Queenstown to Black River

We all woke up fairly early with plans to be on the road at 7am. There is nothing here we need to stay for. Strahan is where I should have booked. We head there and it is stunning. The river is really wide here and it is like a lake. We take a quick tour of the town and find a good spot for coffee and eggs.

I would like to come back and do the day cruise. There is one that only takes 10 people, a nice small group. We head off towards Zeehan, the scenery is lovely. At Zeehan there is an old pioneers cemetery, we spend some time looking around it gives our legs a good stretch.

From Zeehan we head to Corinna which has a barge to get you across to the area. You can go around but it is a 3 hour detour and I want to stay as close to the ocean as we can. There is a turn off for a quick 8km detour down the the water. The place is called Granville. There are a few shacks (Australia’s term for Bach). The swells are large and it is very rugged.

When you reach the river there is a button to press. A moment later a man comes out and jumps onto the barge. It has a metal rope to steer it from one side to the other. It costs a grand total of $28 to get across.

Across the river at Corinna is a sweet old settlement. I would like to stay the night here next time we are coming through. From here we see hardly anyone and the scenery is incredible. I loved it so much I want to turn around and go back through it all.

It takes us nearly 5 hours to get from Corinna to Smithton. For the first time ever we see wombats in the wild. Amazingly we see 4. Unfortunately my camera settings weren’t quite right so I ended up with a lot of blurry wombats. Rowan was annoyed but I was just so happy to see them. It was just a small stretch of the road that was obviously perfect terrain for them.

Our destination is Black River, there is a farm with a few airbnb cottages on it. It is a rather cute place. A nice fireplace and an outdoor bath. I am well happy here, a fair contrast to last night’s accommodation. From here we can see the Nut or as Rowan likes to call it the scone. Rowan cooks us a bolognaise and we chill out for the rest of the evening.