Tassie 2020

[Rossco]

Only just finished going through photos, had thousands lol, but recently spent two weeks in Tassie, mostly the west in January, was wicked. . .

Started at Hartz Mountains in the south east. Was very lucky with the weather was absolutely beautiful, spent the day doing the walk up the top stunning spot. .


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Beautiful old glacial lakes, went for a quick dip, was Petty fresh lol. .

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Stayed at Arve River Picnic Area (campgroud) pretty busy but good spot. .

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[Rossco]

Next day took the scenic route across to near Derwent Bridge, turned into a bit of an adventure . . .

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Tried a track that was marked on Hema that cut across to the Stix Valley road but was pretty overgrown . . .

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Ended up at a crossing of the Stix river that was defiantly not crossable, no solo anyway. . . Anyway beautiful spot and no riff raff down here. .

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Back tracked and finally made it out after hitting locked gates coming out of the pine plantations and following a maze of roads. Cruised through the Sitx valley and stopped at the tall trees conservation reserve. .

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Continued though the Florentine Valley that runs behind Mt Field. Nearly came out the other side and hit a road closed sign. . . ARRRGH . .Thought bugger it drove around it and came across two dudes doing some bridge work, asked if i could drive though and let us, bloody champions would have been at least a few hours to go around.

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Derwent River just below Lake Repulse

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Crazy these old wooden pipes amazing the labor going into these.

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Met up with MB and co and camped at Laughing Jack Lagoon just out of Derwent Bridge, nice little spot. Smokey day from Vic and Tas fires. .

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[Rossco]

Hmm previous post coming up as attachment on desktop not sure why it seems to do that might have to re do those hope these work . .

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Cut across to Queenstown then camped at Darwin boat ramp on Lake Burbury. .

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Drove into the Mt McCall track after picking up a key from the parks office in St Claire.

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Pretty scenic drive and ends up not far from the Franklin river with a very steep walk down to it down the old haulage road.

[Rossco]

. . .

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Old tramlines and winch from back in the day. Pretty crazy soo steep. .

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Franklin River deep in the wilderness

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[Rossco]

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[Rossco]

Last 2 posts coming up as attachments as well - grr quite annoying. .

After heading out of Mt McCall ducked down to Bird River Bridge. .

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Headed up Mt Darwin which is supposed to have some pretty impressive views however was a bit of a white out up the top . . good little drive but.

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Pretty good views coming down from the fog. .

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[Rossco]

. . .

Onto camp at Trial Harbor for a couple of nights . .

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Cool track following an old tramway which there must have been so many back in the day. Seemed to be struggling with traction on this track till i worked out the hubs weren't locked lol. .

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Didn't see anybody on the track in but quite a lot of people did the walk in from the other side.

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[mudnut]

All good now. Thank you for taking the time to post up all off those beautiful pics.

[Cuppa]

Great to see you got down to the Franklin. We couldn't get the keys to the gate as the rangers were all away on a group hike somewhere. Did you get to see the helipad with 'No Dam' still painted on it? We di the walk along the Bird River into Pillinger instead & loved it. Loved our time in Trial Harbour too. Did the Montezuma Falls track by ourselves - Sh*tting myself a couple of times. Didn't take any pics until we got to the falls, so great to see yours of the track. The west coast of Tassie is a great part of the world & your photos do it justice. Thanks for sharing.

[Rossco]

Back out through Ring River track. Was a great track plain sailing in the dry but would be different story in the wet. .

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Back into camp after restocking and doing some washing in sunny Zeehan. Headed up to the spray tunnel in the evening (shoulda stayed in Zeehan really) to check out the glow worms, was pretty impressive. .

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[Rossco]

All good now. Thank you for taking the time to post up all off those beautiful pics.

Cheers guys, yeah re did those ones.


Great to see you got down to the Franklin. We couldn't get the keys to the gate as the rangers were all away on a group hike somewhere. Did you get to see the helipad with 'No Dam' still painted on it? We di the walk along the Bird River into Pillinger instead & loved it. Loved our time in Trial Harbour too. Did the Montezuma Falls track by ourselves - Sh*tting myself a couple of times. Didn't take any pics until we got to the falls, so great to see yours of the track. The west coast of Tassie is a great part of the world & your photos do it justice. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah that was a pretty special spot very glad we did it. We drove past the heli pad but didn't stop in, next time lol! Was pretty funny the drive to the falls, its defiantly a reasonable track but then got to the falls and were heaps of tourists including the type that likes to sit on a rock at the bottom of the falls so anyone that wants a photo gets some random person in it ! . . A few selfie sticks out as well lol. .

[Rossco]

The next day we met up with the rest of the crew (AB & Winnie +co's) after previously meeting up with Daz and Matty and co's in Derwent Bridge. Beutifull day to hit the iconic Climes Track really is an enjoyable drive. .

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[Rossco]

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[Rossco]

The infamous waterfall on Climes, took the inside line for something different a few big steps there. .

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Markie took the much more sensible option. . .

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[Rossco]

. . .

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Bit of a sneaky hole

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Bit of a snaky diff hanging rock. . .

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Into camp in Granville Harbor and met up with the local legend himself TasLucas

[Rossco]

Next day off to Pieman Heads . .

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Passing through Conical Rocks- pretty cool spot . .

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Pieman Heads a very cool spot with heaps of massive drift wood washed up everywhere. .

