Boat Harbour to Longford via the Tarkine

Beautiful reflections on the Arthur River

Beautiful fresh bread every day from our favourite Stanley shop

Some of the thousand steps!

View of Leven Canyon via Fisheye lens

Tall timbers, Leven Canyon walk

Each place we travel through now is almost a goodbye.  We won’t be returning to some of these places again, with our leaving date of 1^st May fast approaching.  We have Favourite Daughter and Son-in-Law arriving for a 7-day visit mid-April, and with our own 10-day visit to Flinders Island starting on Sunday, our remaining time in Tasmania is dwindling.

Beautiful Stanley was our first port of call westward from Boat Harbour, still finding places we hadn’t visited, such as the Wooden Boat shed at the Port.  Touchwood Café is always good for a great coffee and cake (Persian Love Cake this time, with yoghurt and spun sugar accompaniment), and our favourite camping spot at Godfreys Beach, with Highfield House lit up like a Christmas tree high on the hill opposite The Nut.  Of course no visit to Stanley would be complete without a walk up The Nut, and the 2km tramp around the top for panoramic views of land and ocean.  There is a chairlift, but more people walk than ride, even though it’s so steep that it’s necessary to walk on tippy-toes a lot of the way.

After our quiet night on Godfrey’s Beach, we headed for the Arthur River and a night at the National Park campground before a memorable day cruise up the river on the George Robinson with its captain, Cagey, and crew and knowledgeable guide, Greg.  This area contains vast tracts of myrtle, leatherwood and sassafras; the last remnants of the Gondwana forest that once spanned the southern hemisphere from South America to Papua New Guinea.  The Arthur River is completely wild; never logged, never dammed, and free from bushfires.  The Tarkine was the last known habitat of the Tasmanian Tiger and now provides sanctuary for the endangered Tasmanian devil.

It’s embarrassing to admit that we only spent one day at Arthur River before heading east again to Leven Canyon.  The Tarkine has so much to offer and it would be possible to spend months in the area and still not take it all in – in fact that applies to Tasmania as a whole! 

Travelling south from Ulverstone, we headed to the unknown (to us) Leven Canyon, discovering a magnificent part of the world.  The road we travelled was a C road, and at times we were in second gear coming down the mountains, but it eventually led to a great free campground, with a short walk to the Lookout for wonderful views of mountains above and rivers far below.  The longer walk took in a descent of around 900 steps to the valley floor and then a steady incline back to the campground.  It’s a choice – steps down and then uphill, or down that way and back up 900 steps!  Either way there are many seats along the way, each giving the directions in metres both ways; helpful if you’re wondering how far to the end! 

Leaving Leven Canyon this morning we took a B-road (only differentiated from the C-road by a white line dividing the two lanes) back to the Bass Highway, and thence to Longford where we are now warm and cosy in a caravan park with power to run the heating as an antidote to the solid rain outside.  It’s the first rain for close on 2 months so no complaints here.  The whole country is dry and yellow at the moment and badly in need of rain. 

We’re off to Flinders Island on Sunday for a 10-day jaunt.  The choice was to take our motorhome on an 8-hour sea crossing and then brave the narrow roads, or take a 35 minute flight and hire a hippie van over there, which seemed like a better option.  Life in a small van will be interesting; no diesel heater for a start, so we’re hoping for a return to fine weather and sunny skies.

Anyway, no doubt there will be lots of interest to report in the next blog.

Bay of Fires to Boat Harbour Beach

Low Head Lighthouse on a very windy day

Pity the poor penguins having to traverse this rocky shore

Low Head Lighthouse, machinery shed and housing for foghorn (note foghorn -  sure it can be heard miles away, and it's sounded at noon every Sunday)

Low Head Maritime Museum - a profitable hour checking out the area's history

Bass and Flinders' replica Norfolk, and Tom Thumb in the Bass and Flinders Centre

One of the many beautiful pubs in George Town

Modern carvings of Macroparpa trees, George Town, depicting whaling and piloting

At last - fresh apples, straight off the tree; a large bag of delicious Gravensteins for $4

Apple orchard, near Westbury

What a delicious sight

Swimming Lagoon. Bay of Fires

For a free pedicure, attract fish!

Well, once more I seem to have more photos than I need, but it's difficult culling them.

