Devenport to Cradle Mountain Lake St Clare National Park

Day 318

Up early this morning for our date with a gas fitter, so pack Polly up and drive just down the road to meet the gas man. He takes one look inside the van at our set up, frowns and disappears inside only to reappear a minute later with another man who takes a look inside and informs us that our stove is non-compliant! Apparently the gas cylinder is supposed to be in a separate enclosure, vented to the outside and clearly ours isn’t. Turns out we have two options, they can construct and fit a separate enclosure for us or we can remove the stove. The first option costs hundreds of dollars and will take about a week, the second option I can do myself and takes 5 minutes. Needleless to say we go with the second option, unplug the gas bottle and (temporarily) remove the stove. Drive back to the garage to get the electrics checked and thank god everything is OK and so the mechanic signs off on the roadworthy certificate and we are finally on our way.

First stop along the highway is the small town of Penguin, you can tell you are in Penguin even if you are lost because there are penguins everywhere.

Not real ones I might add (I’m sure there must be real ones somewhere around the place) but giant plastic penguins all over town, even the rubbish bins are adorned with penguins and every business in town features the word ‘penguin’ in its title. We have a stroll through the high street and laugh at the penguin video shop, the penguin newsagents and even Penguin meals on wheels before getting back in the van and continuing on our way.

Next stop, only a short drive further along the highway is at Sisters beach, on the edge of Rocky Point National Park.

You are allowed to camp here for free but we haven’t even had lunch yet and so after a stroll along the beach decide to carry on and enter the National Park. Pull up in the day use area and after a spot of lunch walk up the hill to have a look at the tiny lighthouse and out over the Bass Strait back towards the mainland.

The coastline here is very picturesque and nestled in the cliffs is the opening to a cave which has been used by the aboriginals as a shelter for thousands of years.

It is a sensitive site and you are not actually allowed in the cave and so just have to gaze longingly at the entrance wondering what treasures lie within (or is that just me??).

Another short drive (Everywhere in Tassie seems to be a short drive away) we come to the Black river conservation area and set up camp for the night.

It’s a nice park with large grassy sites and fireplaces and as the sun sets we waste no time in lighting a lovely little fire and kicking back with a cold beer.

Day 319

Pack up in the morning and drive further along the coast towards Stanley and the famous ‘Nut’. We drive round a corner and there it is, looming up in front of us.

Not quite the Ahhhh moment the first time you see Uluru but pretty impressive all the same. Drive straight up and park in the nut car park and put on our walking shoes, there is a chair lift for the less enthusiastic but being fit youngsters we decide to walk up.

It’s not a long walk but the sides are pretty steep and we have to stop for a few rests on our way up but once we reach the top we are treated to spectacular views back down over the town.

The walk around the top doesn’t take too long but is well worth it giving you great 360° views inland and out to sea.

Lap complete we head back down and check into the caravan park for the night before strolling around the pretty little town and ending up in the Stanley tavern where we enjoy a well-deserved pint of Boags English ale.

Day 320

Good Friday and time to leave Stanley and take a wonderful inland drive through the Tarkine forest. Stop at ‘Tarkine forest adventures’ where a covered slide will take you down into a natural sinkhole to a place called ‘dismal swamp’ and allow you to explore the forest. Once we see that it costs $20 each for the privilege we decide against it and instead have a quick look around the cool visitors building and head onwards.

Pass through the tiny village of Marrawah and come out at Green point on the North West coast and what is reputedly Australia’s 3^rd best surf beach (pity I left the board back in Melbourne). 

Set up in a free camp right on the beach and go for a walk, breathing in what is billed as ‘the cleanest air in the world’.

The surf does look pretty good and there are a few people out but the wind is getting up and it’s rather chilly so in a way I’m glad I don’t have the board and don’t have to explain to people that I am only a fair weather surfer.

We return to the van and the wind starts to really get up and what starts as a few spots of rain turns into a downpour as we go to bed. The wind and weather continue through the night, so much so that we pull down the pop top for fear it will be blown off and notice the tents around us are leaning right over and the occupants are slowly abandoning their tents and sleeping in their cars instead.

