Tasmania’s western regions – brief update

Mobile phone and internet access has been limited at most locations so following is a snapshot of what we’ve done so far – more elaborate details sometime in future.

Stanley and far west coast of north Tassie was great – we met a nice couple who took us to some places off the tourist track to photo some rain forest and lake scenes. Enjoyed a meal of NZ white bait with them, which bought back child hood memories.

Next stop was to be Rosebery but the camp-ground was a disused gravel pit, no grass anywhere, so drove onto Strahan to arrive 3 days ahead of our booking.

Only accommodation left we could get for 3 nights was on-sight cabin. Everything is expensive in Strahan, which it has to be as tourism is about their only major industry, so staying in a cabin blew a hole in our budget but it was very comfortable.

Did a cruise on the “red” boat, across Macquarie Harbour and out to southern ocean then up the Gordon River as far as Franklin River, with guided tour over Sarah Island penal colony. Lunch included. Highly recommended if you’re ever here. Next day did West Coast Wilderness Railway tour, which was only half the normal tour due to fallen trees and mud slides across the upper section during the night before. Rip-off, don’t bother with this one unless you can do the section between Queenstown and Dubbil Barril (that’s how it’s spelt) – rained all the time and lunch was salad roll, cheese and crackers in a cardboard box.

Moved to Tarraleah (once a hydro-electric town) in western mountains for three nights. Nice place for R & R but dropped to 6C overnight. Lots of wallabies out and about at night – just beware of their droppings

We’re now at Cambridge (Hobart) until Saturday. Did a day trip down to Port Arthur but it rained all the time and we didn’t feel like paying for the privilege of walking in the rain for 3-4 hours to see the complex so just bought some books about it. Got some nice shots of the spectacular coast on way back though.

Next stop is Bicheno on mid-east coast for, so we can visit Freycinet Peninsula, Wineglass Bay, Coles Bay areas and and get to enjoy what’s reputed to be best seafood in Tassie.

No pictures to illustrate our posts yet as internet connection is quite slow in this part of our world.