Burnie - Strahan via Western Explorer

So happy new year. How was your night? We spent the night in the camp kitchen of the van park  freezing our bums off and drinking beer. Was a great night.

We had a bit of a sleep in this morning, before packing our gear and bidding farewell to the other guys. We are on our own from here as they have an extra week in Tassie, so we need to move a bit quicker than them. We set off up the Bass highway and took a look at Table cape then headed into Stanley for breakfast.

 

Stanley was a very interesting place with some really cool looking old buildings. We just happened to pick a cafe that was also a chocolate shop and Sam was like a kid in a candy store. They even had all the lollies in the old glass jars on the wall. Brought back a lot of memories, The wind was blowing a gale, so we decided against heading up what they call the Nut, A large headland that is the main feature of Stanley.

The breakfast was fantastic, then we headed over to Smithton, which was surprisingly unremarkable. Perhaps we missed something, but we did head up to the town lookout to take in the view. It was then a dirt back road to Marrawah, which is right on the Nth west coast. The surf was huge and there were quite a few surfers, which surprised us considering, how cold it was. They breed em tough down here.

It is 14 klm's from Murrawah to Aurthur river and along the way there are these strange road signs. Not quite sure what they mean. Do the roos here use cars as bodybuilding weights or is theree something more lewd going on. I tell ya these Taswegions are a strange lot. :-)

Aurthur River isn't the end of the world, but the edge of the world is just near it.

I checked the weather at Aurthur river and the forecast was for gale force winds, Hail
and rain.......Perfect conditions to travel down one of Tasmania's most remote roads/tracks the Western Explorer. Everyone we spoke to said that we should go back around the road way, but I was determine to at least go and have a look. The 160 klm's of road itself turned out to be fine apart from a couple of slippery patches. It was the weather that was the problem, with freezing sleet and howling winds making it all great fun. Well I thought so anyway, Sam wanted to take to me with the tomahawk. It was all worth though as the views are spectacular,,,,When you can see em through the rain and cloud that is.

  

Soon we arrived at Corinna, which is a quaint little village on the banks of the Pie-man river, which must be crossed by the Fatman Barge.

We would have stayed here except is was fully booked out, so after a quick look around it was onto the barge, where a special procedure must be followed before boarding.

The fatman talking to the Pieman

There was no reason that I could see to Stop in Zeehan, so we didn't. In fact I would be surprised if anyone ever stopped in Zeehan.

Zeehan to Strahan was a high speed blast on an excellent road. We decided that it was too cold to camp and were lucky to get the last available bed in town at the backpackers. Pretty cool little hut it is too.

Tomorrow is tourist day, 

Comments

[Greg & Sue]

Very cool keep it coming . we have been surfing and fishing most of the day in perfect warm, blue sky weather. Iknow that won't put you guys off your adventure but you might just think of us sitting under a big shady tree whatching the kid swim and fish when you get abit home sick.Ride safe.

[Guy]

Yeah well heres somethng for you to think about. I just got up its freezing cold and it rained all night. I am sitting here in my thermal underware and the hole in thhe front is letting a draft in. That should keep you entertained for the day :-)
Next time I come to Tassie I'm coming in June when its a bit warmer.

[leigh]

I don't think we will get a summer this year.
Keep an eye out for those Kangaroo's,You can see by the sign what they do that to cars,so you don't want to know what they do to motor bikes and there male riders. :)
Hope the weather clears up for you both. take care

dont get too sun burnt Buzz. :)