West Coast AdventureAuthor: jawapro
Date: Fri 14/01/2011 04:48 PM
Rob: "I want to do a trip up the West Coast - haven’t been out that way in ages".
Turkey: "Sounds awesome - how about this weekend?"
So that was the plan. Just wander up the West Coast for a look.
Thursday night after work, I jumped in Oscar and headed south. But to keep things interesting I went over the Highlands instead of down the Midlands. If you are going from Devonport to Hobart, most GPSs will take you this way as it’s a few ks shorter, but it’s far more twisty and some of it’s gravel. Quite often tourists end out up here by trusting their GPS too much.
Not sure if it’s faster than the Midlands or not though - it certainly wasn’t for me, but I kept stopping to check things out as I hadn’t been up this way much (never on my own).
Thursday night I crashed at Turkeys, with vague intentions that we’d get an early start from there the following day. 2pm is early isn’t it? Checking both cars mechanically, packing stuff, shopping - it all slowed us down.
But eventually we were on the way. Friday started out stupidly hot, but the further west we went, the cooler and wetter things got. I love rain sometimes.
Not 100% sure of the purpose of these towers, but they are connected to the water pipes for the power station at Tarraleah. Known in some circles as "the big shockies".
That night we camped on a track near Lake King William. Quite a nice spot, although the ground was very rocky, and Turkey’s Laser stationwagon had to pretend it was a 4x4 to get there.
This particular photo is very tame, but there was enough rock scrambling further back that Turkey had to be very careful about his lines (low clearance).
So - time to head West again. Lovely roads out this way - heaps of fun for a drive.
Lake Burbury - quite a lot of water…
Queenstown - and Turkey.
The 99 bends into Queenstown - ah what a road!
We were trying to work out where to have lunch around Queenstown where Turkey spied a sign saying there was a lookout up the road. So off we trundled.
Found the lookout, saw the view, looked down to check for phone signal, and by the time I looked back up, the view was gone. We were in the clouds.
Still - nice spot for lunch.
We decided to follow this road for a while, and ended up in Darwin (how’d we get to the Territory?) and kept pushing on as the road turned to gravel. Would have kept going, but we ran into a National Park, and I don’t have a pass yet.
Nice little bridge at the start of the National Park.
So turning around and backtracking to Queenstown for an icecream.
After Queenstown we went out to the coast and then Northwards.
Drove through Strahan, but it’s a over-commercialised tourist haven, so not my sort of place. Headed out to Hell’s Gates for a look - but sadly I had to skip the 4x4 tracks as the Laser wouldn’t have made it.
Further up the road we stopped at the Henty sand dunes for a look. Long scramble up from the carpark, but worth it.
Turkey playing tracker and trying to work out which way the bikes that left these tracks had been going.
The Henty dune is going to claim the picnic table shortly.
Zeehan! Now, this is my sort of town. Could have spent ages here - let the tourists have Strahan!
Majestic ghosts of the past.
It was getting late, so I suggested we push for Trial Harbour for the night. Wasn’t far away. I think I’ve only been to Trial once, to tackle Climie’s Track - but this time we headed into the Harbour itself.
Check out the view - that’s from the local tip! Talk about a fantastic location for a rubbish collection point!
How perfect a campsite is this! Trial Harbour is a fantastic place. Probably gets crowded out some times of the year - but it was perfect when we were there.
One of the local characters at the Trial Harbour shacks.
Magic spot!
So it was back to Zeehan where I think we had lunch (another early start for us!). After looking around for a bit longer, we headed North again.
Next stop - Granville Harbour!
Ok - so this was one place I HAD to visit on the West Coast. I’d been here a few times about 17 years ago as the jumping-off point for the Pieman Heads track. Still looks very much the same really.
The road into Granville was quite rough, and Turkey was a little less excited to be there than I was.
The start of the Pieman Heads track. I am certainly returning here sometime with a convoy of 4x4s to do this track again.
How awesome would this shack be!
Next stop - Corrina. Time to cross the Pieman River on the Fatman ferry.
A bridge might be cheaper than $20 a ticket, but the ferry is awesome.
Corrina itself has grown a bit since last time I was here. High class eco tourism. Best avoided by cheap-skates like me I think.
Start of the Road to Nowhere. Twisty roads for the next 53km!
The start of this road is a little ominous. There are signs saying "Warning: no fuel for 100km", "Warning: no phone signal", "Warning: roads are twisty and gravel".
Sounds perfect to me!
Also the perfect place to break down!
For once it wasn’t me!
Turkey had something going BANG in the drive-train somewhere.
At least the view was impressive! And regardless of what the signs had said, we had some phone signal. After talking to the RACT and discovering he’d be in debt for the next few lifetimes if he got a towtruck out here, Turkey agreed to let me tow him.
Slow going back along the twists and hills of the Road to Nowhere to almost Corrina. Then we took the slightly more mainstream road out to Savage River. Savage River is a rally stage for a reason - it’s twisty and awesome - but not as much fun on the end of a tow-rope.
Twas a long trip back to Devonport.
Turkey was supposed to heading home on Monday - but stayed up here to get a new driveshaft to fix his car. The install was easy (we borrowed Tim’s hoist) but alas it wasn’t the issue. Turkey decided to try replacing the other driveshaft the following day, but the problem was tracked to the diff instead. So now he’s still here waiting for his Dad to come up on Saturday with a trailer to take the Laser to Hobart.
So that was my weekend - I bet it was more fun than yours!
I’ll leave you with a shot of one of the locals from Granville Harbour. That’s an ancient Nissan! You don’t see many of them.
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