The Wild Wild West

 After meeting up with Tom and Amy at Hamilton, Dave and I set off in the morning towards the west coast which has been described to us as very windy with horrible roads and constantly wet. Honestly we weren't looking forward to it. Travelling along the highway we pasted many of National Parks with amazing walk usually ending in a water fall and lookout galore. One exciting thing we saw was a town distant marker. Later down the track...we came across one that was 'weak'.....I won’t say the rest.

Queenstown is historically known as the mining town with a big arse steep decline into the town, troopy was in 2^nd gear going very, very slow. This was the gateway town to the westerly town of Strahan where the famous Gordon River Cruise left from. Thinking we were lucky to have contacts with the local caravan park in Strahan, thinking we would get a night uber cheap it still costs us $20. Sigh, it wasn’t really worth the money and to add to the ‘sigh’ there was a free RV site in town for FREE.  On our budget any money saved gives us more time on the road.

The next morning the Gordon River Cruise left at 9am where we would have a full day on the river getting off at Sarah Island which is known for its harsh convict settlement/penitentiary. The guided tour lady chose Dave to be an actor and told a story of a popular convict who was found with cigars and port. The convict wanted the attention from others when he was punished so he streaked around the whole settlement. After that he was declared to be the first streaker in Australia. Remind you much of Dave and the South East Cape. The cruise also stopped at the world heritage forest where the longest living tree in Australia is. I guess 3,000 years is pretty old. Along with that we also gorged ourselves on the full buffet lunch (including Tasmanian Salmon) to the point of being sick. The fuller we are the less likely we’d be needing dinner. That night we moved onto Rosebury because of the shit weather but moving north didn’t do much at all. We ended up staying at dodgevile caravan park for $15. I still can’t understand why we did that.  

This is me beyond full walking through the world heritage forest. Felt like a stitch in the stomach and the only way I could deal with it was for me to bend over like an old lady. The other one shows that I am normal.

Constantly checking the weather, Saturday was expected to be a nice day so we drove onto Cradle Mountain hoping to see it without cloud. Apparently it’s covered over 70% of time. We drove into the visitor centre which was 10km from the actual mountain to check up on some things and found out that we HAD to get a shuttle to and from. Despite the advice we quickly drove down towards the mountain but stopped short by a car getting confused by a boom gate. We saw 1 car coming through so I was pushing Dave to overtake the confused car so we could get though the boom gate. In the rear mirror that car other wasn’t allowed through. There is a system, as one car comes out another one can go through. Oh yeah, being an arsehole pays off. We ended up having lunch with the WHOLE view of Cradle Mountain which is very rare... in the car park. Walking around Lake Dove allowed us to take up all the views of the lake and the surrounding mountains which were absolutely beautiful.

We cheated the system again that night, arriving late at Black River Campground and leaving early. All that to save $5, sometimes I don’t think it’s worth it.