Tasmania Day 21 - 30 11 - 20 February, 2022
- Ken Fredric
- Mar 20, 2022
- 28 min read
Updated: Mar 29, 2023
Day Twenty One - Strahan 11 February, 2022
Today we’d planned a down day to do some laundry and cleaning, and to ride our bikes into Strahan to see what it had to offer.
After a leisurely start to the day we managed to bag the only working washing machine in the camp laundry to get the washing done. Unfortunately both dryers were out of operation, and the camp clothesline was already mostly full, so when the washing was complete I had to take it across the road to the neighbouring campsite’s laundry facility - any port in a storm!
With the laundry all sorted we jumped on the bikes and rode along the waterfront cycle path, which was nice and flat, into the small township of Strahan. Our first port of call was to the World Heritage Cruises, who we’d booked a boat cruise with for the next day, to check in for the cruise and to buy Meg a warmer jacket.
With that done it was back on the bikes to cycle to the end of the cycleway that ends at the Regatta Point Railway Station, which is a reconstruction of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company railway between Queenstown and Regatta Point. The bike ride had been quite cool because of a nasty wind that was blowing, which led us into the cafe for a hot drink to warm up, and also an egg and bacon roll each. After brunch we checked out a small one-room museum at one end of the station that detailed the history of the original railway and surrounding areas.
On the way to the station we passed the People’s Park that had a sign to the Hogarth Falls, and that was where we rode to next. After locking up the bikes we set out on the 40-minute return walk to the falls, through dense bush and on a well-maintained, mostly flat path. Only the last 100 metres or so was steep, up to the viewing platform.
Being a Friday there weren’t too many people around to bother us and the walk was very quiet and peaceful.
Back on the bikes we rode back into Strahan with the intention of checking out the shops, but that would have involved biking/walking up a steep hill, so we flagged that idea and rode back to the campground along the waterfront path.
Unfortunately, I’d been having some issues with the bike gears not changing properly and skipping gears, and it was getting worse. When we arrived back at camp I tipped the bike upside down and squirted some silicone lubricant around the chain, gears and cogs to see if lack of lubrication was the problem. Alas, all this did was to break the gears completely! We hung the bikes back up on Mata for the last time for this journey.
After both having nice, hot showers we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, sometimes outside and sometimes inside because the weather was a bit changeable, with that cool breeze determining our movements.
I went for a short walk along the beach during the afternoon to break the boredom, then back to the camp around the back streets.
The shop across the road was selling hot rotisserie cooked chickens so we bought one of those to have for dinner, served with fresh spuds and frozen beans.
Day Twenty Two - Strahan Boat Cruise 12 February, 2022
Today’s adventure that we’d booked a couple of days earlier was the World Heritage Cruises Morning Cruise, which runs from 9:00 A.M. - 3:00 P.M.
We had to be at the wharf by 8:30 A.M. so it was a nice early start for the day. Because we couldn’t bike to the wharf anymore with my bike gears being broken, and with not wanting to move the motorhome, our only other option was to walk there. We had woken to a cool 9 degrees, so we rugged up expecting to be cold most of the day out on Macquarie Harbour, and the day also started off overcast with no sun to help warm us up.
We set out from the campground around 8:00 A.M. and had a leisurely walk into the wharf at Strahan, predictably for us about half an hour early.
Our walk took us past the Macquarie Harbour Post Office and H.M. Customs building, which originally opened in May, 1878.
We started to board the World Heritage Cruise’s Harbour Master 11 boat, which was way larger than we expected it to be. It started life late in 2020 and felt almost brand new. We had assigned seating on the upper deck, but could move anywhere around the boat we chose to. The day was starting to brighten a little as we pulled away from Strahan towards our first stop, which was Hells Gates, the entrance to the harbour.
Hells Gates is aptly named as it is the very treacherous only entrance to Macquarie Harbour, and has been the ruin of a few ships in the early days of navigating through there. Our boat passed through without issue out into the roaring forties briefly, before returning back into the harbour and heading for the salmon farms.
Three companies farm salmon and trout in the harbour and their installations are huge, much larger than we’d imagined.
By this time the sun had come out, there was barely a breeze and the rest of the day was absolutely magical weather-wise.
