Saturday February 24th saw us heading further West to Smithton. Was a relatively short drive but the roads were wet and winding. We setup at Tall Timbers in a free camping area. Tall Timbers is a resort but have allowed caravans free use of a large grassy field near a creek. A beautiful location and not a bad business idea as most of us would have utilized their Pub, Bottle shop, and Restaurants during our stay. There was a resident duck population that showed up for a feed every morning (not from us though)
The weather had cleared nicely and the sun was peeking through again. We did a quick drive around town to explore before returning to our caravans. Rans and I spent a few hours at the Pub enjoying a few cold ones and donating to the TAB with some bets. No winners today but a great afternoon.
Sunday we hopped in with the Ransleys and did a big drive around the "Tarkine Drive". We began by heading West towards the coast. First stop was Green Point where there is a small but rather sloping camping area. Not too good for a large caravan. Nice waterfront location though and a good viewpoint from up the road. The sun was trying hard but the wind had really picked up so was quite cool.
Next stops were West Point and Bluff Point. There was a small lighthouse at Bluff Point but not much to see. At West Point we did a walk out to a rocky point. The girls searched for rocks and shells without too much luck.
Next stop was Arthur River where we found a nice large campground run by the Parks and Forest. It wasn't free but was well spread out with at least four different toilet blocks scattered around. Looked like a good spot as was sheltered from the wind and open enough for solar.
We had planned to do a 2 hour walk on the North side of the Arthur River but found the beginning covered with a high tide and heard that it wasn't very well marked, not to mention the strong winds. We ventured instead to "The Edge of the World" lookout which was beautiful but gale force winds. We got some nice pictures and managed to not get blown away!
Sundown Point at Nelson Bay was our next stop. Did a 4WD trail down to the creek where we did a short walk. There was some aboriginal petroglyphs on the rocks by the creek. I could best describe them as carved circles in the rocks.
The last stop along the coast was Sarah Rocks. Quaint little fishing village with some lovely rock formations.
We headed back East and North from here leaving the coast to explore the rainforests. This is one of the largest cool temperate rainforests in the Southern Hemisphere. These stops were the highlights of the day for Sandra and I with the nicest rainforest walks that we have seen. We did a few lookouts at Sumac and Dempster Plains. The former overlooked the Arthur River and the latter the Button grass plains.
We did a walk at Lake Chisholm which was one of the days highlights. Beautiful rainforest with wonderful trees, huge umbrella ferns, and moss/lichen growing everywhere. It ended at a large sinkhole/lake.
We had another short stop at The Sinkhole which is right next to the road. Very beautiful again with everything lovely shades of green.
Our last stop and probably the best was at Trowutta Arch. Another wonderful rainforest walk ending at a large rock arch formation formed by a sinkhole. Everything covered with moss and a wet cool environment even on a warm day. Wonderful!
Was a big day with over 250KM and lots of stops and walks. We treated ourselves to Pizza at the Tall Timbers Bistro. They had a nice choice for gluten free as well so we were well looked after. We slept well that night!
Monday we set off in our car for a drive. We found a lookout in Smithton which overlooked the town and Duck Bay. We noticed a problem with the Jeeps air suspension system but headed off to explore East of Smithton. On a whim we took the turnoff to Dip Falls. What a good decision! We travelled about 25KM south on mostly paved roads to the falls. The road was fairly winding but only the last couple of KM were gravel. First stop was one kilometre past the falls at "The Big Tree". A very short rainforest walk took you in to a huge tree. 17M in circumference which made it one of the larger trees I have seen. Once again everything was covered in moss and beautiful.
We then returned to the main falls area and did a short walk down a new walkway/stairs to the base of the falls. Lots of nice viewing/resting areas along the way. The final viewing area juts out at the base of the falls and gives an outstanding view of a spectacular falls. This would be one of the best we have seen, and we have seen a lot! The water falls are in two levels and quite impressive, but what really sets them apart is the basalt hexagon volcanic rock! Needs to be seen to be really appreciated but we've included some photos that hopefully give you an idea.
We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch before deciding to return to the campground. We thought we better follow up with the Jeep problem as seemed to be affecting our reversing and tight turning at slow speeds. I did some troubleshooting to narrow down the problem before contacting the closest Jeep dealer in Launceston. They were very helpful but suggested we would need to bring it in for a look. We decided we had better get it checked out so arranged to take it in the following day.
We told Carol and Stephen to move on to Stanley where we had bookings at the caravan park while we made a trip into Launceston on Tuesday morning. We got an early start by 7am and made it to Launceston by 10am. We booked the car in and spent a bit of time exploring to kill some time. First stop was the Tramway Museum at the University. Free admission (donation box) and was quite a good museum. A bit of Tasmanian history, quite a good bird/animal/dinosaur exhibit, and a full floor dedicated to Tasmania's contribution to WWI upstairs.
We checked in at the car dealer to discover the mechanic was still working through the issues so set off for another walk. This time we ended up at the Royal Park which was lovely and green. Lots of areas to walk and sit quietly enjoying the peaceful surroundings. A highlight of the park was the Japanese Macaque monkey display. Very entertaining with monkeys of all sizes and ages performing. Great to see the baby ones with their parents. The older kids were very entertaining as well with lots of chasing and jumping around.
When we returned to the dealer they had diagnosed the problem but had to order a part. They had got the car back to operating normally although the air suspension was still not working properly. We had them order the part and decided to carry on back to Stanley. We made the long trip back to Smithton arriving after 4PM where we quickly hooked up the caravan and headed the short distance to Stanley. The caravan park was expecting us luckily as they were full up. Our spot turned out to be quite tight to get into as the roads were very narrow and there were cars parked opposite along the road. With the Ransley's assistance we were able to manoeuvre into our site and get setup. Our friends from Harrington (Rob/Carol & Tom/Chris) joined us shortly after for afternoon drinks.
What a day!
Our Jeep is outside of warranty but covered by the third party extended warranty we purchased from Jeep. Found out we needed to provide service history to the 3rd party which proved a bit of a pain given we were travelling. We managed to find the documentation and send it off for approval. Good news in that the repairs will be covered. We'll arrange a time to return to Launceston once the part arrives.
We really enjoyed Smithton and the Tall Timbers free camp is highly recommended by ourselves.
