Date
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A different Gordon entirely - this one is the dam and the road to it. Out and back through the World Heritage Area, then into Hobart over kunanyi at last light.
Whatever the lodge can do at 07:00, or the night before
Find itNothing up there. Buy at Maydena, or carry from the lodge
The Islington's conservatory dining; or Fico, Templo, Franklin, Aloft in town
Find itSunday. Farm Gate Market runs in Hobart in the morning but you will be heading west at dawn. You arrive in the city on a Sunday evening, which is quiet - book somewhere.
Unsealed today. All sealed, including the full run to the Gordon Dam and the kunanyi summit.
Weather needs signal. Everything else works offline.
Glacial tarns, pandani, deciduous beech and the 1927 Twilight Tarn hut. Now inside your limit and back where it belongs.
Trailhead in MapsRussell, Horseshoe, Tall Trees, Lady Barron. Your no-replanning fallback if the road is iced or the day has run late.
Trailhead in MapsFrom The Springs. Dolerite columns, better than the summit boardwalk.
Trailhead in Maps140 m down the dam face - the highest commercial abseil in the world. Book well ahead, and it replaces Strathgordon's walking entirely.
Open in MapsSubterranean museum of sex and death. World-class and divisive. Take the ferry, not the car.
Open in MapsAustralia's oldest continuously operating brewery. Book, and note you are driving.
Open in MapsConvict women's prison site, next door to Cascade. A sober counterweight to the brewery.
Open in MapsThe original lake was drowned in 1972, and the fight over it started the Australian environmental movement. Also your turn-back point if the day is late.
Open in Maps140 m double-curvature arch wedged in a gorge. 199 steps to the crest.
Open in Maps1,271 m, boardwalked lookout, the whole city and estuary below. Check the road is open.
Open in MapsGeorgian sandstone warehouses, then colonial cottages and lanes above the docks. Arthur Circus is the set piece.
Open in MapsSmall, tight, Italian-influenced. Book weeks ahead.
Open in MapsOld newspaper printing hall, single wood oven.
Open in MapsTwenty seats, set-ish menu, no fuss.
Open in MapsAbove Brooke Street Pier, harbour views, Asian-inflected.
Open in MapsBattery Point institution. Get there early.
Open in MapsThe city's serious bakery. Sells out.
Open in MapsNothing here is scheduled. This is what else is on today's road, roughly in the order you pass it - for when a walk gets cut short or the weather turns.
Roadside berries and jams on the B62. Early November is early for fruit; the shop runs anyway.
Open in MapsBiodynamic pinot on a slope above the river. Buy a bottle for Hobart - you are driving.
Open in MapsAt the foot of Pinnacle Road. Convenient if the mountain is shut and you need a plan B.
Open in MapsYou are sleeping inside a World Heritage area. Quolls, devils, wombats and pademelons are about at first light, and you are on foot rather than driving at them.
Open in Maps40 min loop at the top of the gravel road, through the giant heath that gives the plateau its look. Do this if Tarn Shelf is clouded in.
Open in MapsThree timber ski huts from the 1930s on the lake shore. Ten minutes, and quietly lovely.
Open in MapsShort signed loop near the visitor centre, and the easiest of the lot.
Open in MapsSwamp gums over 80 m - among the tallest flowering plants on earth. Part of the Three Falls circuit but does fine alone.
Open in MapsEurope's largest hop concern once ran here, and the kilns still stand. In full leaf by November.
Open in MapsAustralia's oldest trout hatchery, 1864, with mature exotic gardens and a museum. Feed the fish. Genuinely charming, and 10 min off the route.
Open in MapsAustralia's oldest surviving asylum complex, now antique shops and a restaurant. Bleak and fascinating.
Open in MapsAbove the Derwent, with the valley and the hop country laid out. Short sealed climb.
Open in MapsThe one genuinely world-class thing in Hobart. WATCH - it needs half a day you do not have today. Only if you take the Three Falls bail-out.
Open in MapsHalfway up Pinnacle Road, and where the Organ Pipes track starts. Shelter if the summit is blowing.
Open in MapsThe best of the roadside pull-offs on the climb, and the one to stop at if the summit is in cloud.
Open in MapsAustralia's oldest working brewery, and next door the convict women's prison. A sobering pairing, and both near the Islington.
Open in MapsSealed, 15 min from town, and a better-framed Derwent view than the summit gives.
Open in MapsAll sealed, including the full run to the Gordon Dam and the kunanyi summit.
270 km · 4.6 hrs driving · Hobart - Islington Hotel (2 nights)