Save time and money, book your ultimate Tasmanian holiday now!
In this Section
Archives
Hot Accomodation
Lake St Clair a cool favourite
 WE emerge from Golden Valley for some perspective on the misty conditions we've been driving through. Here, at a lookout on the Highland Lakes Road, south of Deloraine, we can see cloud sitting atop much of Northern Tasmania like a plump continental quilt. Soon after, at another side-of-the-road vantage point facing south, we look over the Great Lake in all its grandeur. This is June in Tasmania. The week's snow is still scattered around but the road is clear and the driving is easy, beside this massive body of fresh water. The temperature reads low single-digits around noon as we pass Liawenee and reach our turn-off to Marlborough Road. Our last glimpse of the water, just down from the Great Lake Hotel, shows that an ice sheet has stretched out a hundred or so metres from the shore. Much smaller Little Pine is nearby and much of the surface has succumbed to H20's solid form. It conjures thoughts of those lakes that freeze over so solidly in North America and Europe that they can take the weight of cars and trucks. As we near Bronte Park the temperature lifts 8 or 9 degrees, from near zero to near teens: this adventure, a bushwalk from Lake St Clair, is going to be sunscreen free. We arrive at the Lake St Clair visitor centre in Cynthia Bay, a settlement with accommodation ranging from backpacker to eco-resort. It also holds wonderful memories _ finishing the Overland Track, overnighting before a bushwalk into Pine Valley, watching platypuses feed through crystal-clear summer water. That last one is a vicarious memory. Many years ago, we joined another family with bubs and toddlers for a holiday at Cynthia Bay and sent our partners off in a Canadian canoe, confidently maligning their ability to paddle the thing or tell a swan from a wombat. They returned with such vivid descriptions of their wild platypus encounter that it took, and still takes, our best cynicism to discredit it. Lake St Clair is a favourite for other reasons. It struck me after walking the Overland Track that one of the best views of the experience came from the back of the ferry in Narcissus Bay at the lake's northern end. The view's foreground is flat water with a backdrop of the Du Cane range to the north, hemmed in by the Traveller Range to the east and Mount Olympus to the west. The ferry runs in winter, fog permitting, and offers a great start to a walk into Pine Valley or a wonderful up-and-back tour. It's early afternoon when we check in at the visitor centre, discuss options and decide that we should strike out for the hut at Echo Point. This trip is an ideal introductory bushwalk for my companion, son Solomon, 13: it's slated as three and a half hours from Cynthia Bay but I suspect it's an overestimate to deter the underprepared day trippers. We take in a coffee and a hot chocolate for a final taste of civilisation, grab a little long-life milk for the DIY versions to come and part with $9.50 for a tube of toothpaste. We step out with confidence that we can carve half an hour off the estimated time to Echo Point but with no intention of hurrying. For the next 24 hours we are going to be self-sufficient. It's winter in the wilderness. How hard can it be? |
|
