Before we leave for our day, we have time for a coffee and some leftover pizza, from last night, by the lake

Time to go: we drive through Mountain Dundas Regional Reserve for about an hour before reaching Queenstown where we stop off at the Tracks Cafe

It’s an adorable cafe attached to the terminus of one side of a rustic railway here

This is clearly the remnants of an old mining town as you can see chunks taken out of the orangey-yellow stained hills surrounding

There’s a lookout over all this so we head there – Spion Kopf Lookout has some history about the war here in the 1800s

The lookout was part of the first initial shots taken as a means of defense, made from one of two cannons that were up here, with one replica still here

The lookout also honours some information about the reasoning around the formations of the land in the area, including volcanoes and glaciers

Down and out of Queenstown where the roads are very windy following the mountains

Nelson Falls is on the Lyell Highway and has a little walk off the road

A sign by the entrance shows us that there are several points of interest we’ll be passing so we add them to our list

Frenchmans Cap is next and has anothet little walk to reach it’s suspended swing bridge

The walk up to the peak takes between 3 and 5 days… maybe another time ????

King Williams Saddle is a mountain pass that’s a little turn off the highway – and according to Google, in the midst of a body of water (we’ve no idea with Google anymore ????)

We think we see it either side of the road: one side lush and green, the other side a bit dry and barron

Lake St Claire is part of the Cradle Mountain reserve we did almost a week ago now but we’ve reached it here on the other side

Park up and get to the water, where it’s very blowy, before having to get on with more sightseeing

We will be back another time to adventure more as you can do a walk round the whole thing as well as get a ferry!

Gift shop and visitor centre are great – Dave grabs a furry companion for the roadtrip before we head too

Little down the road, and on the highway again, is a plaque highlighting the Geographical Centre of Tasmania

Back on the road, we go past a base of Tasmania Hydro – they collect water from all over for creating energy and we follow several of their piping

Most of the way through today’s drive, we get to Westerway which has Tyenna River running through

Someone’s left a spot on Google where you can supposedly catch a glance at Platypus – within 20 mins, we spot one!

We have to get on…

Russel Falls is the last stop on today’s sightseeing tour but we’re a bit late – everything is open but it’s getting late and it’ll be dark soon (and we still have more than an hour to our hotel for tonight!)

We decide to come back tomorrow – a lovely national park area

Spot a baby Echidna on the way out – can’t help but stop for a picture with our new roadtrip mascot, Gary

Carry on driving to our lodge for the night and realise we have just seen the only 2 monotremes on earth in quick succession – how cool is that!

The drive is a little dangerous as it’s wet and the tree canopy makes it dark so invites the animals out – thankfully not like this the whole way but we are cautious

We pass by some cheeky Pademelons, a very speedy Wombat, a couple of Black Cockatoos and a potential Bandicoot sighting ????

Get in just before kitchen closes so we can have a couple of Schnitzels – phew!

We’re knackered but we’re reminded of this place’s recreational centre

Head over that way and they have a lush swimming pool!

It’s all to ourselves – creepy, but awesome, and so clean

Daisy packed the towel this time so we were in the clear to make it back with dignity ????

Back to enjoy a good nights sleep, we hope