Next up we sailed to Sarah Island, Tasmania’s oldest and most remote convict settlement that ran from 1822 to 1833. We had a brilliant tour guide for the hour-long walking tour around the remains of the settlement, who had a great knowledge of the island’s history and who was also a wonderful storyteller.
Back on board the boat it was lunchtime, which was a beautiful selection of local produce that included a bread roll, cold-smoked salmon, cold meats, quinoa salad, apple crumble with a fresh strawberry and cheese and crackers to finish off, all washed down with a couple of glasses of local wine.
While we were lunching the boat started the 12 km journey up the Gordon River, to the Franklin Gordon Wild Rivers World Heritage Area, where we disembarked for a short walk around the boardwalk walking area, which was mainly focused on providing information about the local flora.
For the last time, we reboarded the boat and started the uninterrupted cruise back down the Gordon River and across the harbour to Strahan, arriving about 3:00 P.M.
We were starting to tire on the walk back to the campground after what felt like an exhausting day, but it wasn't really, so we just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.
Day Twenty Three - Strahan - Lake Lea 13 February, 2022
Having exhausted all the possibilities in the Strahan area, today we set out on our next adventure, which was to drive closer to Cradle Mountain, then visit the mountain the following day. Our rough plan was to drive to a free camp in Tullah, stay one night then head to Cradle Mountain the following morning.
We left the Strahan campground about 9:00 A.M. and after topping up with fresh water at a tap on the beach, and stocking up on supplies at the local IGA, we headed north-east for Tullah. Because we were quite early we got to Tullah an hour or so later and decided it was too early to stop and that we should drive a bit further for the day. Meg found a free camping area on private property, at the Vale of Belvoir Campground, close to Lake Lea, which was only 11 km to Cradle Mountain visitor centre, so after a lunch stop at Tullah we carried on driving to Lake Lea.
Not far from our camp for the night we stopped off at Black Bluff Lookout, a short 200 metre uphill walk to a viewing area that should have provided us views of surrounding mountains and Lake Lea, but unfortunately very low clouds prevented us from actually seeing most of the mountains.
The road from Strahan to the turn off to Lake Lea was in very good condition and only slow because of having to wind around hills and mountains. The final 3.5 km however was on a very rough potholed gravel road, so that was very slow going.
It didn’t take us long to set up for the night and we then went for a short walk to check out the local wildlife we’d heard was abundant around the area, such as Pademelons, Wallabies and Wombats. Just a few metres from the motorhome we walked past Wombat poo, distinctive because of its square shape. A few more metres along we stopped to watch a small wallaby feeding and a little further along was another wallaby.
Back at the motorhome a very strong wind was blowing, which meant we were confined to quarters for the rest of the afternoon, with patchy internet, even with the router aerial up.
I managed to squeeze enough interwebs out of the router to catch up on the travel blog and sort the day’s photos.
We got bored after a while and went for a walk towards Lake Lea Wombat hunting. We found hundreds of piles of Wombat poo along the road, and off to the sides of the road, and we also found a few Wombat burrows, but no actual Wombats. We would have to wait until nearer sundown to see them apparently.
That was it for another day of adventures in Tasmania.
Day Twenty Four - Lake Lea - Cradle Mountain - Hellyer Gorge 14 February, 2022
It was so cold when we woke this morning that I did a run to the diesel heater control to crank it up for half an hour before we got out of bed. Unfortunately, I didn’t get it right the first two times I attempted this, but it was third time lucky to get the heater up and running and get us toasty before we got out of bed.
Although it was very cold, at least the sun was starting to come up over the surrounding hills by the time we left camp, and the howling gale force winds that had plagued us the day before had died completely down.
Our main mission for the day was to visit Cradle Mountain and we set out to drive the 11 km to the visitor centre around 8:30 A.M. After we got off the rough track out of the camp the road to the visitor centre was excellent, which meant we arrived there a bit early.
After a toilet stop it was into the visitor centre to get a ticket for the shuttle bus, which was free because it comes included in the cost of the Tasmanian National Parks pass. Armed with our tickets we headed out to the shuttle buses, which run every 15 minutes up to the end of the road below Cradle Mountain.
There are a number of walks you can do from that point and we chose to do the Dove Lake circumnavigation walk, which was 6 km long and would take about 2-3 hours to walk it.
