We left Stanley today and headed west towards Smithton before heading even further west to Marrawah beach - which is the furthest point you can go on the north west corner of Tasmania. We were initially visiting the area to join a Geoff King wildlife tour and hopefully see Tasmanian devils in the wild but sadly his wife emailed me 6 months ago to say he had died so there we be no tour. However we decided to keep our plans and are glad we did.
First stop was Smithton - the commercial centre for this area with it's beef and dairy farming, timber, fishing and tourism - it's a great place for wind, kite and ordinary surfers as wind and waves are in abundance - last stop was Antarctica or South America.
The leaflet we picked up from the tourist information about Smithton listed an eclectic list of everything you could in the town from breathe the freshest air and walking along the board walk by the Duck estuary looking at the bird life, which we did, to the more unusual holiday pursuits of getting your car serviced or tyres checked and restocking at one of the local supermarkets - the latter we did in small measure at a large well stocked Woolworth's as Marrawah beach only has a pub and a village shop.
To supplement our yogurt and banana breakfast we looked for the Alfresco dining in a local cafe they listed but didn't think a couple of tables by the main road really counted - that said we had a nice coffee, raisin toast and cinnamon doughnuts in one of the bakeries. For all the hype Smithton was a clean but basic and slightly run down town with several empty shops and businesses up for sale - we have seen this elsewhere and it is no doubt a sign of the economic downturn, strong Aussie dollar and several poor years for tourism albeit the latest figures have the trend now heading upward again.
We passed a McCains factory as we walked by the river - so John may have been right about the source of our below par chips last night!
Shopping complete we headed to Marrawah on the back road as we had time on our hands, passed a big wind farm and went along a good dirt road for the last 15-20kms. This is definitely a windy area and a good place for a wind farm which if interested does offer tours I noticed. We found our accommodation easily and because we had arrived before 1300 we waited in the car as the key was not where we were told it would be. Not long after the owner passed and was bemused as to why we couldn't get in, he went home to investigate and returned with the key - his wife had mistakenly thought we arrived tomorrow! We quickly unpacked, made a cup of tea, and sat in the sunshine, nicely shielded from the wind by strategically placed wind breaks around the cabin and enjoyed the views (today's picture) - rolling hills with hay bales and a carpet of green and gold meadows flowing to the shoreline, cattle grazing, just over the fence, and the bay with its long beach curving around to a rocky headland with waves continually rolling to shore and fishing boats, at anchor bobbing, on the sea. This definitely one of the best views we have had from anywhere we have stayed.
We sat out for a couple of hours just enjoying it before taking the main road back to Smithton to get some money out as we now needed to settle our accommodation bill in cash and I didn't quite have enough. It was a nice day for a drive albeit I snoozed on the way back. On our return we stopped at the general store and cafe in Redpa for a coffee - one of the best we have had - an apple cake and a flapjack type of cake - different but scrummy. The shop had things for every eventuality, I saw tools, food and even a pack of 5 ladies pants; this was the nearest place for the small communities living here unless they drove the 45minutes to Smithton - so was no doubt a godsend for those emergencies both locals and travellers have!
We returned to our lovely cabin and had supper; as there was no tv we watched an old DVD called the Fiercest Creatures with John Cleese, Michael Palin and Jamie Lee Curtis about the saving of a zoo - very Monty Pythonesque -but a good laugh.