Wednesday was a beautiful winter day, clear skies, bright sunshine, a little chilly. The forecast for the next few days was positive, so we decided to explore further afield and head for the west coast of Tasmania.

As we drove out of the city along the Derwent River, the landscape changed from urban, to flat agricultural fields, to bush and forestry as we entered the Central Highlands.

Lake St Clair is just a few kilometres off the main road at Derwent Bridge. A perfect lake with views north towards Cradle Mountain. As with all Tasmanian National Parks, there is an informative Information Centre, a cafe, well maintained bush tracks, various levels of accommodation from camp sites to cabins, all camouflaged within the environment.

The source of the River Derwent is here at Lake St Clair. The river is wide and fast flowing at Derwent Bridge. The river runs for two hundred kilometres and descends seven hundred meters, through Hobart before emptying into Storm Bay and the Tasman Sea.

We drove on past various lakes and lagoons, past hills and mountains.

At times we drove though bends in the road where the sun had not reached all day and we were greeted with amazing winter scenes of thick frost.

We reached the west coast just before sunset and drove to the ocean beach near Strahan, rather than into the town. What a good decision. We joined several other couples, families on the beach to watch the sunset over the ocean.