Hi I am in Waratah. I will add a photo if it kills me!
Since leaving Stanley, I have travelled over and back over a section of North West Tassie. I went out to Smithton, a pretty enough town that is involved in dairy, timber and peripheral mining. You have to go through it to get to some of the west coast surfing beaches. I took a side trip into the Tarkine (a new name according to the locals for what was once known as "the bush") it is pretty pristine wilderness, temperate rain forrest. Some huge trees that are very tall and straight, they would give our Karri a run for their money.
Any way I dropped into a place called Tarkine Forrest
Adventures, as they advertise a 110 metre slide into a sinkhole. I thought I might give it a go! So I sez to the bloke; "how do you get back up?" and he sez: "walk". So I thought about it, and reckoned I am still only young once and paid my money and did it!
Well my hair is a lot whiter than it was, and I reckon if I didn't have a heart condition before hand I probably do now! My God it was terrifying!! You sit in this bag sort of thing and they stick a big padded pillow beind your upper body, they give you a foam bike helmet, and then push you off. You are in a cylinder that spirals down faster than the olympic toboggan race and steeper, 110 metres! I tell you when they offered the second ride ( you get 2 rides in the price) I said one was enough. I think I had enough excitement for 1 day.
I drove off to Marrawah and then on to Green Point for the night. It was a small camp site just behind a hill at the ocean front. toilets at the beach and a tap but not much else. Oh the beach had bbq facilities, gas, free, and cleaned daily. there wasn't much flat ground and I was the 2nd vehicle there so I had a good spot, But it was very windy. A big 5th wheeler pulled in and the woman proceeded to do about 10 loads of washing from a little twintub washer. They had clothes lines strung around the 2 trees that were there and their van. Place looked like a chinese laundry! It was so windy she got it all dry in just a couple of hours!
Next morning I drove about 15 more kms to Arthur River and did a 6 hour trip up the river, including lunch and feeding sea eagles. It was really a lovely day except for 2 spoilt brats who were on board with their parents who don't understand the word discipline. The guy doing the commentary was really knowledgeable, rattled off the latin names of the trees and told us all about the temperate rain forrest and how it works etc. They had had flooding of the river a few days before, while I was huddled in Stanley. You could see all the debris about 5 foot up the bank. The river is very deep about 35 foot or was that metres? and there is no logging allowed within several kilometres of the river edge. Mind you that is probably not a hard decision as it is so steep. After that I dropped into another free camp to se if I could get in as I expected it would be full, and there were a couple from Dunalley with the Little Red Ute, and dog Bundy, I think I have told about them in an earlier blog? So I had a chat, but decided to go back to GreenPoint again as it was closer for my jump off to Waratah.
It was quite late when I pulled in but there was room for me.Then I took off for the road around the coast agin to get to the road to Waratah. I doubled back over lot of territory, but dropped into fresh places as well. stayed the night in the carpark at Boat Harbour. Wow that beach can give wa beaches a run for their money. It was pristine white sand, fine like flour, and the bluest/greenest water I have seen outside the tropics. Just gorgeous. Then I went to Sisters Beach to dunp toilet and it was pretty nice too. next night I spent at Wynyard Showgrounds and then a hair raising drive through Hellyer Pass to get to Waratah and another CMCA rally. I would love to set up a camera on my forehead to show some of these roads I am driving over! I actually did get out my camera and took one photo, but of course it was not very steep/hairpin bend like as I am still here! But really driving the motor home over some of these roads is pretty hairraising. The map doesn't show the bends enough!
Thursday I arrived here and settled in at the camp site, I picked up my tax papers from the accountant at the PO. and signed on the dotted line and posted it back! I hope to include some photos, (they have about 45 motor homes scattered around). We played disc bowls, which is a cross between quoits and frisbee,and I advanced to the 2nd round, my 3rd time to play it. i won a raffle of a giant teddy bear, and promptly flogged it to some body who wanted it! and we went out to the local pub for a great 3 course meal for 17.50.
so a great weekend really. I am getting lots of advice about which route to go to Queenstown, and will make up my mind in a couple of days as I am waiting here for a prescriptiom from my dr. So that is Waratah, there is a waterfall practically in the middle of town, a lovely museum and a tin stamping mill. It is quite interesting. Thats all for now as I go to battle ith the photos. cheers
vicki
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