Last night when I went to bed I intended to get up to see the sunrise this morning, since every sunrise is different, and the view from here is so amazing. It poured rain overnight, the sound of it on the van roof woke me twice. It was still raining at 7, so I turned over and went back to sleep. When I finally woke at 9 the sun was shining in a cloudy sky and the view across the bay was wonderful. I love the view from here so much that I decided to stay another night. That way I could explore a bit before moving on tomorrow.

Yesterday on my way to Freycinet National Park I drove past signs pointing to places I thought may be interesting, so today I went exploring on roads leading off the Tasman Highway.  The idea was to visit Lake Leake, but along the way I saw roads leading to other places, so I let myself get distracted.

A particular distraction was a forest road to Lost Falls. It was a dirt road with a good surface, and led to a picnic ground deep in the forest. Leading out of the picnic ground were several walking tracks. The track to the falls was beautiful for the trees, rocks and vegetation I saw. Everything is vaguely familiar, yet it's different from the forests at home. Even more different are the birds, particularly the parrots I've never seen before.

First I took the track to the falls, but they were dry, with not even a trickle of water. With that in mind, I was probably foolish to follow a trail to see pools in the stream. This track took me to a creek bed that must at times be quite a sight, but today was a series of pools connected by water gently spilling one into the other.

In the depths of the forest, this really was a lovely sight, and I was able to walk along the creek bed with ease. I took some photos, but have not yet downloaded then from my camera. I won't do it tonight because it's so late; watch for some photos in tomorrows update.

I ate my lunch in the forest and was tempted to take other forest roads to just about anywhere. But I know how easy it is to get lost in a forest, and how invaluable a reliable GPS can be. With no confidence in my GPS, even in a city, I wasn't placing my life in the hands of the GPS in a Tasmanian forest.

Eventually I made it to Lake Leake, a trout lake in a forest with a camping ground and facilities for fishermen. It was raining while I was there, the scenery wasn't compelling, so I kept driving. Lake Leake is obviously a man made lake, the water is dotted with the stumps of now submerged trees. Small wonder the creek at Lost Falls had si little water and the Falls were dry.  It's not for me to question the land and water management policies of Tasmanian governments, past and present, but it looked like environmental vandalism to me.

Given the fiasco that is the Murray Darling, as a New South Welshman I'm in no position to point the finger at any other state, so I've said my piece and will move on.

There was another lake in a forest I wanted to see, but after driving for many Kilometres I came to a locked gate. Apparently the lake was a private fishing lodge for paying guests, and that didn't include me.

Today a had a new experience that is worth reporting. I went to a service station to fill my tank, but couldn't pump any diesel. A man came out of the service station and asked how I wanted to pay, in cash or by credit card. I said “credit card” and he explained that I had to use the self pay machine situated between the bowsers. This was a first for me, I'd never seen the like.

He explained that in Tasmania many service stations do not have anybody working at night or at week ends. I had to insert my credit card, enter my PIN and nominate a maximum purchase. When the transaction was approved, I entered the number of the bowser, and pumped my fuel. The bowser would stop when my nominated value had been pumped, or my tank was full, which ever came first. Too easy, I'm surprised not to have seen these machines everywhere.

So this was a fairly passive day. In the afternoon the weather turned very cold, with a gusty westerly blowing. The forecast is for snow down to 600 metres, meaning most of the interior of the state will get snow tonight. It's very cold and I'm glad to have a little fan heater to warm my van.