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In 1977 we hired our first narrowboat from Anglo Welsh at Market Harborough.From that moment our destiny was set. In 2006 we finally purchased our own brand new 57' narrowboat which we named 'Free Spirit'. Our aim is to travel the length and breadth of all the navigable rivers and canals of the UK. This will be our story as it unfolds.

Sunday 8 March 2020

We had to go and see

Saturday 7th
Today was a good day in spite of the disappointment of not going on the steam loco. On the way to Queenstown, we found another falls! In fact, a look at the map showed there to be falls just past Queenstown too so a plan was formed for today.

Hogarth Falls was first, a 40-minute easy return walk.

  
Back on the road and we made Queenstown. I'm not sure what I expected but certainly not a quiet quaint town with only a few shops and 1 small supermarket. Went for a explore and found the station and cafe where we should have stopped today on the loco.




Treated ourselves to fish and chips, a good job too considering what happened later.

We left to find Nelson Falls, which was located on the Lyell Highway, stopping briefly at a lookout over Queenstown.




This was on the side of a shelter at the lookout. Talk about adding insult to injury!
 The road climbed to the top of the ridge and had numerous hairpins bends. Around one such hairpin, this sight greeted us.



Well, we had to go see what that was all about and found a walkway set into the steep granite sides with a side view of a waterfall. This one was called Horsetail Falls.




Back at the motorhome and on the opposite side to the car park was a sign for Iron Blow lookout. We could have walked it but it looked a bit steep and there was a road leading to the lookout so why walk when one can drive! This was originally a gold mining site but copper was found to be more profitable. The stunning colours looked amazing especially against the glorious blue of the lake.





We made it to Nelson Falls, a tad later than planned. Definitely worth driving to. Both of us agreed it was one of the finest and best yet.


The afternoon was drawing in but one place we had been told to visit was The Wall. This was The Wall in the Wilderness a Greg Duncan’s carved commemoration of those who helped shape the past and present of Tasmania’s central highlands. I highly recommend you have a look at this website
No photography was allowed due to copyright but there are photos on the image section when you search for The Wall.

So now why we were glad to have eaten a hot meal at lunchtime. You see... we ran out of gas! We asked the question when we picked up this motorhome if the gas would last for three weeks. A positive assurance of "It will last until you return the vehicle" was a good enough reply for us. So, we asked ourselves, why have we run out??? No, we didn't light the rings for heating and apart from using the hob for cooking, the only other thing to use the gas was the fridge. So no cup of tea for us then in the morning!

So the spot we chose tonight, beautiful. It's one of the Parks sites and a fee applied. With our pass, we didnt have to pay so the extra $28 is already paying off. But wow what a place. Does it get any better than this?






And seen on route

I loved the contrast between colours of the far hills

Realised why the difference in colours on those hills it was because of the dead trees.



Bracket Fungi

And wildlife,



S

2 comments:

Dave Ward said...

The colour of the lake is due to Copper Sulphate - as soon as I saw it, school chemistry lessons surfaced from the depths of my memory!

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-color-of-the-copper-sulphate-solution

Does the van only have single gas bottle? That seems particularly mean on the part of the hirers, along with the limited cutlery supplies...

Ian and Irene Jameison said...

Hi Dave, Yes only the one bottle and only 3.5 kilos. Although we thought the company very stingy at least we haven't broken down...

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