We heeded the warnings of how conditions can change on the mountain very quickly, so we set out wearing jeans, because the day had started so cold, along with our jackets, backpack with rain jackets and plenty of water. However, as with all of our adventures so far in Tasmania, the gods smiled upon us once again and produced a beautiful warm sunny day with only a light breeze at times. It wasn’t long before we were shedding layers of clothing to keep our temperatures down, and we were wishing we’d worn our shorts and didn’t have to carry our warm jackets.
Because we started out reasonably early, starting the walk at 9:20 A.M. (which I know because we had to record our walk, including the start time) there was very little breeze, which meant the views of the mirror-like Dove Lake reflecting the surrounding bush, hills and mountains were amazing. It wasn’t much later that a slight breeze came up, that we welcomed to keep us cool, but which killed off the beautiful reflections on the lake.
When we first set out on the walk we encountered a few other people, generally just when there was an interesting stopping point, and it was always the same groups of people we bumped into, but eventually we let them all go in front of us, and we mostly had the track to ourselves for the majority of the walk. That allowed us to take our time admiring the spectacular views, attempting to identify the flora, and trying to spot wombats and platypus, which unfortunately didn’t happen. At one point though, on the return leg of the circumnavigation at the highest point we had to climb on the walk, we spotted a red-bellied black snake.
The views of Cradle Mountain were absolutely amazing for most of the walk, and particularly spectacular at the point where we were directly underneath the peaks.
The first half of the walk was reasonably easy, with many boardwalks and, when not, the surface was rocky gravel that required attention when walking over. The climbs were quite easy also until we got to the second part of the walk, where we had to climb what seemed like hundreds of steps to the point where we saw the snake, before descending, ascending, and descending some more until we got back to the start point.
We were quite tired by that time, having walked over sometimes rough, sometimes hilly, but always spectacular terrain, in about 2.5 hours. There was a shuttle bus waiting when we got to the drop-off point, so we (naughtily) skipped signing off that we’d returned because there was a crowd of people there signing in, and jumped on the bus, the only passengers, for the 20-minute ride back to the visitor centre.
After a freshen up and toilet stop we looked for a suitable lunch stop, which we found just 2 km back along the road at the Cradle Mountain Hotel. We were very thirsty and both appreciated a locally-made ice cold Willie Smith cider, and we both had Caesar Salad for lunch, Meg’s with smoked salmon and mine with chicken.
Suitably refreshed, we carried on driving to our planned rest stop for the night at Waratah, where we wanted to stock up on booze again because it seemed to be the only place anywhere in the region that sold alcohol. We stopped across the road from the only hotel in town to stock up with essential supplies, and that park also was a great vantage point for photos of the waterfall in the middle of Waratah.
Sadly there was no camping available in Waratah, so we carried on driving north to Hellyer Gorge free camp, a beautiful spot on the Hellyer River, but unfortunately plagued with flying demons of all kinds.
After setting up for the night we went for a circular bush walk that took us initially along the Hellyer River, then around through thick bush back to the campsite.
When we were walking along the river a man was standing on the bank of the river taking photos or videos. We said hello to him and he told us that there was a platypus in the river, so we went to check it out and sure enough there was a small platypus swimming around beside the bank, and then swimming and diving into the middle of the river. That was our first amazing experience of seeing a platypus in the wild.
Back at camp we had showers and relaxed outside for the remainder of the afternoon, battling the flying demons. The flying things were so annoying later in the afternoon we lit a fire to try and drive them away with the smoke from the fire, which was partially successful.
While the nasty flying things were really annoying, we were also entertained by the Blue Fairy Wrens hopping and flitting around our campsite coming within a metre or so of us at times.
We persevered outside despite the bugs, enjoying fresh air and the campfire, and had cheese, crackers and chutney for dinner.
After a while though the huge number of bugs just got too much for us so we retreated inside to undertake analogue activities because of the lack of interwebs in this location. We amused ourselves with a crossword for a while before hitting the sack.
Day Twenty Five - Hellyer Gorge - Smithton 15 February, 2022
We had an easy day planned today, which was to drive to Smithton 110 km away, then plan how we were going to attack the north-west corner of Tasmania from that point.
It was a lazy start to the day and we didn’t leave the free camp until 9:00 A.M.
Some roads in Tasmania had been precarious so far, and we expected that the day’s drive to Smithton may be similar as some of the journey was on C roads. We needn’t have worried however because the roads were well maintained and there was only a few kilometres of gravel road, although the road out of the gorge was a bit slow being so hilly and windy.