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Beautiful lunch stop on the beach. .

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[Rossco]

After taking the inland loop back from the heads and smashing through some stinky Tassie bogholes time for another wash. . .

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Big dune overlooking 4 mile beach

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[Rossco]

Next day woke up and found Daz had to stay in town after going to Zeehan and water pump shit itself. Matty also had a little leak around the pump dam it so decided we'd keep going with the guys catching up later in the day. Headed off throgh Corina hoping to find a camp around Savage River, although after checking it out there was only a small site and already taken so back to Corinia and luckily they had enough sites to squeeze us all in.

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Melon Paddies everywhere. .

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Wasn't much we could do but to wait, MB courier services rushed up to Roseberry to pickup the water pumps and just hoped we had enough time to get them in and then back to Granville to packup then to the barge at cut off 7.00pm . . Grabbed a canoe while waiting and headed down river to Lovers Falls passed the Arcadia on the way . .

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Wreck of Croydon an old timber barge that sunk overnight used to cart Huon Pine out of Savage River.

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Waited at the pub anxiously waiting for the rest of the party to arrive. . . Matty last on at 6.59 disembarked @7.00 on the dot, far out could't get much closer. Great relief to get both cars sorted not bad effort and didn't even loose a day pretty good . .

[Rossco]

Next day headed north on the Western Explorer. Very nice drive, beautiful country. . .

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Had to stop for a quick puncture repair along the way . .

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Headed into the old Balfour township to check it out and lunch. .

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The old pub (chimney is all that remains) with shack built around it all in memory of a young bloke that took his life. Very cool little place and a complete surprise. So many thing just left there in trust of others even beer in the fridge great to see it so well respected. . Series Three Land Rover isn't a feature you see in too many buildings but love it . .

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[Cuppa]

I didn't know the shack was the old pub. We found a handful of folk still living at Balfour, they came together most evenings in that shack. Cemetery was interesting but sad. We camped a bit before the 'township' at the entrance tunnel to the old mine, & didn't discover the township until we walked up there the following morning.

[Rossco]

Onto Balfour Track looking pretty dry all things concidered . .

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Stinky boghole AKA the radiator destroyer. . Think I got lucky going first avoided most of the slop before it got churned up . .

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Daz succumbed to peer group pressure and gave it a crack but unfortunately 33's were the difference between getting though or not . .

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Most of the long crossings were fine and had a solid base of rock, but not this one. . Remember Lucas saying stick to the main track is usually best, which is true but not with this one lol. Didn't get any pics but sunk in this stinky swamp old girl took on a bit of water slop etc. . .

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Found a beautiful camp near the beach on the way down to Sandy Cape. Unfortunately wind picked up in the night and got a bit wild. .

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[Rossco]

I didn't know the shack was the old pub. We found a handful of folk still living at Balfour, they came together most evenings in that shack. Cemetery was interesting but sad. We camped a bit before the 'township' at the entrance tunnel to the old mine, & didn't discover the township until we walked up there the following morning.

Didn't see much of the old mine, would defiantly be good to go back and explore. Didn't do the walk down to the river either but would be good to do one day expect it would be beautiful. Interestingly Nicole bought a book from Corinna a couple days prior called the Balfour Corespondent which has published letters written by Sylvia McArthur to the Weekly Corrier after they moved from Zeehan to Balfour in 1911 when she was 14. I didn't walk down to the cemetery as were a bit tight on time but Nicole did and saw her grave, yeah interesting and sad as she died a year later at 15.

[Rossco]

Were going to spend a couple of nights at the camp but packed up after a wild night and headed down to Sandy Cape. .

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Curse of the Balfour swamp saw a few TD's getting hot lol. .

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Found a washed up Pilot Whale on the beach

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Back into Arthur River Caravan Park to do some radiator cleaning after a day of overheating for some. .

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[Rossco]

Next morning lucky enough to see this little bugger sneaking around camp. .

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Checked out the Edge of the World at the entrance to Arthur River. Had a fair bit of rain overnight and pretty dark and gloomy day but pretty dramatic for the scenery . . .

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[Rossco]

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Headed over the Tarkine drive across to Stanley. .

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Sinkhole

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Trowatta Arch. Very cool spot with some amazing rainforest never seen Myrtle Beech that size, definitely don't get that big in sunny Mexico.

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After seeing Christmas Hills TAS poping up in autofill things all the time we decided that us Christmas Hillians had to drop in for a visit. . . Unfortunately there is nothing there at all not even a town sign . .

[Rossco]

Last port of call before Davenport we stopped in at Wings Wildlife Park and checked out Gunns Plains Caves. This was a little surprise didn't even know it was there and was very impressive. .

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Back on the boat and back to sunny Mexico unfortunately. Tassie is a place defiantly need to get down and see more of I think . .

[jack]

Thanks for sharing Rossco

[Rossco]

Thanks for sharing RosscoNo worries mate although does take a while when you take so many photos, plus this is a combination of mine and Nicoles and some drone ones, its tough biso this holiday thing [emoji23] . . .

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Cuppa]

Some excellent pics throughout. Loved the Quoll close ups. You are right about returning. There is a heck of a lot to see on that small island.

[taslucas]

Wow, great pics Rossco, Im sorry it took so long for me to find this thread!
Again, it was great to see you all and im so happy you enjoyed the trip.