LAUGHTER AT ST CLAIR

The Bloke!

From the rugged and maimed mountains of Queenstown we took the torturous and treacherous road to Lake St Clair, just a short drive in a south easterly direction. This is what is known at the Central Highlands and reputed to be very cold country. We can vouch for that. They had seen just a little snow a few days before we arrived and the area was still wet and chilly. Minimums were down to around 2 and max up to around 14 degrees.

The road out of Queenstown was hairy but we just took our time, pulling over to allow faster traffic to overtake when possible. One of the wonderful things about travelling with a van around Tassie is that nowhere is usually more than say one to one and a half hours further on. This means packing up and pulling out around 9ish and arriving and setting up by lunch time – very pleasant indeed.

The Lake

Lake St Clair is part of the lake and dam system that supports the hydro system here in Tasmania. I know there has been a great deal of furore about damming and the pros and cons here, and I as much as anyone would hate to see the wilderness and its creatures gobbled up by the inundation of water, BUT.....this is a clean and virtually carbon free method of producing electricity and I read at one of the dams that the rivers which feed the system, ultimately all end up in the Derwent and after going thru’ no less than 6 hydro systems to produce power, they ends up as perfectly fine drinking water when it reaches Hobart. It seems a pretty good system to me. The wilderness here is amazing and beautiful and also plentiful. It seems that with good management, research and planning, there can be both. But what do I know – probably nothing.

The Hydro

The Lake itself was quite pretty but we didn’t avail ourselves of the ferry ride around the lake as we were a little ‘boated out’ in the short term and couldn’t really see the point, although I’m sure it would have been a pretty little cruise. The weather didn’t really help as the drizzle and mist followed us from Queenstown and stayed with us for most of the three days we were in Late St Clair.

Picturesque Church at Bothwell

Stunning Scenery Along the Road

We took a very long looping drive out to The Great Lake where the water levels were quite low, then down to Bothwell where they have a Golf Museum, across to Hamilton and then back up to the Lake. This drive was around 200ks and took us a good few hours stopping to check out the museum and the hydro system along the way – the country-side was stunning however and the drive well worth the effort. The museum left our old golfer a bit bemused as he claims he has owned much of the stuff they had there at some time or another. The old buildings in Bothwell and the other little towns we passed through were quite special.

Another Quaint Old Church - Hamilton

The CP at the lake was something else – it is in the National Park and run by the people who also run the little restaurant. None of them has a very good grasp on English and obviously none of them have any understanding of caravans or caravanners. We did book our site but when we arrived, firstly the signage was non-existent and we along with many other caravanners were wandering along looking bewildered. Finally in desperation we headed into the big Information Centre there and found our way to the reception desk for the CP. The next obstacle was actually finding our booking, the problem was exacerbated by lack of English and lack of Computer Knowledge but finally we managed to give them some money and establish which site we were supposed to go to. We were told that if someone was in our site, we should just pick another and let the office know in due course. OK! So, off we went to our reserved site – the one we asked for as we have a reasonably long van – hmmmm, no 7 – not so very big at all and not so very easy to get in and out of – hmmmm, well after much deliberation we elected to squeeze ourselves into site no 2 – a little larger and a little easier to access etc . After quite a bit of backing and filling we managed to get into our site and DD went off to advise the office of the change. Not long after he returned, another happy camper came along to park in, you guessed it, site no 2 – and no, that wasn’t the last one, no less than 3 lots of campers were assigned that site that day. The whole time we were there, nobody went to site no 7 as it remained ‘reserved’. The final insult came when I went to return the key on departure – “Do you have your receipt?” I was asked by the gentle girl who manned the till – “Ummm, well, no..............” I responded, not wanting to give her the paperwork we had as they had put the wrong departure date on it, and I didn’t wish to go there! It turned out when she finally found our details that the offending receipt was still neatly attached to their copy – mm, no wonder I didn’t have it! Oh well, finally I was re-united with our $20 key deposit. The key was for the ablution block, and would you believe it, on top of the $30 per night they charged, they also charged $1 to have a shower. A bit over the top I thought.

Our First Visitor

And The Second!

The saving grace of the camp, for us, was the animals. The place was alive with critters of all shapes and sizes. We braved the wet and cold conditions and sat outside after tea in the evening and waited to see who or what would come around. First we had a small and very tame little Pademelon visit – he moseyed around for quite a while. While he grazed we were visited by what we think were a group of little Thornbills and then a large and very cheeky Currawong came along to see what was going. As the darkness descended, we heard small rustlings and there before our eyes was the most beautiful little Eastern Quoll – what a delightful and pretty little creature. Soon we had up to five of these beautiful little animals cavorting around us. They were a little like red squirrels – pretty reddish fur and slightly bushy tails. They are spotted like their western cousins, but are much smaller and I think, sweeter. Before long, we were joined by a huge grey brush tail possum who just casually wandered around our feet. The quolls were not particularly impressed with his company and gradually left. The possum was then joined by a much smaller black brush tailed possum who was even cheekier. At one stage he just appeared next to me on the awning support and proceeded to climb to the top and onto the awning. Now we are not too keen on having them on the awning, as their claws are long and sharp. Mr Black Possum made a terrible mistake – he sat on the awning and allowed his big brush tail to hang down in a very decorative manner. DD crept quietly moved across and gave that hairy appendage a good sharp tug – well, I can tell you, that possum could really move! He took off like the proverbial race horse goanna – belted across the awning and off the other side. He wasn’t discouraged for long however and was soon back sniffing around. During the night, he and his hairy mates kept us entertained by dancing all over the roof of the van. I could see the little monsters running across in front of the skylight as I lay in bed. We did actually get one fine night whilst in Lake St Clair and the stars were enormous – looking up thru’ the skylight through the alpine gums to the stars above was a special treat.