On the A2 at Boat Harbour we stopped to read an information board on sights around the local area, one of which was Boat Harbour Beach, which was described as Tasmania’s best kept secret. That sounded too good to pass up so we drove a couple of kilometres off the highway to check out the beach. It was certainly a nice little beach but I think someone was getting a bit carried away by calling it Tasmania’s best kept secret.
The only other stop we made before Smithton was to the Rocky Cape Lighthouse, which was not far from Boat Harbour Beach and was only a short distance off the road. Apart from the lighthouse itself, which was nothing spectacular, the views across to Stanley and across Bass Strait were worth the stop, as were the rock formations around the beaches below the lighthouse.
Back on track we carried on the drive to Smithton, arriving about lunch time, and where we had a list of chores to perform. First up, we were starving so we parked in the Woolworths car park and went for a walk to feed that hunger. A short walk away was the Jenski Restaurant & Cafe that looked like it would fit the bill, and it did. We had a cold drink while waiting for our meals, which was fish and chips for Meg and a nice dish of mango prawn curry for me. The first chore after lunch was a visit to Woolies to stock up on comestibles because the fridge was starting to look like Mother Hubbard’s cupboard. Next stop was not very far to the dump point to do that business, then another short drive to a public park to top up with fresh water from a tap that was just sitting there minding its own business.
The last stop was to a servo to fill up with diesel, before driving a short distance to the outskirts of Smithton, to the Tall Timbers Hotel free camp, a huge grassy area that allows self-contained RVs to free camp, where we had a nice grassy site beside a small man-made body of water populated with a variety ducks, Tasmanian Hens and other wildlife.
It was only about 2:00 P.M. by this stage so we had plenty of time during the afternoon to catch up with blogging, photos, socials and Duolingo languages seeing that we thankfully had internet.
We spent some time socialising with the couple from NSW in the camper parked next to ours, both before and after dinner, which was tuna pasta bake we’d bought from home.
We stayed outside some more, because it was a beautiful evening, and to watch the sunset, before retiring for the evening.
Day Twenty Six - Smithton - Tarkine Drive - Smithton 16 February, 2022
The day dawned overcast, which allowed us to sleep in a bit, and we weren’t in a rush at all because the only adventure we had lined up for the day was to do the Tarkine Drive, a 130 km round trip that would allow us to experience unique fauna and flora, significant rainforests, wild river landscapes and dramatic coastlines.
We set out around 9:00 A.M. to do a clockwise circuit of the Tarkine Drive. The visitor information brochure we were using as a guide listed 21 experiences that can be found on the drive but we didn’t plan to do them all because some required long walks of 3 hours or more, and we didn’t have that much time to do it in one day.
The initial part of the drive was to get to the Tarkine Drive itself, about 30 km from Smithton, and during that time rain started to fall lightly
The first stop for the day was Trowutta Arch, which was an easy 30 minute walk through rainforest that took us to a rare geological feature, an arch that was formed by the collapse of a cave, when the roof caved in leaving a section between two sinkholes.
Next up, after a short drive, we stopped at the Tayatea Bridge, for a view of the Arthur River.
We skipped the next experience, Milkshake Hills, as it involved a one hour walk, and carried on to the next stop, a flooded sinkhole, which apparently are quite common in the area.
Another short drive along the road we stopped at the Rapid River lookout to look at the tannin-stained river. Turns out that Rapid River isn’t actually rapid at all, but the tannin staining is very prominent.
On a whim I decided to stop at the next experience, but Meg wasn’t that keen - I should’ve gone with her judgement. After driving along a rough dirt road we came to the Dempster Plains Lookout “for the expansive views over buttongrass plains to the interior mountains and hills of the Tarkine” - well, that’s what the blurb on the visitor information said anyway (plagiarism is alive and well apparently!). While we were driving into the lookout the rainfall increased, but we carried on anyway, climbing up a rough gravel track for a few hundred metres to the lookout and an underwhelming view of the surrounding countryside. Maybe on a sunny day it would be better.
Continuing our journey we skipped the next three experiences and carried on to the Sumac Lookout for amazing views of the Arthur River surrounded by cool, temperate rainforest, which only required a very short walk to the viewing platform.
