonport to Lake St Clair

Beautiful Tasmania

We landed before dawn in Devonport, awoken early in our beds by an announcement, much like a plane. Although, it was luxurious travel compared to planes, with the freedom to move around, but we also had a private room with an ensuite, which would be amazing on an overnight flight! Getting to sleep was interesting with the various noises of the boat and subtle movements, but at no time did I feel motion sickness.

We drove off the boat in pre-dawn darkness and then made our way to the local grocery store car park. We had breakfast there in our home-on-wheels—an excellent perk that comes with travelling in a motorhome! It saves a lot of money! Then we did grocery shopping for the next few days, especially for fresh fruit and vegetables, none of which were allowed across the border. It was cold, so I also bought some cheap slippers and warmer socks.

Our cabin on the ferry

On a medical front, I was frustrated at missing the doctor's call the night before, but I didn't realise the online medical service I'd spoken to on Monday was a strictly after hours service and that they closed at 8 am, so, despite being up at 5.30 in order to get off the boat, I missed talking to someone the next morning also. It was frustrating, especially because I wanted to know if I should get another round of antibiotics going before we left for a remote part of Tasmania. But we decided to embrace the journey and continued on our way, hoping to catch a doctor that night.

Mt Roland (1,231 m) and Lake Barrington

So we headed out of town and pretty quickly encountered the narrow windy roads that are typical of Tasmania. We've discovered that it's rare to be able to travel the maximum speed limit because of these factors, so distance isn't a great barometer for how long it will take you to get somewhere! 

Our camping spot at Lake St Clair

Because we'd started the day so early and with so much of the day still ahead of us, we spontaneously decided to drive via Cradle Mountain visitor centre. It added about two hours to our journey, and was a bit fruitless in the end, as they were charging for the shuttle bus into the National Park (on top of the National Park pass that we'd already bought on the ferry). There was no other way to get closer to the mountain, so we decided not to pay and just to head onwards to the other end of the National Park where we had booked a place to park for three nights.

And what a spectacular first camping spot. There were few others there and we were among gorgeous tall trees. Just down the hill was Lake St Clair, the deepest lake in Australia. But we stayed there three nights, so I'll leave off writing more about it for today.

Day 22: East Melbourne to Geelong to ferry to Tasmania

We started the day in Drouin, a town east of Melbourne, eating breakfast with our friends. I was nauseous and wondered how I was going to cope with the day, but in retrospect I think it was mostly anxiety. This was the big day: the day we'd paid a lot of money to catch a ferry to Tasmania. Yes, now you finally know where we have been headed as our "major destination".

It was also my birthday, but that was a minor point!

Where we parked for the night before
we boarded the ferry, our friend's driveway.
We joked about trimming their tree for them! 

We drove to Geelong, through the centre of Melbourne, but via "the high road" (expressway). It was surprisingly painless! When we got to Geelong we found a free place to park, ate lunch in the motorhome, and then I had a lie down (this I'd been doing at every opportunity during these days when I was under the weather). David took a walk down by the esplanade. After he came back I roused myself and we went for another walk, this time to get some motion sickness tablets from a pharmacy, in preparation for the Bass Straight crossing.

At 3.30 we headed to the Spirit of Tasmania (name of the boat) pier to line up to board the ferry. It brought back many memories of doing this in Japan, most notably when we caught a car ferry to do a camping trip in Hokkaido eleven years ago (see here). It was exciting to finally be on board, this was a trip that we'd been planning since early last year, so it's been a long time coming.

It was a pretty grey day in Geelong.
This is the car park
we spent the afternoon in near the esplanade.

I knew that my radiology results were available that afternoon, so, in the midst of everything else going on, I tried to get in to the same online doctor service I'd spoken with two days earlier. I waited in a virtual line for hours, not knowing if they'd even be able to call me if we were in the middle of Bass Straight. But in the end I fell asleep enroute to Tasmania after 9.30pm, missing their call by only half an hour, it was very frustrating.

Lining up to board the ferry

Our journey

Day 21: a day east of Melbourne

The road into Four Brothers Rocks

This day threatened to be another "lost" day. A day where my medical needs superseded any holiday fun we might have. We packed up and drove to the radiologist in a nearby suburb, getting there an hour early on a cool, windy morning. Turns out that early was good. The appointment we'd booked online was for only one of scans I needed, but they were able to slot me in for the other as well and I was all finished before my original appointment time.

Then we needed to decide what to do with the rest of the day. David did some Googling and discovered Four Brothers Rocks in a nearby state park. He didn't realise the road there was not sealed, but we made it there anyway and enjoyed a short walk to a scenic spot.

Alas we were bother looking in the wrong place
in this photo and so look somewhat unhinged!

After that we drove to the home of former CAJ colleagues of David's who had kindly agreed to host us for the night. We enjoyed conversation and dinner with our feet under their very stable table, and use of their bathroom, but slept in our own bed. I still wasn't sleeping well, so keeping one thing constant seemed to be a good thing. It was refreshing to talk with folk who knew a lot about our Japan home and know many of the same people there.

Four Brothers Rocks

Day 20: dash to the dentist

Where we parked that night, east of Melbourne 
and surprisingly rural. No facilities available to us
here, just a space to peacefully park (which cost us
$20).

If you've been following along, you'll know that finding dentists open on the Easter long weekend had been impossible in the areas we’ve been travelling in (rural NSW and Vic), even Canberra seems to lack this kind of service. Melbourne was different, and I found a dentist fairly quickly once we were within driving distance. So this “Easter Monday” (the last day of the four day weekend of holidays) we packed up early and drove over three hours to the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, to get to the dentist before she shut at 1pm.

The dentist was very compassionate and quickly determined that my problem wasn't dental at all. She diagnosed inflammation of the sub-mandibular salivary gland. This gland sits under the jaw bone, about halfway along. This was my third diagnosis in eight days! Would it be the right one? 

Nowa Nowa to Officer to Pakenham

She told me I needed to see a doctor and get some scans done. So that was the next job. We drove to a nearby Hungry Jacks (Australian Burger King) and I had a thickshake for lunch: the easiest thing for me to "eat" as I was still struggling to open my mouth and chew, although it was a little better than a couple of days earlier.

Rainbow just before we left this spot.

Mist on our three hour dash to the dentist

We sat in their car park after lunch and used their WiFi to search for doctors and for radiologists. I accidentally found an after hours bulk bill telephone consult service (non-Aussies, this means I didn't pay for a consultation, it was covered by our compulsory national health insurance). I waited a couple of hours to hear from a doctor, but once I did, she was helpful. Perhaps a little too helpful. She order a CT scan of my neck and an ultrasound. But unfortunately she also led me to believe that I could get the results of those tests from the same telephone service, which had implications in the following days. Thankfully David found a radiology appointment in the area for the next morning.

It was feeling like my health was the third member of this trip and has a far louder voice than either of us, and I wasn't very happy about that.

Then we had to find an alternative place to park the van for the night, because our original planned stopping spot was too far away. Thankfully that wasn’t too hard and so the rest of the day and evening were quiet, very quiet. We were parked at some isolated community hall, with no facilities we could use, just parked there. It rained and blew that night and later we heard that our original plan would have been even worse (exposed spot on the south coast). Thankfully we were in a watertight van where we could be comfortable.

This night we spent some time on a fun project I’m working on. It's a basic scrapbook journal of our journey, in the style of one I did on my first trip to Tasmania when I was 10. It's in a basic school exercise book with a short summary of the day's activity and sticking in any "souvenirs" of the day that we can find. We did a few days of that this night: a non-WiFi activity.