Scenic Roads
Up The Plateau From Deloraine
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
Tasmania boasts many beautiful scenic drives. One of my favourites is the road which ascends from Deloraine, in the north, up the side of the central plateau. Steep climbs, hairpin bends, lush forest and panoramic views make for a pleasant driving experience.
The road is known as the either the Lakes Highway, or the Highland Lakes Road, depending on which map you read. Both are preferable to its other designation, the A5. Beginning from the small town of Deloraine, it traverses lush green farmland before starting its climb - and what a climb! From just 230 metres above sea level, it reaches 1209m at its highest point, which for Australia is a very large altitude gain in a relatively short distance. The vegetation also changes dramatically over the half hour drive, and the drop in temperature is very noticeable if you drive with the windows down.
Once climbing, tight bends force a reduction in speed, which allows a better appreciation of the forest the road passes through. Towards the top of the climb, a small lookout on the east side of the road, with limited parking, provides good views over the coastal plains and the plateau escarpment.
When the plateau’s top is reached, the road flattens out and winds through low sub-alpine landscapes vastly different from the country down below. You really feel like you’re in another world, and climatically speaking, you are. A short side road leads to Pine Lake - apart from the the lake there is a half hour walk trail featuring pencil pines, which are unique to Tasmania.
A few kilometres beyond Pine Lake, another lookout (really just a bit of parking space beside the road) reveals the expanse of Australia’s second largest natural freshwater lake - Great Lake. After a short descent the road deteriorates to pot-holed gravel and follows this high altitute lake for the next 40km or so, and can be used as a direct route to Lake St Clare or the southern parts of the state. If you continue this way you’ll see a unique part of Tasmania which most visitors miss. Alternatively, the lookout over Great Lake is a suitable spot to turn around and return to Deloraine. The descent off the plateau is a different experience to the climb, and possibly even more enjoyable.
The downside of the road’s altitude is that the higher parts are prone to ice and snow. Only a small number of days each year are affected, and road closures generally don’t last more than a day or two, but if you’re in the area during winter or early spring it pays to keep an eye on the weather.
As well as being a through route, and providing access to Pine Lake, the road up the plateau from Deloraine also leads to an access road for the Liffey Falls which are well worth a look. The more energetic can also use the road to access walks such as Quamby Bluff, Projection Bluff, Liffey River track and Warners track. If you enjoy driving through good scenery, however, the drive up the plateau from Deloraine is worth doing purely for its own sake.
Looking south across Great Lake and the Central Plateau after ascending from Deloraine
Topics: Scenic Roads, Tasmania | Add Your Comment »
A Drive Through Boranup Forest In WA
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009Pleasant forest drives in Western Australia are not limited to the southern forests region. The Margaret River region, known more for its wine and surf, also has a delightful gravel road winding its way through majestic karri forest.
The road is Boranup Drive, which starts from Caves Road just south of Lake Cave and re-joins Caves Road 11km further south, towards Augusta. If you’re travelling along that part of Caves Road, then a detour up Boranup Drive can be used as a slightly-longer alternative to continuing on the bitumen.
The attraction of this drive is the forest it passes through, and the walks which can be accessed. Boranup forest consists mainly of regrowth karri - the whole area was logged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the explosion of life you see (up to 60 metres tall) is what has grown back since then. Karri is the third-tallest tree species in the world, and while the trees along Boranup Drive are not quite as tall or wide as the karri regrowth near Pemberton, they are still impressive.
In the middle section of the road lies a small open space which was once a picnic area - it’s at the intersection of a narrow four-wheel-drive trail named Anchor Rd. The trail is signposted, but the sign is hard to spot (and only if heading north); look for an area of flat open space adjoining the road. The picnic table was removed long ago, and there are no facilities, but it still makes a great spot to park and enjoy some local bakery products while soaking up the forest ambience. Bird noise here can be delightfully cacophanous at times.
