Driving along the north west coast of Tasmania

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After leaving the caravan park at Devonport this morning, we drove into town, first stopping at the Australian Weaving Mills. At their shop there were all sorts of towels, handtowels, washers, etc, curtains, sheets and doona etc., some with well-known brands. I bought some towels, quite reasonably priced.

We then found a supermarket to do a foodshop and then drove out to where the Mersey River flows to the sea. It’s a deep river and a busy port nearby to the mouth, making it easy for the ships to get out to sea. Last time we were here, we parked at the same place and saw the Young Endeavour in full sail coming into the river. It was quite a low tide, which we hadn't seen there last time.

We left Devonport and drove west along the coast. It was a rugged oceanfront with a lot of rocks as well as nice white sandy beaches for swimming. We had a drive around Burnie, a big town, possibly city. A ship was loading timber and wood chip at the waterfront.

The countryside was very green with cattle and a lot of products growing, potatoes, and it looked like market flowers. We wondered about the trespass warnings on some fences, wondering if the plants were poppies. On Googling, we found that poppies indeed were grown in the north west coast of Tasmania 'for the production of morphine, codeine and thebaine'.

We found some lovely places on our travels - one being Boat Harbour Beach, a dear little beach which we discovered driving down a steep road. The beach was white and safe - as a local said to us ‘it’s Australia’s hidden gem’, very pretty. In fact it’s a very pretty coast altogether.

We had decided to make Stanley for the night and what a surprise that was. It’s a beautiful wide sweeping beach, with dear little old timber and stone houses in the main street and with a dominating plateau behind – The Stanley Nut. We parked and walked along the main street, calling in to some of the shops. At one, The Providores, we bought pate, cheeses, and Doug bought a bottle of beer. These have all proved delicious at gin/beer o'clock this evening.

There was a chairlift up the Nut but it was getting late in the afternoon and we were told it would mean we wouldn't have time to walk around the top of the plateau before the chairlift closed for the day. We'll go on it tomorrow.

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