Devonport to Waratah –Tasmania Week 1

So our first week in Tassie is complete, the first thing we noticed is you do not cover much distance but do cover a lot of places, much like the UK all the towns are close together so seeing many things in one day is easy to do.

Having spent our first night at the local Discovery Holiday Park in Devonport we decided to move on and try some of the free camping available, also I was wanting to catch up with another acquaintance from a forum I frequent so we decided on the Penguin as cool place to stay.

On the way to Penguin we took a detour and did a quick loop through Railton, Sheffield (town of murals) and back via Spreyton where they have a cider factory, quite a nice drop too.

The campsite was at the surf club and maximum stay 48hrs but with no other facilities this was a good test of our set-up and I have to say I am very happy. Waking up right on the beach (after crossing the railway) we were able to go swimming in the surf the kids had a great time exploring the rock pools. We also got to catch up with Ian and his red dusted interior Landcruiser when he visited, much appreciative of the icey can of Boags that appeared from the centre console, I knew there had to be something worth having in a Cruiser!.

From Penguin we could easily explore along the coast and of course having a name like Penguin the little feathered rock hoppers had to be around somewhere. It was in Burnie one evening we went to the Penguin viewing area, each evening a volunteer comes down and gives a little introduction about the Fairy Penguins in the area and from the boardwalk they have constructed you can see the young penguins coming out of their burrows waiting for mum and dad to return after a day at sea gathering fish and squid to feed the young. We did not finish up until 10.30pm as it was so cool to watch, the weather was also pretty cool by then so the heater in the car got a good run on the way back to camp. Also whilst in this area we checked out the town of Burnie, sampling some whiskey at Hellyers Road Distillery and spending some time at the visitor information centre they call the Makers’ Workshop. This is a really interesting place where they have combined a visitor info centre with a working facility where artists can come and work whilst people wander by and have a chat, the display also shows the history of Burnie as a port and the paper and timber industry based in the area.

It was time to move on again further along the coast, we wanted to head towards Stanley and found on the maps a campsite called Black River, this is a conservation area and we finished up in or own camp with a short walk to a small beach, perfect for a refreshing dip in the afternoons. At $13/night for a family of four this is a great way to save some costs and the location could not be beaten, only 20mins from Stanley so checking out that area was going to be easy. Stanley is a small town, originally called Circular Head back in the early days when first settled by the Van Diemens Land Company, the town sits at the base of a volcanic plug which the locals call “The Nut”, quite an imposing sight on the skyline when approaching the town. You can walk to the top of The Nut if you like steep gradient pathways, our like us you can catch the cable car the 120m up and walk around the top along the leisurely walk taking in the views over town and across the beaches either side. After our strenuous day so far we went over to the main wharf to try our hand at fishing, now those that know us have heard of our amazing failure to catch much worth keeping and today was to be no different, despite people just up the wharf bringing in all sorts Kellie managed to catch the ugliest bugged eyed fish we had ever seen, and on been told its spikes were poisonous we kept our distance and returned it to the depths with some new mouth jewellery. Thankfully Kellie had better success the following morning during her early walk along the beach which at low tide revealed oysters and pipis (small clams), I ate the oysters and they were pretty tasty, the pipis got returned as we did not have time to cook them, next time.

Our next destination along the coast was to be the far west at a small town call Arthur River, again due to the distances involved we took a detour through Smithton to grab some supplies and were able to arrive at the campsite mid afternoon. After having a quick chat with the Ranger we found out of some activities they had planned being a long weekend (we had almost forgotten  about Australia Day!) and found out where to collect some firewood as the evenings were getting a little cool and we also wanted to use our campfire cooking implements. So the next day the we joined Ranger Fi for a talk about Tasmanian Devils and work going on in the area to track them and how to track them, next the kids were all taking turns tracking down a hidden collar in the bush. The next camp to ours had been visited by a couple of Devils and Quolls the previous evening so they were there, we just did not see any. This area is one of the few where the Devils do not suffer from the facial cancer other populations of Devils are afflicted with, how long that remains is to be seen.

The Arthur River is a starting point of some fairly adventurous 4wding, being on our own we just stuck to the main roads and a couple of tame side tracks checking out some of the fishing villages heading south. We also got to visit the ‘Edge of the World’ which is just out of town, from here the next stop is South America so the area takes the brunt of the roaring forties and it shows in the battered coastline.

It was Australia Day holiday Monday when we left Arthur River, if we could make it to a town called Waratah we would be able to base ourselves there to visit the impressive Cradle Mountain National Park.

Until then.