Our next stop was the Kanunnah Bridge carpark for a lunch of vegemite rolls with cheese, a cup of tea and a couple of photos of the Arthur River from the bridge.
With lunch out of the way we skipped two more stops and drove on to Couta Rocks on the coast, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but entailed driving the last few kilometres on a very rough, potholed, corrugated gravel road. The views of the rocks at the end of the track were a tad underwhelming, which made the drive in seem not really worth it.
By this time the rain was a bit heavier but, like true Englishmen, we carried on regardless, this time to the Sundown Point State Reserve, that promised ancient aboriginal rock carvings, after a 1 km walk over a rough, rocky, sandy track to the beach. We suited up in our wet weather gear and walked briskly in the rain to the beach, but couldn’t see any indication of where the rock carvings were hiding. Having just walked through black, sludgy sand for the last couple of hundred metres, we decided to walk back to the motorhome along the beach and not worry about searching for the rock carvings because we were drenched by that time.
Back with Mata we got out of our wet weather gear and wet shoes and soldiered on to our last planned stop for the day, which was Edge of the World lookout for views of the Tarkine Coast.
For this excursion we had to break out the umbrellas because it was still raining steadily, and there was quite a strong wind also. After taking some insta-snaps it was back into Mata and we decided we didn’t want to do the last four experiences on the list, so we headed the 50 or so kilometres back to the Tall Timbers free camp for the night.
Our evening meal plan was to eat at the Tall Timbers Kauri Bistro @ Cape Grim Grill, so we booked a table for 6:00 P.M., which gave us time to catch up with our blogging and socials and stuff.
The Kauri Grill didn’t disappoint when we rocked up at 6:00 P.M., with a starter of sourdough garlic bread, followed by chicken with a honey sauce for Meg and a 300 gram sirloin Cape Grill steak for me with a creamy garlic sauce and served with roast vegetables.
We were overly full after all that and didn’t last much longer, after returning to our little house, before giving it up for the night.
Day Twenty Seven - Smithton - Stanley 17 February, 2022
The plan for the day was to drive the short distance to Stanley, where we had booked into a caravan park for two nights to allow us plenty of time to explore Stanley.
We were hoping for a sleep in because we didn’t have to be anywhere at any particular time but, as usual, we were awake early, done with our morning routine and on the road by 8:45 A.M., bound first for Smithton to do the bizzo with the toilet cassette and to fill up with fresh water and empty the grey water tank. With all that done we popped into Woolies for a few supplies then carried on with the drive to Stanley, arriving before 10:00 A.M. and wondering what we would do until we could check into the campground in the afternoon.
As it turns out we needn’t have worried about filling in the time. Driving into Stanley there’s a lookout over the town, the coast and “The Nut”, so we stopped there for some pics first.
Meg had read about an historic home called Highfield House that sits above Stanley, so we went there next.
On the way up the hill to Highfield House there was another lookout we stopped at to take in the views of Stanley, The Nut and Sawyers Bay.
We thought we would just take a look around outside Highfield House and some pics and move on, but it was so early and it looked interesting so we paid the $12 each to go into the house for a self-guided tour.
We were pleasantly surprised at the amount of information they had displayed in the rooms of the house, which covered the history of the actual house, the people who designed and built the house, and the people who lived in it, including the interactions they had with the local aboriginal people. The restored rooms and original furniture from the early 1800s were amazing, along with many personal accounts of life in Stanley at the time.
Leaving Highfield House we carried on the circular road past the house and down to the coast at Gardiners Bay, then into Stanley itself for a drive around looking for the visitor information centre, which we eventually found on the outskirts of town. We stocked up on information about Stanley and Burnie, which would be our next stop after leaving Stanley.
It was 11:30 A.M. by then so we decided that was near enough to lunch time for us and we drove to Hursey Seafoods adjacent to the Stanley wharf to savour some of the local culinary delights. We were a bit early for the midday opening of the restaurant and we had to chill for half an hour before going in. We had a beautiful view of Sawyers Bay from the second floor restaurant, while eating a seafood basket for me and Thai prawns for Meg.
Before lunch we’d decided to do the self-guided Stanley Heritage Walk around the town after lunch. We got suited up with jackets, hats and the audio tour on our mobile phones and hit the pavements of Stanley for the 1 hour tour.
