East & North East Coast

8th – 22nd March

8th, 9th March

A long and deep recovery sleep was had by all before we left the Tasman Peninsula. A few aches and pains and stiffness was soon walked off – yes, walked off!! – by dropping in to see ‘the blowhole’ (not blowing today, low tide, calm conditions), the Devils Kitchen which is a 60m deep cleft into the cliffs where the water foams furiously with the ocean swell. Also…

Tasman Arch, an impressive natural bridge
The tessellated pavement – a unique geological feature created as the siltstone cracked when the earth moved some 300 million years ago.
The lookout down the coastline all the way to Cape Hauy.
Sorry, only the remains of our lunch from Blue Lagoon Oysters.

The camping area at Triabunna was packed, however a cafe just up the road offers camping out the back for $10/night and there was only two of us there – perfect. A short walk took us to the waterfront, the supermarket, the pub, the laundromat and of course a cafe. Great place to recover!

10th March

Today was overcast with light rain on and off all day as we continued up the coast stopping in at an old salt works, an old bridge and a vineyard.

Such a beautiful location.
Not much remaining – Lisdillon Salt Works
Three Arch Bridge built by convicts in 1845. It spans Old Man Creek, and blow me down if that’s not the Old Man himself!
Enjoying being out of the rain at Mayfield Estate Vineyard while we waited for our pizzas.

The Mayfield coastal campsite was full. However as we sat enjoying our pizzas at the vineyard we noticed a car drive down to the shore. Hmm investigation revealed it as a dirt track down to a disused boat ramp. Perfect – camping by the water tonight.

We’re camped just near the old boat ramp.

11th, 12th March

A little further north is Swansea. On the way we passed Spiky Bridge

Another convict-built bridge. There’s conjecture over the reason for the spikes. Perhaps to stop the cows falling off …
A walk on Spiky Beach. (No spikes on the beach!)
A pleasant walk at Swansea, even if we couldn’t pronounce it.
Someone has a sense of humour.

13th March

Freycinet Peninsula is one of the gems of Tasmania. Its most striking features are the huge granite mountains forming Mount Freycinet and the Hazards in the south which is joined to the northern section by a thin isthmus with Wineglass Bay the crowning glory. All of the southern section of the peninsula is National Park, with much of the northern section also under their care. In the north a sealed road runs down the western side of the Peninsula to the township of Coles Bay and as far as Cape Tourville. Other unsealed roads cross over to beautiful beaches, camping spots and little hamlets on the eastern coast.
To explore the southern part of the Peninsula it’s a case of strap on the hiking boots and get the backpack out as there are no roads. We’re returning next month to walk the southern peninsula so today we spent our time exploring the beautiful bays, beaches and hamlets of the northern peninsula. 

Steve on Friendly Beach
On the boardwalk to the Cape Tourville Lighthouse.
The four-wheel drive track across the island.
The Fisheries. Beautiful little bay for swimming.
Pelican Bay. Moulting Lagoon
Honeymoon Bay

Thurs 14th Mar

Bicheno. Lots of yummy things to do here!

We started at a cafe renown for its pastry. 
Bicheno has a pretty impressive blowhole too which entertained us for a while.
Then on to Waubs Harbour Distillery for a personal tour of the distillery and explanation of the process before a whiskey tasting. I learnt a lot this morning, though after the tasting I may not recall it all. 
Next was the Lobster Shack for a garlic butter half lobster for me and a lobster roll for Steve.

We voted Bicheno a great little town.

Tonight we’re camping at the trailhead of the Apsley River Waterhole and Gorge hike, ready for an early start tomorrow. 

Friday 15th Mar

It’s an easy walk down to the waterhole which looks very inviting for swimming, until feeling its temperature.

Apsley River waterhole

To cross the trickling river here requires picking a way through and over mounds of river rocks. The path, now mostly loose stones or rocks, climbs for perhaps 2 kilometres before descending very sharply into the Gorge.

The return is on the same track. Did you gather this isn’t one of my favourite walks? 

Trout River camp, despite it being a fair distance on an unsealed road, looked inviting.

We set up right beside the beautiful river and …
… took our chairs and a drink over to the jetty to enjoy the setting sun over the mountains.

Saturday, Sunday Monday 16th, 17th 18th Mar

Back to the coast again St Helen’s proved to be a great spot to reprovision the larder, and also the cellar when we dropped in to The Priory vineyard for a tasting. 

Cray fishing boat at St Helens

Fellow Explorer friends Des and Tina are camped at Cosy Corner at the southern end of the Bay of Fires, another Tasmanian highlight. How could we not stay at a camp called Cosy Corner! 

Our location was idyllic right beside the ocean high up on the dunes.
Looking south from our beach to Binalong Bay and the very popular Swimcart Beach.
Many think the bay was given its name from the lichen covered orange/red rocks. However it was named in 1773 by a sea captain who observed the many camp fires of the hundreds of aboriginal folk who lived there.
Bay of Fires

Our time was spent chatting with our friends and walking the magnificent white sands to the rocks coloured red by lichen. Such a great spot to reset. Monday afternoon we headed inland to Pyengana.

Tues 19th Mar

Pyengana has a beautiful free camp beside the famous Pub in the Paddock, and nearby to some points of interest.  

The pub is also the home of the beer-drinking pig.

Once the rain stopped (it rained most of the night) we headed over to the Pyengana Dairy to watch the robotic milking machines milk the cows. We bought some of their cheese. 

