We wake as the morning sun is glistening lakeside. Kev pulls the van closer to the lake. We enjoy brekky, overlooking the lake and laughing at the morning birdlife antics…I can't believe that we are the only ones here!!! Today our plan is to make it onto the Western Explorer Road, known as theWhite Sliica Road.

The road today takes us through the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, on into Queenstown, a commercial mining town for the Mt Lyell copper mine to Strahan, a picturesque fishing town on the King River and Macquarie Harbor that hosted the harsh penal settlement of Sarah Island 1821-34 then to Zeehan, which was once the states 3rd largest town, named by Matthew Flinders after Abel Tasman's ship Zeehaen. After Zeehaen the road becomes a white silica road, then we cross the Pieman river on a one car ferry named "Fatmans Barge". The Pieman River was named after the cannibal convict Alexander Pierce who, the map indicated, was jailed for selling tainted pies in Hobart Town. Other reports we read indicated that in 1822, Alexander Pierce, along with 7 fellow prisoners escaped from the harsh penal settlement on Sarah Island and into the surrounding bushland. After running out of food the tale goes that the seven convicts drew straws to see who we be slaughtered and fed to the others. At this point, two of the convicts escaped from the group and were never seen again. Of the remaining six, only Alexander Pierce was ever found alive and the other five were the apparent source of food. After hanging Pierce, the prison cut his body into pieces before disposing of him. A gruesome, but true, story. On the other side of the Pieman River is the little town of Corinna, Aborigional for "a young Tasmanian Tiger" and then we headed on up into the Tarkine Wilderness. Corinna, a historic mining town, is famous for being the location of the largest gold nugget found in Tasmania. This is an amazingly lush beautiful area that is situated on the southern end of the Tarkine, Australia's largest temperate rainforest, and where the Huon pine grow. Truly untouched pristine wilderness that boasts a living link to the ancient super continent Gondwana.

*Crossing the Pieman River on the Fatman Barge to Corinna*

The beautiful white silica rd., through the Tarkine Wilderness. — *The beautiful* white silica rd., through the Tarkine Wilderness.