Headin’ East in topsy turvy land

The norm for Tassie is the weather comes from the west, the mountains catch the rain, the east stays dry. We can see the effects of this as the grass on the west is green, it’s brown in the east. By some quirk of fate we happen to be here as a cold front comes in from the east. This means it was bright and sunny in Strahan when we awoke and it got darker and wetter as we journeyed over the mountains to Hobart.
Not letting the forecast getting us down, we had a thoroughly delightful time traversing the endless winding roads and the ever changing vistas of the wild mountainous country. The climb up to Queenstown incorporates 199 bends in the road. Not missing any of then we arrived to a cry from the back seat –“look there are people” (it had been a tad quiet over the last couple of days). Nevertheless the illusion was nicely broken by a distinct lack of any hustle and bustle anywhere else in or around the town. For a central locale, full of history, buildings and apparently still operating mines the place seemed distinctly deserted.
We did manage to get a coffee before heading up the winding road and into the vividly painted, desolate hills that the town is renowned for. Note to self – don’t eat the soil here – there’s got to be very good reason why nothing grows on it.
Popping over the ridge we soon found ourselves on the other end of the ecological spectrum as we dove into the world heritage park which was founded by a bunch of tree hugging hippies in the 1980’s.
The Franklin –Gordon Wild Rivers National park has some absolutely fantastic sights to see. The Nelson falls, the Franklin River, Lake St. Clarie and at Derwent bridge there is a piece of developing artwork - which depicts the struggle, pain, suffering and hard endeavours of the early pioneers in a huge relief carved out of Huon pine. We did extremely well to miss all of these.
On the other hand we did stop to take an hour long return walk up to Donaghy’s Hill. The panoramic views were(are) incredible. This shows the wilderness at its best and it’s easy to see what the chlorophyll aligned folks have been on about all this time.
On the way down the escarpment we drove around various lakes and lagoons amongst the grasslands of the high country and corpses of stunted gums. The water system (as it turns out) is the top of huge system of lakes/locks/canals and aqueducts (no rats) which feed into huge pipes ploughing down the sides of mountains and end up in power stations. Fascinating stuff - this thing called human ingenuity.
As we headed into the Derwent valley we were bedazzled by the (seemingly) popular poplars in full autumn bloom. The quiet hamlet of Hamilton seems destined to ever remain so...
The river drew us into Hobart where we were greeted with rain and traffic jams (just like home). It was an interesting comparison to what we had experienced over the last few days in the wilderness. Our accommodation is right on the harbour and as such has that redeeming feature. The car park underneath took us ½ hour of manoeuvring to get it in. Getting out in the morning may require a can opener ....
We spent the late afternoon and evening wandering around the waterfront, soaking up the seafaring sights, hangin’ in trendy cafe’s and taking delight in the local delicacies (seafood mostly). And then back to our sardine can for the night. No complaints though - the position is amazing.