The tour started at Marine Park, where we’d parked for lunch, then carried on for 15 informative stops past Poet’s Cottage, Joe Lyons Cottage, three hotels, the Church Street shops, two churches, the picturesque burial ground looking out over Gardiner’s Bay, a rectory, Mary Brogue’s grave (a sad story) and a VDL Company Store and the Bond Store, taking us back to Marine Park. We really enjoyed the audio tour which provided 2-3 minute recordings for each site.
We figured we’d be okay to get into the campground by that time, about 1:30 P.M., which was only a few hundred metres back along the road. After checking in we set up then I attacked the smelly toilet we’d been having issues with for most of this trip. I started in the toilet itself scrubbing every surface of the toilet cubicle and the toilet itself, before moving outside to the toilet hatch and doing the same there. That seemed to work for the time being, but we’d have to monitor it in the next few days.
A little later we went for a nice walk along the beach adjacent to the campground, which runs along Sawyers Bay.
It was time to relax then, and after making use of the campground showers we did just that.
Meg made a yummy tuna salad for dinner.
One of the experiences you can do in Stanley is to see the Little Blue Penguins come ashore in the evening, after dusk, and we really wanted to do this, so we stayed up past our normal bedtime. About 8:00 P.M. we walked to the dedicated penguin viewing platform at Godfreys Beach, which was about a 1 km walk from the campground.
We rugged up because gale-force winds were still blowing and there was a chance of rain. The viewing platform is right below the cemetery that we’d visited on the Stanley walking tour and, because we were a bit early for the penguin viewing, we spent some time looking around the cemetery.
Down at the viewing platform a number of other people were there braving the cold, watching and waiting. We joined them, watching, waiting and trying to stay warm until around 9:00 P.M. when we decided it was too dark to see them, even if the penguins did come up the beach.
Back in our cosy house we stayed up for a while watching Outlander before retiring way past our normal bedtime, expecting to sleep very well.
Day Twenty Eight - Stanley 18 February, 2022
Despite the late night (for us) the previous evening we didn’t sleep very well. We’d left the awning out a metre or so to cover the outside chairs and table in the event of rain, and every time there was a strong gust of wind, which was every couple of minutes, one of the awning arms creaked, and we were concerned the wind would do some damage. After tossing and turning for a couple of hours we got up, went outside, secured the table and chairs and put the awning all the way in. By that time it was around 5:00 A.M. and when we went back to bed we only slept fitfully until we got up around 8:30 A.M.
As we had two nights booked in Stanley, we had all day today to do very little apart from the chairlift up to The Nut, and to do a walk up on top of The Nut, we took our time with the morning routine.
Unfortunately the wind was still blowing a gale, gusting up to 70 kmh, and it looked very much like there would be some rain during the morning. With this in mind we donned the warmest clothing we had brought with us and set out for the chairlift at the base of The Nut about 10:00 A.M.
The walk to the chair lift took us past the cemetery again and when we were close to that point the rain started falling lightly. I suggested to Meg that we go and look in the museum, which was close by, until the rain stopped, however the museum was closed and didn’t open until 11:00 A.M. so we decided to soldier on with the original plan. At the chair lift there is a small office where you buy tickets for the chairlift and a cafe. The chairlift ticket office was closed, and the chairlift wasn’t operating, so we went into the cafe to enquire when it might be running again, and we were told that the high wind situation would be assessed again around midday.
Meg then had one of her more crazy ideas, which was to walk up to the top of The Nut! I wasn’t too keen on that idea, but we had nothing else to do for the day so upwards and onwards it was.
The walking track was 430 metres to the top where the chairlift ends, and the path seemed almost vertical, but was probably at least a 45 degree slope.
It was a tough slog for all 430 metres, and there were frequent stops to rest burning muscles, but we eventually made it to the top.
From the top of the chairlift there is a 2 km circular walk around the top of The Nut with spectacular 360 degree views of the peninsula Stanley sits on, including Sawyers Bay, Godfreys Bay, out to Bass Strait and as far out west as Cape Grim.
The walk took us through dense bush at times, which we were thankful for when it started raining horizontally at one point, and also through more open grasslands where the gale-force winds preyed upon us.
It’s hard to imagine more spectacular views than those we witnessed on the walk.