And Then Along Came.....

And His Mates!

The only downside to our recent adventures is some weird bug I have picked up which involves feeling slightly unwell, slightly snuffly, slight sore throat and major itches! This is like having a severe case of measles or some such – I have exhausted all immediate means of reducing itching, including, Calamine Lotion, Cornflour, Bio Oil and copious quantities of anti-histamines. Hopefully it will quickly take its course and leave the building so to speak. My only other hope is that the bloke doesn’t catch it whatever it is – my patience is limited at the moment and an itchy scratchy bloke would just be too too much right now I think.

Next - Our Very Large Mate

And His Little Friend - Whose Tail Was Tugged

He Thought It Was Funny At Least

From Lake St Clair we head further south (albeit ever so slightly) to Mt Field, another national park – we will catch up with you there – until next time, hone that sense of humour, you never know when you will need it. Steph

Beautiful Surrounds

The Thinker

QUARRIED QUEENSTOWN

Just about everyone we met who had been to Queenstown told us how dreadful it was! Not much to look forward to it seemed. I had even seen a documentary once that declared Queenstown to be the ugliest town in Australia....Hmmmmm........not good! So what can we deduce by the fact that we both actually liked Queenstown. Probably says something weird about us!

Naked Hills Stripped Bare of all Vegetation

Sure the town is surrounded by mines, sure the mines have absolutely stripped the surrounding hills and mountains of all vegetation, sure they have absolutely killed the poor Queen River, sure they have poisoned the earth with sulphuric acid and other toxic waste, but you know what, you just can’t beat the wilderness. Alongside those naked hills tower fully clad mountains of tall trees, tree ferns, thick undergrowth, trickling brooks and streams and bountiful life. These fern and tree clad mountains in fact, form the back yard of many of the ramshackle houses that make up part of Queenstown.

Add to the absolute verdant growth on the untouched mountains, the incredible colours exposed by the years of copper mining and the very visible bare bones of the earth and you have an amazing orgy of colours and impressions for the eyes. The town itself is quite presentable and contains all the shops and conveniences necessary for a comfortable life. Certainly you would have to travel some distance to find ‘real’ shops, but one could live with what is provided there. The houses themselves, I must admit, were something else. They ranged from the odd fairly new and respectable dwelling, through re-furbished quaint old homes to just plain dumps – and every possible sort of thing in between.

Houses Were an Eclectic Mix 

The price of real estate is to say the least, modest and probably to a few retirees, tempting. One could purchase there and still retain a goodly amount of capital on which to live very comfortably. The weather might be a bit of a problem tho’ – the entire time we were there, all three days that is, it was wet, wet, wet. The sky rained on us and the air was just moisture laden. It seemed that like at Stanley, we were simply inside the clouds and the clouds never really left. Just days before, they had been super hot and dry. The CP was very ordinary indeed and very poorly organised. I don’t think there was much choice however and we didn’t see any plausible free camping – not that we really looked! The rain that persisted in falling on top of us, sat in moody puddles around the van and we found our own small stream just outside the door of the van. Lovely! By the time we left Queenstown everything was pretty sodden, including all our mats – nice!

Oh well, we really don’t mind a bit of rain and that is probably just as well as it looks like the dry in Tasmania has well and truly broken and since then we have had far more wet days than fine. They very much need the rain at the moment, so really, it’s all good.

While we were in Queenstown we took a couple of drives out to some of the surrounding lakes and dams and were surprised to see just how low the water levels were. The surrounding countryside is quite spectacular – the little town is completely surrounded by high mountains. We took a drive out to the lookout overlooking the town and the mines. This particular lookout is on the road out of town heading to Hobart – the very road we were to take when we departed from Queenstown. We had heard some drivers talking of the horrors of that drive, and I must say, when we ventured out to the lookout it did look somewhat scary. Doubtless the roads there are no more windy or hilly than any previously travelled, I think it is the fact that as they are bare of trees and any bush at all, one can actually see the degree of the drops off the sides of the road – more clenching in store by the look of things!

Please Tell Me That is Not the Road Out of Here (Up There!)

Thought I Asked You Not To Tell Me That!

We should have gone to the museum while we were there, as being a mining town I’m sure it would have been very interesting. The pouring rain however put a bit of a damper on our enthusiasm and we stayed indoors and stayed dry instead. Queenstown was (and to a small degree still is) a copper mining town. The 1800s saw two major companies vying for supremacy and competing for the copper. It seems that the rivalry between these two companies was extreme until finally common sense prevailed and one took over the other. Somewhere along the line too, the ultimate company learned to be more careful of the environment and started to look after the area much better.

It Is There - Right Behind All The Big Clouds

These Clouds!

I do feel for those folk who were involved in the early mining settlement there – it must have been fairly horrendous – the wilderness would have been a constant pressure as the bush fought its own battle for survival, the weather would have been for the most part unpleasant and bitterly cold in the winter. There would have been no services to speak of and life would have been tough indeed. Speaking of cold in winter, one of the more striking things to a couple of Sandgropers, is the amount of wood each home has stacked and stashed – obviously in store for anticipated freezing weather to come.

Ah well, we liked Queenstown despite all popular opinion and were rather sorry not to have explored it in greater depth – until next time – march to your own beat! Steph.

Low Water Levels in the Dams

It's Own Special Beauty