This old picnic area can also be the start of some pleasant walks. When the forest was being logged, narrow gauge tram tracks were laid to enable log removal. The routes of these long-gone tracks are now four-wheel-drive trails in varying stages of being overgrown, and they make excellent walking tracks. One way to enjoy them is just go for a wander and see where you end up, and Anchor Rd is a good candidate for this. Another option is to consult the book “Walking the capes” by Jane Scott for some maps and walk descriptions.
Boranup Drive is a firm gravel surface, suitable for conventional cars, although it can be bumpy due to corrugations, pot-holes and rocks. Expect your car to get a good shake-up! It is also narrow, so keep the speed down and be ready to move over and make room for oncoming vehicles. If you don’t mind this sort of driving, Boranup Drive can be a scenic addition to a tour of the Margaret River region.
Topics: Scenic Roads, Western Australia | Add Your Comment »
The Queenstown to Glenorchy Road, NZ
Monday, May 11th, 2009
Could this be the most scenic drive in New Zealand? In a country abounding in quiet roads and beautiful scenery, such a claim is ambitious. Yet many consider the drive along the edge of Lake Wakatipu between Queenstown and Glenorchy to be the best in the country.
Whether it’s the best is very subjective, but having driven this and many other great kiwi roads, I’d have to say it’s right up there with the most magnificent of them. Even if you haven’t been there, you may have seen glimpses of the road to Glenorchy on television - many car advertisements have been filmed there. The stunning setting amidst lake and snowcapped mountains could make any rust-bucket look good.
The drive starts from New Zealand’s busiest tourist destination, but the majority of Queenstown’s visitors don’t venture very far up the lake, at least by road. Most of those who do are hikers taking a bus to the Routeburn, Greenstone, Caples and Rees-Dart tracks, all of which have their trailheads beyond Glenorchy.
Lake Wakatipu is an 84km long glacial lake (New Zealand’s longest) consisting of three straight sections arranged in a zig-zag. The journey from Queenstown to Glenorchy traverses two of them, and for the most part clings to the sides of the mountains which plunge steeply into the deep waters.
The scenery is magnificent right from the start, but thanks to the explosive growth of Queenstown in recent years, it takes a little while to leave behind the narrow finger of development creeping out of town along the lake edge. Once you round the corner and head up the Glenorchy stretch of the lake, it feels like another world - a remote and nearly pristine one.
Despite the relative straitness of the lake edge, the road along it has plenty of bends, and plenty of ups and downs too. It is the combination of enjoyable driving experience and grand scenery that makes this road memorable for me. The mountain and lake views constantly change, as new peaks come into view and perspectives alter.
A place to pull over mid-journey, just past the corner where the road turns towards Glenorchy, provides a great spot to stop and take photos. The whole drive from Queenstown to Glenorchy is an easy 45km on a sealed road, so unless you’re taking a bus there shouldn’t be any excuse not to stop and take some time to soak up the scenery.
This drive is gorgeous at any time of year, but in my opinion the cooler months, when snow decorates the hills, are best. Hikers’ buses don’t usually run in winter, so you’ll need your own wheels to see it then. If the weather isn’t good, don’t let that put you off - dramatic cloud effects can add atmosphere, and the weather can change quickly. But if you strike a clear sunny day, the blue of the sky and lake, together with the browns and greens of the mountainsides and the white snow, make for some superlative scenes that no postcard can do justice to.
Topics: New Zealand (south), Scenic Roads | 2 Comments »
Ludlow Tuart Forest, WA
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
Once upon a time, the main road between Bunbury and Busselton in Western Australia passed right through the Ludlow Tuart Forest. The railway did too, so anyone in WA who ever went “down south” knew what a tuart tree looked like. You couldn’t miss them, the way they grew almost to the edge of the bitumen.
Times have changed. The railway is long gone, and a busy bypass takes traffic quickly around the edge of the forest. To see the tuart trees means diverting onto the overlooked old road … but it’s well worth the detour for anyone with an appreciation of Australia’s unique trees.
