MOT Tour Day 42 - Day off

 A day off from seeing things but not from touring. Touring also includes doing the washing, keeping on top of the financial position and going to the pub.

The first two were pretty much done by lunch time. Over sandwiches, I watched Question Time from Canberra. First time since Sue retired that I've watched the parliament. I used to have a late lunch and watch it every weekday and then get ready to pick Sue up from school.

Our only outing for the day was around 4pm, when we filled the car with petrol and then called into Derwent River Wilderness Hotel for a bevy. 

There aren't many businesses here. Four that I can make out: two cabin accommodation places, the cafe/petrol station and the pub.

Look, I'd like to say it was full of rustic charm and interesting characters; that it had unusual things on the walls and was clearly the hangout of the hard men of the south west. I'd love to but I can't. The building - at least the interior - is impressive, with timber beams cut from local trees and a high pitched roof with no ceiling. It has a massive, double sided fireplace, capable of hosting a roaring fire but despite it being 5C outside, only a couple of baby logs were struggling to burn. The barman was inattentive. He was outside having a fag when I met him. He asked me what I wanted - outside - and served me when he finished his durry. The place was empty bar a lonely wet traveler who Sue took pity on and walked over and talked to. There was nowhere to sit, apart from the tables that were set for dinner which occupied half the interior space and some lounge chair, inexplicably arranged in a line down the centre of the two groups of tables. Someone, at sometime, had started a collection of unusual bottles and set them in a cabinet outside the men's toilet. There were six of them but no one was sharing any information about them.

Its clientele are tourists who attend the national park and bus loads on their way to and from Queenstown/Strahan. Free parking spaces are provided for caravans - no power, not water - in front and behind the pub. The dinner prices are expensive, even by wilderness standards but reports are, the tucker is good.

My Guinness was good but then I poured it, from a can. No thanks from me but Sue enjoyed it.

Moving on tomorrow to Queenstown, where we'll ride the Wilderness Railway and Strahan where we'll take the Gordon River Cruise. Both have been beset by problems in the last week, which are a slight cause for concern for us as we are doing both in style and I am my a combination of son and father. I don't mind paying good money but I expect good value.

This will be our only taste of the west coat, apart from the tour of Woolnorth Station earlier in the MOT Tour.