[heyhey]

Thought I should put some pics up of a recent trip to Tassie. We spent two weeks driving from Devonport around the west coast, down south via the lakes area, then up the east coast.

Leaving Melbourne

Arriving in Devonport

Then started treking west

Then down the west coast from Smithton

 

[heyhey]

Once at Arthur's River, got all our permits and drove down the beach

Cruisers ain't too good at sand LOL

Then found camp for the first night. Lots of drift wood on the beach and very nice empty campsites were great

 

[heyhey]

Next day more beach driving heading through Arthur-Pieman Conservation Park toward Balfour Track

All three of us got stuck on the beach LOL

I ended up doing the old, bury the spare, trick and winched myself out of trouble

 

[heyhey]

The area is very rocky in sections, with many bog holes and mainly peat (black mud). There were some really challenging sections, I was first to drive all of them, many spots I got stuck good and proper. Took 3/4 day to do the track.

The big bog hole I got stuck in a fair bit, I had to winch through. Really deep water and peat. I had to sink the car (water into the tray and up to the gear stick) to get as far as I did. The cruisers took the chicken track.

 

[heyhey]

At got to the end of the track and onto the old Balfour town which is pretty much just old mines and mine relics from what we could quickly find

From there kept heading south to Corinna

 

[heyhey]

Arrived at Corinna pub, had a few beers and took the ferry across

Quickly popped into Zeehan to catch up with a mate (who we didn't manage to catch up with ), filled up with fuel at pushed on out to Trial Harbour to camp for the second night. The shanty town was nice, but camping facilities sucked.

Next morning, headed off to Strahan. Checked out the town, sampled beer at every venue. Tried to find showers, but the old public ones where closed at the caravan parks wouldn't let us use the showers even if we gave them $10 each (said wouldn't let us).

Camped at Macquarie Heads, that was nice big camping ground. Lots of sites, no firewood really. And managed to finally chuck the rods in. Many cans were drunk, no fish were caught

 

[heyhey]

Next day into Queenstown. I've been to Queenstown 3 times, every time its been raining

The famous gravel footy oval

Popped into Great Lakes and had a beer or a few

From there headed to Hamilton and found a camp. There wasn't much around, Hamilton only has one small public camp ground, but has hot showers and good facilities. Found out in the morning that Ouse (ooz) had camp grounds

 

[heyhey]

Next day we went and checked out Gordon Dam and the lakes out that way.

 

[heyhey]

It was a big drive out to the dam and back, dead end road, but I thought it was worth it. We had a fishing charter booked at Eaglehawk Neck the next day so we kept on driving to get there that night.

Richmond bridge

Eaglehawk neck

Next day we went fishing. Seas were pretty rough and I'd been on the cans pretty hard the night before, sure enough I was crook most the day and did very very little fishing.

 

[heyhey]

After the charter we headed out towards Port Arthur to find a campsite for the night. All the designated camp sites were overcrowded so we found a nice spot in a logging coupe and made camp. PLENTY of firewood on hand LOL So much so we loaded up one of the Cruisers with wood and carried it around with us for a few days

Next morning off to Port Arthur for a look

Then from there we headed into Hobart for a few days.
Checked out the Lark Distillery (shop) and spent more than I should've

Found a ripper pub/bar with a **** load of awesome beers on tap! Lucky they don't*have Police in Tassie or I might have been over the limit

 

[heyhey]

After the couple days in Hobart we headed up the east coast.

Didn't see a huge amount on the way through. Lots of hop plantations caught my attention though

Stopped in at Triabunna for a feed and beer

The weather was about to turn to crap so we made way to Lake Leake and found the paid campsite with facilities full, so we headed around to a little spot I've camped at before. We just managed to setup camp and it started hammering with rain.

Had a big night on the piss as there wasn't much else to do, consumed a fair bit of port and then hit the hay.

In the late mornin we headed over to the Freycinet NP for a look. Unfortunately the weather was still pretty poor and we couldn't see anything through the rain and cloud.

So we kept on trucking up towards St Helens.

Stopped in at the Ironhouse Brewery, that was a phucking bad idea. Worst brewery I've ever been to. I've had better amateur homebrew than that chit they were serving. So we had to stop at Scamander to rinse our mouths out with some Boags Draught.

Anyway got to the Bay of Fires just as the weather was starting to pick up.

And found camp out Akaroa way

Next day, we started making our way to Launceston.

Stopped in at the Pub In The Paddock

and checked out the falls around the corner (can't find my pictures of).

 

[heyhey]

Then done a bit of a pub crawl all the way to Launceston.

Spent the night in Launceston and went to the Boags Brewery and they just so happened to be setting up for the Launceston Beer Festival!! Shame we were shipping out that arvo

Had a few beers on the Boags tour, then off to Devonport to jump on the boat home.

 

[AUTO..]

Looks like a good trip mate. I used to live down there for a bit when I was younger. Still look like they're stuck in the past.
Looks very wet and swampy.

 

[parscheese]

Great trip report!

Cheers

Justin

 

[klappers]

Awesome trip!!!

 

[chuckles]

Great pics Darcy well done! Do you think 2 weeks was long enough?

 

[timo_ed]

Nice one. Luv tassie.

 

[1TUFGQ]

Nice pics seriously Darcy, how many k's did you do all up?
And are you serious about there being no cops in Tas?

 

[geordie4x4]

Nice trip report. I have to go back there again, beautiful spot.
Did you do the track from Trial Harbor to Granville, I am wondering if it is still open? Great little track with a few tricky log bridge crossings. I would love to do it again as when we got to the scenic highlight at Granite creek and the waterfall into the sea, all we could see was drizzle and fog. Just have to be there on the right day I spose.

 

[Overboard]

Love the pics heyhey.

What do the pins in the map represent? I was wondering if they were the places you stayed but there seems too many of them.

Cheers,