We saw a few Pademelons during the walk, and we were keeping an eye out for Short-Tailed Shearwaters that nest around the Nut, but we only saw their burrows.
Of course, when we got back down to where the chairlift takes off from, it was running, despite the winds still being gale-force!
Back in the town, and down close to sea level it was 11:30 A.M. and we felt proud of our achievement in doing the climb without having to use the chairlift. It was a little early for our planned lunch so we killed some time by visiting the Stanley Museum. The museum was jam-packed with historical information on Stanley and a credit to the people who have contributed to it, and run it. We could have spent several hours there but hunger got the better of us.
One item on our Tasmania travel bucket list was to have a pie that Tasmania is renowned for, scallop pie. On the way to The Nut we saw a sign for a cafe advertising homemade scallop pies and that’s where we went, to the Touchwood Cafe.
The cafe was a very busy, popular dining destination but we were lucky to get a table. The scallop pie and salad, washed down with local wine, didn’t disappoint and we both loved it.
That was all we had planned for the day so it was back to Matariki to relax for the remainder of the day.
Dinner was a curry fashioned from leftover Woolies rotisserie chicken, with a packet curry sauce and rice.
It was quite cold outside so we packed up the outside furniture ready for our departure in the morning, then watched some ABC and another episode of Outlander before hitting the sack.
Day Twenty Nine - Stanley - Burnie 19 February, 2022
Burnie was the next stop on our Tassie adventure, via some experiences we’d found in brochures from the Stanley visitor information centre.
We got away from the Stanley campground around 9:00 A.M. heading first for Blue Hills Honey, near Mawbanna. We were half an hour early but they let us in anyway and we browsed their very informative information on all things bees, and looked around their shop, until it was time to do the honey-tasting experience. We tasted half a dozen honeys including manuka, leatherwood, pepperberry and Tarkine Wilderness, and all had very distinctive flavours. Meg’s favourite was the Tarkine Wilderness and mine was the pepperberry. Then it was onto the adult tasting of different meads. We tried a couple and our favourite was a spiced apple mead liquor that we liked so much we bought a bottle. After coffee in their cafe we headed to the next attraction that was a few kilometres along the same road as Blue Hills Honey.
The drive to Dip River Falls was very picturesque, initially through rolling countryside, which soon turned into dense bush.
From the carpark it was only a short walk to a viewing platform for a view of the falls, which would probably be best described as “average”.
Another kilometre along the road the next experience was “The Big Tree”. Didn’t sound like it would be much of an experience, and had been described in a review we read as “well, it was a big tree”, but when we saw it were blown away, as I would think anybody would be who had even a half-decent appreciation of nature. The tree is thought to be about 400 years old, and sadly appears to be dying with a hollow centre at the base of the tree that suggests it could topple over in a good wind. There were three other similar trees close by, but not as big, and one huge fallen tree that looks like it may have been as big as “the big tree”.
Then we had a drive that retraced our steps all the way back to where we’d joined the Bass Highway driving to Stanley, around Flowerdale, before continuing on to Wynyard for the next experience.
This experience, the Ransley Veteran Car Collection, was my choice and turned out to be surprisingly good. Any car museum I visit is going to be compared to the Bill Richardson Transport World museum in my home town of Invercargill, and no other museum will ever match that, but this museum, while small, had many excellent examples of veteran cars.
One of those cars was the equal-oldest Ford in existence today, a 1903 Ford Model A. There were many other fine examples of 1905 to 1928 Fords, a 1904 Darracq, a 1915 V8 Cadillac, a 1908 International Harvester Motor Buggy and a 1911 Brush, which was the first car made exclusively in left-hand drive. Alanson Brush seemed to be the first person to realise that left-hand drive was safer on right-hand drive roads, so that passengers could safely exit the vehicle without getting wiped out by other cars (and probably horses too at that time).
I would thoroughly recommend this museum to anybody with even a vague interest in cars, and I think the $9.00 per person entry fee was a steal.
By that time it was half-past lunchtime so we went in search of some local produce which, being on the coast, would have to be seafood. Wynyard Seafoods seemed to fit the bill, located alongside a small wharf looking out onto a protected bay so we rocked up there and ordered a lunch pack of fish and chips for me and a fish wrap for Meg. It was simple fare, hot and fresh, and I really enjoyed it.
