It was still raining in Tullah when we left in the morning. So we decided not to even have breakfast before taking off.
Our first coffee stop was to be in Queenstown. What was intended to be a quick coffee to go ended up being a very nice experience. Queenstown turned out to be a cute little town with a big surprise. For some reason something that we did not find on any travel plans was the „Wilderness West Coast Railway“ train that you can take to experience a heritage rail journey deep into West Coast Tasmania. I am not a train buff at all but this restored train looked incredible beautiful even to someone like me who has no idea whatsoever about old trains.
A real gem is the railway station cafe called „Tracks Cafe“ that you see on the last picture. The cozy cafe not only offered fantastic morning coffee but also a warming fireplace. I could have stayed all day!
But we were desperate to get some hiking in after having been hotel bound for two days. So we left Queenstown to head to Mount Field.
The road out of Queenstown is extremely windy and I did not envy the caravans that we saw going up these slopes.
A lookout offers a look back to this old mining town that has kept its charm and restored history so well.
We kept driving through drizzle and the eventual downpour. We decided against stopping at any lookouts and hikes along the way as we did not want to get wet.
This one point got me curious nonetheless. It marks the geographical centre of Tasmania.
A surprising fact for us was that „Tasmania is 100 per cent self-sufficient in renewable electricity and was the first Australian jurisdiction to achieve net zero emissions, and has done so for the past seven years.“ (Jeremy Rockliff, Premier of Tasmania). This part of Australia relies heavily on hydro power and you can see those plants in Tasmania’s West.
If you consider that heating in Australian houses is usually achieved through electricity consuming air conditioners used also as heaters we found this fact rather remarkable.
At the moment there is an interesting discussion whether Australia could run entirely on renewable energy. (ABC News, Fri 22 Mar 2024)
Another big issue Australia faces is water shortages. The difference of what it means to have water – or not- is best seen on pictures like these:
Would you believe that in order to take these pictures all I did was turn around 180 degrees? While the valley uses a lake as irrigation system apparently the hills are not being given any water. It is the difference between lush greens and dry pastures.
We reached Mount Field National Park in the afternoon. Just enough time to do the „Three Falls Circuit“ that encompasses Russell Falls, Horseshoe Falls, Tall Trees and Lady Barron Falls.
The two and a half hour hike takes you through temperate rainforest to three different waterfalls and along enormous old trees.
