Hobart to Tasmania's NW Coast

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We caught up with good New Zealand friends in the tiny town of Hamilton NW of Hobart and introduced them to freedom camping in their hired motor home and enjoyed our first night catching up on news.

Next day we headed off in convoy towards Queenstown (an old mining town), taking time out occasionally to do some small nature walks in the bush before camping for the night by a beautiful lake and sharing a delicious meal and enjoying more than one glass of wine!

Our next trip was to Strahan, a sleepy fishing town with tourist boats operating to the stunning Gordon River. Our site for the night was right on the beach giving us ample time to stretch our legs and enjoy the beautiful coastline.

What with our friends experiencing a small town campsite, a lake campsite and then a beach site, our next camp was in bush covered gorge where we managed to catch the sight of bandicoots at night under torchlight. The kookaburras and blue wrens certainly kept us entertained too.

For our last night we chose the wharf at Stanley to camp where the guys could go fishing but not before we had all climbed the huge rock called “The Nut” that dominates the landscape around there. It was certainly a steep climb but well worth it and we were pleased that we chose not to take the easy option of the chairlift that was available. The views from the top were absolutely stunning with so many sandy white beaches to admire.

We are back on the road again by ourselves today and heading to Arthur River and once more camped by the beach. However today it is very very windy and so glad we are not in a tent like many many young people around us. (There is a surfing competition tomorrow around here.)

We spent the day on a tour of the Arthur River today along with a dozen others cruising 15 kms up the river spotting Sea Eagles, Wedgetail eagles and superb kingfishers along the way. The skipper stopped several times to throw fish into the water so that we could all photograph the eagles swooping down to grab the fish which was amazing to see.

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