The one photo I wanted to start the blog is non-existent; cousin John's birthday drinks and dinner at South Cosy Corner, Bay of Fires.  No-one took a photo that night!  We managed to match up our travels with John and Iris's meanderings in their rented hippy van and met up in St Helens for a night at the Bay of Fires.  First a stock-up in the excellent IGA at St Helens, and then the purchase of a couple of dozen fresh oysters on the way out to South Cosy Corner, where we managed to snare a secluded site for the 2 vans.

It was the end of the May Day long weekend (in March!) so people were heading home, so   there weren't too many people around.  As Iris and John long since decommissioned their fridge we used ours to chill the champagne, and we enjoyed a vegetarian feast after a swim in the Lagoon a few minutes walk from our campsite.  There hasn't been much rain, and the Lagoon wasn't open to the sea so it was pretty shallow but as you can see from the photo, we were surrounded by tiny fish, all anxious to feed on us - thank heavens they weren't piranhas!

We couldn't pass up breakfast at Binalong Bay, about 15 minutes drive from our campsite.  There's a very kitsch welcome along the road - a bigger than life-size 1960s concrete bikini-clad young woman with a "Welcome to Binalong Bay" sign.  It's so bad it's good!

After breakfast, John and Iris headed for Triabunna where they were due to spend a day on Maria Island, while we headed north for George Town, via Evandale where we were fortunate enough to arrive in time for the announcement of the John Gower Art Prize for 2014.  We paid our entrance fee, nabbed a glass of champagne and wandered around the gallery admiring the art on display, only about 15 minutes before the judging.  There's a lovely tree-shaded free camp right outside the Hall, though week days only - Saturdays and Sundays it is verboten to camp there because it is also the site of the local weekend market.  Unfortunately we missed both the market and the recent Evandale PennyFarthing bike race, despite having noted it on the calendar months ago.  Never mind, one day!

From there we headed north and east for George Town, on the eastern bank of the mouth of the Tamar River.  Named for King George III, it is one of the older European settlements in Australia, first settled in 1804 by Colonel William Paterson, though Bass and Flinders were the first recorded Europeans to enter the Tamar River in 1798.   A signal station was set up at Low Head in 1805; it is Australia's oldest continuously used pilot station.  The lighthouse was built in 1833, designed by Colonial Architect John Lee Archer.  Low Head has played a fundamental role in the navigation of shipping in the Tamar River since those early days.  There are also a number of buildings from the early convict days, housing both convicts and pilots, all built around a village "green" - well ordered and well maintained.  One of these now houses the Maritime Museum.

After 2 days galloping round George Town (and by the way we discovered there the very best fish and chips in Tasmania at George Town Seafoods) we headed for Boat Harbour, where the previously magnificent sunny days and sparkling sea have changed to grey skies and drizzly rain.  Ray has been busy bringing his photos and records up to date while I have Facebooked, emailed and read.

We hope to make Stanley tomorrow, with blue skies once again, and then we'll head for the Arthur River and perhaps Cape Grimm.  Who knows?

Eight Days with Ingrid (the Prettiest Daughter)

On top of Mount Wellington, for a bird's eye view of Hobart

Champagne and Moo Brew at Mures, Constitution Dock

Dinner, Day 1, Crayfish, Champagne and fresh cherries

An evening's occupation - Scrabble, which we both love

The boat house, Dove Lake, Cradle Mountain

Memorial to Mariners, Triabunna Harbour

Best seats in the house, Day cruise to Maria Island and Isle de Foques

A small selection of the thousands of seals we saw that day

Plus a mother with a calf on the other side of the island

Ingrid's first meeting with a wombat, Maria Island

Happiest Daughter, after patting the wombat

Wineglass Bay from the lookout, a hard day's slog down to the beach and back

Breakfast at Binalong Bay, Bay of Fires

Two young Tasmanian Devils, Cradle Mountain

Eastern Quoll, Cradle Mountain

Richmond Bridge, early morning

Port Arthur on a magnificent sunny day

Well, there you have it.  Eight days in just one viewing.  Ingrid went home with happy memories, a thousand photos and perhaps a need to come back here one day to see the rest.  Although her map is covered with black lines of roads covered, there are many more we didn't have time for.

Ray and I have spent a few days in New Norfolk for rest and recuperation (and a jolly good clean of the motorhome both inside and out), and are now sitting at St Helens waiting for cousins Iris and John to arrive in their rented motorhome when we'll head out to the Bay of Fires for a day or two.  They have no refrigeration, so we have chilled champagne on hand, and all the makings of a delicious (vegetarian) dinner tomorrow night.

That's all for now - will try and update again before the week is out.