Part 7 – the West Coast

Waking up in Strahan the sun was out! After all the rain it looked like it would be good for a while – until we were hooking up the camper, then the dump happened….again!

Up through Zeehan (great coffee!) and then into a little village called Corinna on the Pieman River. Crossing this river is by cable-drawn ferry, and is only possible if your total weight is under 6.5 tonnes and your total distance between all the wheels is less than 9 metres and you weren’t wider than 2.1 metres. Luckily with the camper we came inside all of those measurements (just) and crossed over the river and headed into the wilderness of the West Coast. Another great drive with more turns than a lathe and more ups and downs than your local drug dealer can supply. The forest was great but the rain and wind (again) kept us in the car. Getting right over on the coast and seeing Cotta Rocks and the sleepy fishing village was nice, understanding why they were there with another narrow entrance with boiling seas – and yes there were fishing boats there. Overnight was a spot that was out of the wind, we had a fire, hit the sack and took off again in the pouring rain in the morning.

We continued following the coastline as much as we could. Through Arthur River (claim to fame is its the end of the world) and straight up through the now farming country before stopping and reading about Woolnorth, originally a pastoral station nearly 200 years ago, now a district including much of the surrounding areas including Cape Grim. Still, a lot of farming takes place but there are now a lot of wind farms on this side of the island to provide power to both the south and north of the state. Remembering that we took off early, a late breakfast was needed at Smithton (on the Duck River). The Cafe called the Tassie Duck. It had a great feed – nothing was needed till dinner time. On to Stanley to see the “nut” and ride the chair lift –  closed, raining and miserable. We followed signs to see the early day’s communications sea cable Masters house, only to miss it and continue to the end of the road and the private property that had nearly nowhere to turn around – yet another time we were glad we had a camper and not the van. Stanley, like the rest was saturated…..so we kept going to a place called Ulverstone.

After another wet night (another surprise…) we headed off to Cradle Mountain for the day, Jo organised soup and off we went making our way into the national park and up to the mountain carpark, where, as part of your National Parks Pass, you get to use the free shuttle for the remainder of the journey to the top at Dove Lake. You need to check in get your bus ticket, and don’t be like a couple that tried to get on the bus without a ticket – back to the National Parks Office you go! With our tickets in hand, we stopped at the cafe next to the office for a coffee, which turned out to be the most expensive long black coffee we have had, and the worst as well – you could almost see the bottom of the cup. Off to the top lake and a couple of the shorter walks. We were very lucky that we had a gap in the worst of the weather to get a look around and take a few pics – it is very spectacular and would have been great on a really clear day. Dove Lake would be great for kayaking, particularly one with an electric assist on it!

The walks done just in time for the rain to restart, and we headed out of the park for our soup lunch – luckily not far away there was a rest area with the table and chair enclosed (that’s a clue to the weather around here!). Back to the Caravan Park at Ulverstone to enjoy the steady 50 to 60k winds for the arvo – the gusts up 83k’s made it a little more exciting….Weather and laziness meant that a couple of GF pizzas came for dinner and lunch the next day.

Next up, don’t miss the final instalment (we know that you want to know what we do next!)