The cows were so relaxed, cruising up for milking whenever they felt like it, then sauntering just as casually back to the paddock.
The truly beautiful St Colomba Falls, at 90 metres high, is amongst the tallest in Tasmania. And as a bonus is just a short walk from the parking area.
The power of the falling water sees mist floating in the air leaving a light dew on your face.

An information board at the trailhead describes a flood in 1929 which tore large slabs of granite from the cliff face of the falls dramatically changing the course of the falls. 

Some years ago Derby was a dying country town as the mine closed. Some very forward-thinking locals decided to put in some mountain bike trails in their surrounding mountains. Today it is a thriving industry with bike sales, repairs, rentals, accommodation, cafes, and restaurants all catering to the growing national and international cyclists, their entourage and the tourists like us who just come for a look. 

Some kilometers north is Little Blue Lake. This man-made lake bounded by high, crumbling cliffs has quite stunning blue water. The water is highly mineralised, particularly with aluminium and is unsafe to contact. 
Petal Point camping area. A remote spot on the far north-eastern coast.

Our campsite is once again a very short walk from the ocean, but instead of pounding waves we’ve got strong winds and rain tonight as a front sweeps through. We’re well protected behind thick coastal heath growing to about 2 meters. 
As we drove towards our campsite for the night we saw our first snake on the road. There are only 3 snakes native to Tasmania, unfortunately all of them are venomous. That does make it easy for the Emergency Departments – they only have one antivenene that covers all three. 

Wed 20th Mar

A little more wind, a little more rain before the skies cleared, though not the wind. There’s a reason this campsite is surrounded by wind turbines! Time to head west.

Most of the communities along the northern coastline are a jumble of cheap holiday shacks until Bridport. This small town boasts all the facilities as well as the port for shipping to Flinders Island.

Bridport – such a pretty beach. The remains of the old pier are just visible off the end of the far point.
Steve at the blue-striped lead light guiding shipping into the mouth of the river at Bridport.

We lunched at the mouth of the river into the port before exploring the very pretty Mermaid Beach.

Just north of George Town the Low Head Lighthouse warns ships of the perils of the Hebe Rocks at the mouth of the Tamar River. It’s been functioning since 1833.

More than a dozen ships foundered on the rocks in the hundred years since 1808. Stately homes line the road between George Town and Low Head. The year each was built is on the gable in Roman numerals. Without googling can you decipher MDCCCLXI?

With a State election happening next weekend a long-held controversy about the name of the impressive Batman Bridge that crosses the Tamar River has been highlighted. John Batman after whom it was named led massacres of aboriginals in the Black Wars. I hope they do change the name! 

We continued our travels westward along the northern coastline. Narawntapu National Park was a highlight of our travels here in the 1990s, particularly for the dozens of wombats seen grazing. So it was with great disappointment that I’ve learnt that mange killed them all by 2017. On the bright side we met up with Pat and Dick again (from our west coast travels) and had an enjoyable evening with them. 

Thurs 21st March

As rural industries fade away or are taken over by large corporations rural towns tend to fade away. It takes lateral thinking and lots of community support to reinvent themselves. We recently saw this happen in Derby and today we saw two more towns that have tried to make this transition. Railton is known as the town of topiaries. In 1999 one man decided to start this project and the community got behind him. The topiaries were wonderful to see. Unfortunately most of them are now gone or neglected. The Council is looking after the spiral trees on the street. I hope they’ll soon get their impetus back. 

Always good to meet interesting characters in your travels. This chap brings his pet alpaca into Sheffield to meet people on most days.

Much more successful is Sheffield which chose a less maintenance-intensive project and refers to itself as the Town of Murals. It too just needed one local champion in the mid 80’s to enthuse everyone about the project. Today there are over 140 murals around town and it plays host to the International Mural Fest every April with the winner’s entry being added to the towns collections. Initially the murals told the history of the town or highlighted certain people. There are also art spaces around town open to the public where you can go to watch artists at work. 

Huge murals adorn every wall in Sheffield.

Driving through this lush country that supports dairy and small crops is a pleasure, particularly with the imposing Mt Roland with its bare rock cliffs as the backdrop. The quartz-rich conglomerates that form the mountain are very hard and resist weathering.

Continuing west-ward our road took us around the edges of Cradle Mountain NP as we steadily climbed the range, weaving around tight hairpin bends until we were once more in the highlands amongst the forests and button grass plains. The higher we climbed the lower the temperature dropped and we soon found ourselves amongst the clouds. 

Met up with Marlies on the walk up Black Bluff Range to the Cradle Mountain lookout. We look cold because we were.
Buttongrass Plains as we descended. Look at the rain coming in faster than we can run!

Tonight we’re staying at the Waratah Caravan Park on a lovely unpowered grassy site beside the river with no neighbours, unlike the powered sites that are full, close together and on gravel. Go figure! 

Fri 22nd Mar

Travelling via the secondary roads we made our way back towards the north coast. Firstly though up and over the range with lots of hairpin bends to get to Hellyer Gorge for brunch. A short walk to the gorge and along the river refreshed us.

Hellyer Gorge

Once off the range the State Forestry seemed to own everything – no more magnificent old growth forests, just pine and eucalypt monocultures as far as the eye could see.

We’ll be travelling back south again to meet someone special in Hobart. But first – Highway 1 from north to south.