Two Sams TravellingAs part of our Tasmanian trip, we decided to make the trip from Strahan to Mount Field National Park. We had heard many great things about Strathgordon and the Gordon River Dam, with Mount Field being a great base for the trip (more about that in another blog) and it all fitted into our trip well as we could drive along the Lyell Highway to get to our destination.
The drive was nearly a four hour trip with many windy roads along the way, so we wanted to be able to split the trip up along the way. Luckily there were many things to see and do on the drive!
Our first stop was in Queenstown to get some supplies. Queenstown is the largest town on the West Coast of Tasmania, but still has that small town vibe with some great buildings such as the Paragon Theatre. Queenstown is also one of the towns where the West Coast Wilderness Railway leaves from, something we would love to come back and do one day soon.
We headed out of the town centre to go to the Spion Kopf Lookout. A couple of tips – it is a very steep but short walk up to the lookout and the car park is a bit pokey, so watch out if you have a big rig. Once we walked to the top we got to see a great view of the town, including the gravel football field! After admiring the view, we left and started on our trip down the Lyell Highway.
The Paragon Theatre 
View from Spion Kopf Lookout
Our next stops were to the Iron Blow Lookout and Horsetail Falls. Iron Blow Lookout has a short walk to the lookout showing the former mine, with heaps of free parking available. Horsetail Falls also has heaps of parking and is an easy 1.6km walk to the falls that has a boardwalk the whole way. The weather wasn’t the greatest when we were there so we didn’t do the entire walk, but we were able to still see the waterfall well from the track.
Iron Blow Lookout 
Horsetail Falls
We continued on the Lyell Highway, driving through abandoned towns like Linda, with our next destination being Nelson Falls. This is the last short walk between Queenstown and Derwent Bridge and is another short and easy walk that has a boardwalk the entire way. This was another great waterfall to stop and have a look at and very much helped us break up the windy drive. Another plus was it had toilet facilities as well (always good on a long drive).
Abandoned hotel in Linda 
Nelson Falls
The next part of the journey led us to Derwent Bridge where we stopped and had some lunch. Derwent Bridge has plenty of parking, with toilets and an undercover area that has heaps of information on the area and what you can do and see. There was even a charging station for your electric car! Unfortunately we were running out of time to get to our next destination, so we weren’t able to stop at The Wall or Lake St Clair, but are on the list to go back and visit again soon.
After Derwent Bridge, we kept driving until we reached Mount Field National Park, passing through towns such as Bronte Park, Tarraleah, Wayatinah, and Ouse. Towns we have heard of throughout our lives but have never been to. The wilderness in this area was amazing to look at.
We finally reached our destination at Mount Field National Park towards the end of the day, set up camp, then cooked up a delicious Roast Lamb and Vegetables for dinner.
While this drive was long and quite windy, it was great to do and we saw so many different things along the way!