Tuart trees are native only to the coastal plain between Busselton and Jurien in the south west of Western Australia. They grow up to 40m high, live up to 500 years, and their stately grey trunks form an open forest different to others in the state. As with WA’s other tall forests, most have been cut down since Europeans settlement, leaving Ludlow Tuart Forest as the only surviving tuart forest anywhere.
Hiking in the forest is limited, with just a few roadside stopping places. But for anyone travelling between Bunbury and Busselton, the detour through the tuarts takes only minutes longer than following the traffic on the highway, and is a more scenic option - even if you don’t stop, or aren’t wild about trees. Tree-huggers will be rewarded with the sight of some majestic old trees you can’t see anywhere else.
Links:
WA Dept of Environment & Conservation - Tuart Forest National Park
The Wilderness Society - Campaign to save the Ludlow Tuart Forest
Google map showing location of road through Ludlow Tuart Forest
Topics: Scenic Roads, Western Australia | Add Your Comment »
Warburton to Jamieson: Road Of Serendipity In Victoria
Saturday, March 21st, 2009If you’re after a great back-road in Victoria, taking the scenic and historic high road between Warburton and Jamieson in Victoria is hard to beat.
Despite its remote mountainous nature, the road can be used as part of the journey between Melbourne and Mt Buller, Victoria’s most popular ski area. Although you probably wouldn’t want to do it in winter, as the higher gravel sections are prone to ice and snow.
Warburton and Jamieson are the two blue markers; the road between them is blue
I drove the road in summer, when I was looking for a route to Mansfield and the Mt Buller area. The obvious and more direct way would have been the Maroondah Highway, but one thing I’ve learned from a lot of driving is that main highways are not usually the most scenic roads. Another line on the map caught my attention - narrow, winding, gravel, passing through abandoned mining settlements, mountains, and not much else. I couldn’t resist the temptation of this road less travelled.
Leaving Melbourne’s eastern suburbs via Lilydale, I passed up the Yarra valley to the town of Warburton, which is worth visiting for its bakery alone. I stocked up on scrumptious bakery products, using the excuse that the road ahead saw little traffic, and if I broke down it could be a long wait for help. Any other excuse would have done.
Beyond Warburton the traffic dwindled, and after the turnoff at Cambarville I had the road pretty much to myself. The road, now gravel, passed through impressive patches of Eucalyptus Regnans, known in these parts as mountain ash. These are the world’s second tallest tree species, and are truly inspiring when people can resist the urge to chop them down.
Some delightful views of the surrounding mountains appeared at times, particularly from the cleared hilltop where the village of Matlock once stood. Further on, the road descended through the remains of towns which briefly thrived back in the gold rush days - Woods Point, A1 mine Settlement and Gaffneys Creek. Woods Point possesses a service station and petrol bowser (still operating) which look like they date back to when cars were a new invention. The historic feel of these little places made me feel as if I’d passed through a time warp.
Further on, the road followed the Goulburn River and passed a number of very attractive riverside campsites - somewhere I hope to return some day in a campervan. Around Kevington the road improved, then it was a straightforward drive through Jamieson to Mansfield, the main service town for nearby Mt Buller. All up it took me around three and a half hours driving time (I think) from Melbourne, plus time for scenic stops.
It was a longer and more tiring way of driving to Mansfield than the highways, but I was enthused by the scenery, and felt as if I’d discovered another world. The downside was the steep and winding nature of much of the middle section - for a long while I thought I’d never get out of second or third gear. The never-ending bends could be uncomfortable for those prone to car-sickness, and the condition of the road in winter should be checked out beforehand.
But if the road conditions are okay, and you have the time to enjoy the scenery without rushing, discovering this road for yourself may be the great serendipity it was for me.
Note - I’m ashamed to admit that I carried no camera for my unexpected drive along this road, which is why there are no photos. Also I couldn’t find any suitable photos on the web, at least none I could legally use.
Topics: Scenic Roads, Victoria | Add Your Comment »