Last night’s office, about an hour before twilight finally disappeared. Oatland’s Lake Dulverton foreshore is a popular overnighter for those travelling the Midlands Highway, and certainly enjoys a better reputation than the one foisted on it by The Mercury, in January 1898:

Lake Dulverton is little more than a quagmire — a breeding ground for pestilence and fever.

The lake has been transformed in recent months — flooded for the first time since 1990 — and teeming with more than 6300 brook and rainbow trout.

And, each afternoon, the local schoolchildren try and haul them in. For the majority it is has been their first opportunity to fish.

Organised by local angler Kerry Mancey, below, the lake has been stocked with 6000 yearling rainbows (about 200mm) released by the Inland Fisheries Service and supplied by Springfield Hatcheries in north-east Tasmania, who had them surplus to their needs.

And on October 20-21 two more lots of adult fish, mainly brooks, were released by the Australian Maritime College. The 300-odd fish were also surplus to their research needs.

While travelling I usually stop once or twice a day to check emails from clients and, of course, I choose stopovers with a view. And, in Tasmania that often means an ocean panorama.

Above is the very pretty Pirates Bay lookout near Eaglehawk Neck, and below is a very low tide at the beach at the southern end of Dunalley.

Both turn a potential chore into a pleasure.

Have just spent four days working with sculptor Peter Adams helping him get more than 300 blog posts transferred to a new software setup. You can see the results here.

His studio at the Windgrove Centre near Roaring Beach on the Tasman Peninsula enjoys stunning views of the thundering surf down below. While I was there the surf went from mirror-calm to near five metres.