Day 321

The aftermath of the storm is evident in the morning with damp looking people packing up broken poles and what is left of their tents and we are glad we have the safety of Polly as we actually got a good night’s sleep. A very short drive away is the end of the sealed road and the ‘edge of the world’ at Arthur River.

There is nothing between you and South America as you look out over the wild Southern Ocean and with the wind blowing and beaches littered with fallen trees you do feel pretty remote. Start out along the gravel road but after about 5km’s of the rough, potholed track and with at least a further 20km’s before you reach the sealed road again we decide to turn around and spend the night in the Arthur Pieman conservation area just outside Arthur River.

Turns out to be a lovely campsite as well with plenty of protection from the wind and fire pits at each site, so we set up and get a nice fire going to warm our cockles in the evening where we sit and watch lots of Paddymelons (small marsupials) bouncing about in the shadows.

Day 322

Easter Sunday and having abandoned the gravel road we have no choice but to retrace our steps back along the sealed road all the way to Burnie where we decide to stop at the makers centre, a local arts and craft centre for a look.

They make everything here from paper to jewellery and we pick up some great local cheeses before continuing to the other side of Burnie where we call in at the Hellyers road distillery and in between some pretty heavy showers we grab ourselves a lovely bottle of their single malt whiskey. Stocked up with local produce we head south and up into the hills on a wonderful, twisty turney drive to a free camp spot at the Hellyer gorge.

Regular readers will know how much we like a good gorge and so will understand our slight disappointment when we go for a walk to discover that it is basically just a river with none of the usual dramatic gorge like features. The walk through the rainforest is great though and more than makes up for our disappointment and if anyone from the Tasmanian tourist board is reading (I’ m sure they are) you need to change your signage and just call it Hellyer forest.

Return to the van and the temperature is dropping by the minute and so we bed down with our full complement of blankets for a chilly night.

Day323

After a chilly night we continue along the excellent drive through the forest in the morning and literally 5 minutes after setting off the rain turns first to sleet and then to full on snow (no wonder it was nippy last night). Pull off the road just outside Warratah at a driver reviver stop (free coffee and a sausage sizzle staffed by SES (State Emergency Service) volunteers) to find kids having snowball fights and building snowmen and after a very welcome hot drink and sausage decide to turn off and head into Cradle Mountain Lake St Clare National Park.

Pull off the Cradle mountain development road at its highest point (930m) to check out the breathtaking views over the snow covered mountains and are both glad we brought big coats, hats and scarves with us (Carmen didn’t actually bring a coat with her on the trip but got one early on).

Continue on into the park and check into the only caravan park where we set up and jump straight on the free bus (free if you have a National Parks pass) to take us in to the park and have a look at Cradle Mountain itself. The bus takes you right through the northern end of the park, stopping at several places along the way to Dove Lake and Cradle Mountain. Enroute we see Paddymelons and Wombats at the side of the road and are told there are even quite a few Tasmanian Devils lurking in the park although they are pretty elusive. We get out of the bus at the lake and decide to do a short walk around part of the lake to have a look.

No sooner have we set off than the weather closes right in and the snow starts coming down again thick and fast and so after a couple of minutes we hasten our way back to the bus stop to await the nice warm bus to take us home again.

The campsite has a lovely cooking shelter with a couple of open log fires and so we set ourselves up in there and try to thaw out whilst we have dinner. When we do eventually return to the van to have hot showers and go to bed and whilst I am in having my shower Carmen has a little visit from a couple of overfriendly possums. So friendly in fact that they manage to sneak into the van unnoticed and give her a real fright when she turns around to be met by 4 glowing eyes in the back of the van! She tries to shoo them away but they just look at her and continue their foraging, only deciding they will go when they have found a carrot in our rubbish. I return from my shower to find one of them still lurking under the bed and a shaken Carmen standing outside the van and we both manage to coax him out and send him on his way.

Excitement over it is time for bed and with the temperature gauge reading an icy 2° we don our beanies and (with the aid of a hot water bottle) climb into bed.