Tasmania Trip - Day 16

Day 16 - 9/2/2014 - Stanley to Black River via Arthur River

Well today was really destination unknown!  We were going to take the Western Explorers Way from Arthur River to Corina but the road was closed due to a land slip.  So we decided to just set off towards Arthur River and see where we ended up.

Bridge into Arthur River

The first stop at Arthur River was Gardiner Point to see “The Edge of the World”.  The sea to the west of Tasmania is longest uninterrupted expanse of ocean on the planet.

The Arthur River entrance

The Edge of the World! - Next stop, Argentina!

With the wind starting to pick up and the weather not being the best, and it was still relatively early in the day, so we decided to keep pushing on.  We called in at the local National Parks office to check out the conditions of a forest drive that would loop us back around to Smithton minimising the amount of doubling back.  The National Parks ranger said that the road was ok and that there were some nice camping spots in that area be he wasn’t sure whether the roads were open or not.  So we decided to set off and see what we could find.

Just as we started heading south from Arthur River the wind really started picking up.  Also a storm was rolling in and the temperature dropped.

We also started to get some small hail!  Luckily it didn’t get any bigger than pea size and it didn’t last for too long.

Just as we were getting out of the car to have a look at the Sumac Lookout it started raining again.  So we decide to have lunch while the rain passed.

The Tarkine Forest

It was such a picturesque drive despite the weather.

On the way back into Smithton we passed through dairy country.

Because we had basically just done a big loop we thought about staying at the Stanley van park again.  But in the end we decided to push on a little bit further to the Black River Campground.  There were plenty of sites still available when we arrived but most of them were really exposed to the wind or they had a lot of large gum trees overhanging the sites.  With the wind getting stronger we decided to stay at a site at the entrance to the campground that was closer to the road, but we could tuck in behind some trees so that it acted like a wind break.  The site was still far enough away from the road that we couldn’t hear any traffic noise which was fantastic.

Campsite 1 all to ourselves!