Our last adventure for the day before heading to the free camp for the night was to tick off one of our bucket-list items for Tasmania, a visit to the Hellyers Road Distillery for some whiskey tasting. Our initial plan was to also lunch here, but the morning’s experiences had taken longer than expected. We ordered two of the tasting experiences, mine 3 whiskies and one whiskey cream liqueur, and Meg’s four different whiskey cream liqueurs. Of the four I had I liked the original whiskey the best, which was quite good despite me not being a whiskey drinker and really not liking it that much.
That was enough adventure for one day, so we drove the short distance to the Cooee Point free campground for the night, getting there around 3:00 P.M.
During the day I’d commented to Meg that I was amazed that we’d read on Facebook that there were a number of other Explorer owners travelling around Tasmania and that we hadn’t bumped into any in the nearly a month we’d been travelling around Tassie.
We pulled into the free camp and, lo and behold, another Explorer was parked there, #324 TP owned by Deborah. After having a chat with them, we set up for the night, went for a very short walk around the camp, then relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.
After our good lunch and whiskey tasting we weren’t very hungry and just had soup and toast for dinner, then watched some more ABC News and another Outlander episode for the evening’s entertainment.
Day Thirty - Burnie - Gunns Plains 20 February, 2022
We had another relaxed start to the day because we didn’t have very far to drive for the day’s adventures, about 50 km.
After emptying the toilet cassette and topping up the fresh water, we were on the road towards Gunns Plains about 9:00 A.M.
We drove along the coast road to Penguin, which we’d read had penguin-themed rubbish bins around the town and was sort of on our way to our destination, Gunns Plains.
All the bins we saw were identical, and the town was really busy so we didn’t want to go exploring for any more bins, and carried on the drive along the A1.
Our main adventure for the day was Gunns Plains Caves, that we’d been told were the best caves around the area by the man who’d pointed out a platypus to us a few days earlier at Hellyers Gorge.
We arrived there, after a beautiful drive through hilly farming and forestry country, about 10:30 A.M., along with a large group of sports car owners driving their classic MGs, Austin Healeys, an Austin A40 ute and other assorted vehicles.
The tours of the caves ran on the hour, so we had to hang around for half an hour for the previous tour to finish at 11:00 A.M. Our tour guide was Geoff Lees, who runs the operation with his wife, and who was very knowledgeable and amusing for the hour-long tour.
Apart from the usual stalagmites and stalactites, the cave system had some other interesting features, including what they call “The Wedding Cake”, that has formed over millions of years.
We also learned that stalactites form at an amazing rate of 2 cm every hundred years.
The cave tour finished a bit after midday, which meant I had to do the hunting and gathering thing and find food for lunch. Turns out that was an easy decision as the Wings Wildlife Park cafe was the only food option for miles around, and we’d read that they serve buffalo that they breed. I was brave and had the buffalo wrap for lunch and Meg had chicken bao buns. I couldn’t taste any difference between buffalo meat and beef, maybe because it was smothered in cheese, tabouli, salad and a tomato relish.
Up to that point we hadn’t made a firm decision on where we would stay for the night. Wing’s Wildlife Park had a nice open riverside camp, with no facilities, for $14 per night. The other option was to drive to a free camp at Leven Canyon, but that would’ve meant driving over some rough roads, which we weren’t keen to do, so we decided to stay where we were and relax for the afternoon.
We drove across the road to the camp beside the Leven River and set up for the night. Apart from other campers, the camping area was also populated with Geese, Cape Barren Geese, Tasmanian Hens, ducks and other assorted wildlife. Black Cockatoos flew around the heavily-wooded hills behind the wildlife park. It was a beautiful little spot, despite the constant threat of rain.
It was pleasant enough to sit outside for the rest of the day and we were hoping to see some platypus in the river nearer dusk. Because it was a little on the cool side at times with occasional gusty winds I decided a fire in the fire pit next to our campsite would be good. There was a sign advertising wheelbarrow loads of firewood as we entered the campsite, but we didn’t want that much so I scoured along the riverbank with axe and saw in hand until I had enough wood to make a decent fire.
We ate our dinner of Mi Goreng noodles outside and waited for dusk. Well before dark, however, our neighbouring campers summoned us to the river as they had spotted a platypus, which Meg videoed. It’s always exciting to have encounters with native animals in the wild.
We watched another episode of Outlander before giving it up for the day.
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