At any time of the year, in any weather, a trip to the Central Highlands of Tasmania is a wonderful experience, but when snow falls it becomes magical. Some months ago Jenni and I had booked 2 nights at the luxury Thousand Lakes Wilderness Lodge, right in the middle of the highland plateau, and fortuitously snow was forecast for when we were there.
More specifically, 20mm of heavy rain, 100kph storm force winds and very low temperatures were forecast for the Central Plateau for Saturday all day and all night. However they were estimated to die down around 9am Sunday morning. Our hope was that at 1155m elevation, with the low temperatures the rain would turn to snow, it would lie and we would have a beautiful winter wonderland to explore on a calm Sunday morning.
As we drove up the A5, driving higher and higher into the well, highlands, the temperature on the car dash got lower and lower. Ahead of us the sky grew darker and darker. By the time we got to Liawanee and the turn off onto the unsealed road to Thousand Lakes Wilderness Lodge the temperature had dropped to 3c, the wind was picking up and rain was falling hard. As the unsealed road climbed even higher and the lodge came into sight the dash showed 1c the icy wind was roaring and the rain on the windscreen was turning to snow.
Bec, the fabulous Lodge host, checked us in and we dropped our stuff off in the room and made our way to the the den where we relaxed with a cold beer in front of the log fire and watched the weather outside the windows get more and more fierce.
Central Plateau Wildlife
After dinner we went back to the Den. Outside the windows of the Den each night, if you are lucky, some local wildlife will come to visit. We were quite lucky that first night.
We watched the wildlfe out of the window for long while before heading to bed for the night.
Tomorrow we were hoping the weather forecast would be accurate and that the snow would continue to fall all night and by morning the wind would die down and we would have a calm sunny day to go for an explore in the snow. We were not disappointed.
Hiking in the snow
The next morning we woke up to this beautiful scene. It was still cold but had clear blue skies and no wind or rain.
We wrapped ourselves in our warmest clothes and set out for the walk to Carter Lakes.
The actual wildlife were initially a little shy.
Back at the lodge we checked our Fitbits. We’d walked 19,000 steps, over 13 kms. After showers I retired back to the cosy den to relax with a beer and to upload my pictures to the laptop and to check them out.
Suddenly, on the window I spied a spider.
I raced upstairs to my room to get my macro lens and, as it sat still, I managed to grab a couple of close up images.
That evening the wild creatures stayed in bed. We didn’t see anything so were in bed early. That and the fact we’d just walked 13kms in the snow. I slept like a baby.
The final day.
The next morning at breakfast the local wildlife were out again.
Walligans Travels 