Today was all about driving. Hobart to Strahan is about 300 km by road, but it actually takes well over 3 hours. The speed limit is 100 km/hr, but much of it is winding mountain roads so you are travelling at less than 60 km/hr around the curves.

After a very nice buffet breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant (it would want to be nice at $25 each!), we hit the road for our first tourist attraction.

We stopped at Woolies to buy the groceries for the days where our meals aren’t covered.

After this stop, the road took us to the very rugged and isolated West Coast of Tasmania. The extensive Hydro Electric scheme has facilities and power stations at many places through the highlands and along the West Coast.

We stopped for a quick bite at Nives River, where a friendly raven entertains passing humans by eating food scraps they throw him.

Further north the mountains become very bare due to the top soil having washed away, leaving bare rock where plants can’t gain a foothold. I was surprised when we got out at Horsetail Falls that there was no sound of life at all- no bird calls even. The falls themselves don’t look that spectacular as the water just flows along a channel worn into the rock. But the roar of the water tells you that there is a hufe quantity falling over the rock and into the valley below.

We arrived at Strahan late in the afternoon. We are booked into a facility known simply as Strahan Village. It seems to be owned by NRMA, which you normally associate with NSW, but they must operate in Tasmania as well. The village contains several building on the one site, with varying levels of accommodation. We have a good sized unit at the top of the hill. Here is the view from the back door.

Our room comes with $75 of meal credits at the local Bistro and Pub. We chose the Pub, where we ordered a $26 burger each and orange juice. We came close to using the full $75 in one go. If we had gone to the Bistro we would have been over the allowance. It was good tucker.

Tomorrow we will spend the day cruising the Gordon River