Welcome back! This one is a little late, but we're here now.
Here we go with the second half of our Tasmanian adventure - days ten to eighteen.
You can find part one (day one to nine)
here.
Day Ten:
Woke up to some serious fog!
First stop from here was Lake Sorrell - such an untouched area, with very little touristy spots. Really lovely to see!
Tried to go to the Nant Distillery, which is in Bothwell, but it was closed for renovations.
Headed past the Great Lake, and settled on a camp for the night after driving around the area (lots of dirt roads, lots of lakes and lagoons, not a lot of people, towns or amenities). Enjoyed 360 degree views around our campsite until it got too cold and we went to bed.
Day Eleven:
Woke up frozen over. Like. Tent 100% ice. Outside was so frosty, and the lagoon had also iced over. So freaking cold but so gorgeous! Had to wait until around 11am for the tent to defrost enough to pack it away.
Headed through Dewent Bridge, and walked around Lake St Clair.
Drove the mountain road to Queenstown - if you love a tight windy road like Mack does, you will love this drive! Went to the Ironblow Lookout with some stunning mountain views, and then went to the lookout across the road to Horsetail Falls.
Made it to Queenstown - a very old mining town - reminded me a little of Broken Hill. Continued our leisurely mountain drive from Queenstown through to Strahan. Settled on a camp ground and then treated ourselves to a pub dinner - really yummy local pub :).
Day Twelve:
Started the morning with a little walk around Macquarie Heads (stunning lake views) and Ocean Beach. Interesting to see where an ocean meets a lake!
Grabbed a coffee and brekkie in Strahan, and then went to Hogarth Falls, and did the little rainforest walk there.
From there, drove to Zeehan, which has some gorgeous old buildings. Decided to stay at Trial harbour for the night - we headed here very early in the day because it was almost warm - windy and very sunny.
Perfect for drying out all of our wet camping gear after a few nights of fog and ice! Trial Harbour literally has nothing, so it is a spot to wander, chill, enjoy the sounds of the ocean.
Day Thirteen:
Headed out through Zeehan, and headed for the Montezuma Falls track. A 4WDing day! We were there during a relatively dry spell, so I would say the track had less water than it would normally. But it was muddy, rocky, slippery and had lots of huge mud holes. Now 4 wheel driving isn't really my thing, it's Mack's. But I'm learning. So I learnt to check mud holes for depth and softness etc. which is great I think.
Montezuma Falls is only accessible via this 4WD track, or (I think) a really long walking track from near Rosebery. This track is 14km one way, and it's one way in, same way back out. It's really narrow in parts, and it is recommended to be on CB channel 10 and regularly announce where you are to check noone is coming the other way. We actually only went about 8.5km on the track - I'll admit, it's pretty scary for someone like me who hasn't done this stuff a lot! I'm proud of how far we got though. If you are aiming for the track, allow for a full day - one way will take around 2.5 to 3 hours, even on a good day (longer if it's really wet), so you're looking at 5 - 6 hours minimum to complete the track.
From here, we headed into Rosebery. We had lunch here, and selected our camp. This sign cracked me up:
Took anther mountain drive to Mole Creek Karst national Park to camp - super pretty spot by the river.
Day Fourteen:
Fuelled up (car and us) in Sheffield, before heading to Cradle Mountain. Of course this is the day it chooses to rain consistently all day and blow icy cold winds! We did the Enchanted Walk, which only takes around half an hour, and then drove into Dove Lake. So pretty - we got a lot of mist and a whole lot of rainbows, which was cool. But my goodness was it freezing! Decided against the walk around Dove Lake - save that for another time when we might not freeze to death on a long 5ish hour walk haha. We were considering heading to Corinna from here, which is near the west coast, as we wanted to do the C249 (?) scenic drive, but we were trying to get away from the rain (I will say our only error was traveling with an unseasoned canvas tent... haha... I will get into this another time), so we went to Upper Natone Reserve instead.
I think our faces say it all here about the weather!
Day Fifteen:
Freezing morning! Went to Burnie for breakfast - one of the biggest cities in Tassie. I really liked it though. Wandered around Fernglade Reserve - nothing super special for random tourists, but if I lived there, it would be a lovely Sunday morning walk. Went to Hellyers Road Distillery. I didn't love their whiskies, to be honest. Very citrusy and tangy, not smooth at all! Enjoyable place to hang out though, with pretty views.
From there, drove to Guide Falls to see the waterfalls there. Drove to Boat Harbour beach, our camp spot for the night. Had an afternoon tea of homemade lamington and local cider from the cafe on the beach - really yum - and spun on the beach for the evening.
How crazy is this weather system that rolled in!
Day Sixteen:
Drove to Stanley to see the Nut. Tried to have brekkie first, but finding a cafe that was open was a mission! Stanley seems to hibernate in July! The Little Brown Fox was the only one open, and then the chocolate cafe opened a little later. But that was it. Walked up to the top of the Nut. It's only a 400m walk, but SO steep. Gorgeous views, with an optional 2km walk across the top, but steep. There is a chairlift, but it doesn't operate in Winter.
From there, we drove across the top of Tassie to Arthur River, to the Edge of the World lookout point. Very windy, but worth a visit. The town doesn't have a lot going on, but in summer is probably more happening (I'm sensing a theme here haha). Settled on Marrawah for a campground as there wasn't much around Arthur River.
Day Seventeen:
After a terrible night's sleep in the wind, we aimed for Penguin. Stopped at Tablecape Lighthouse for a bit of a snooze on the way.
Saw the giant Penguin in Penguin, and then drove for lunch in Ulverstone. We were both so grumpy today - to be honest, we had kinda run out of steam by this point. Combined with a bad night's sleep, today wasn't great haha. We went to the pub in Sheffield for afternoon drinks to chill before heading to Lake Barrington for our camp spot. Had our final campfire of the trip before settling down.
Murals in Sheffield
Day Eighteen:
Had a sleep in and then packed the car up properly ready for the ferry back across. Went to see the giant platypus in La Trobe, and then adventured through Reliquaire, the toy store there. Holy shit. That toy store! So gorgeous, with so many things to look at. Expect to be in there for at least an hour, if not more!
We had morning tea in there, chilling at the back of the store. From there, we spun in the park a little bit and then went to The Cherry Shed for an early dinner before heading to the ferry.
And that's it!
We crammed so much into eighteen days, and you can tell by the end we were running out of energy and the drive to keep travelling. I said this in my first Tassie blog post that I think eighteen days is difficult. If I did it again, I would either do 14 - 15 days, or I would do 5 - 6 weeks. Either get it done before running out of steam, or slow down and stay in places longer (if I had the time, that would be my preference I think).
Join me next week for another Tassie blog - this time I cover the fuel situation.
Hx
