North of the Bay of Fires, the tourist route disappears and most head south or west from here. But there are some dirt roads and some small settlements that, because they were there, we decided to visit. At the end of the bitumen, a strung-out little community called The Gardens was made up of holiday shacks all of which had a tinny in the yard and the obligatory pile of lobster pots. A track with a sign read '2WD with care' and we turned up it. It soon turned into a rougher and more difficult road than some of the 4WD tracks we had been on - 2WD car drivers would be getting quite nervous as they proceeded we thought.

Further north, Ansons Bay was fringed by farms, another small fishing village and some superb campsites. This is very remote country. Another dirt road takes you to the Eddystone Point Lighthouse, a granite tower built in 1887. Three lovely old cottages next to the lighthouse were once the keeper's residences but are now empty and lonely with the lighthouse of course now being automated.

The road west along this top end passed through scrubby, heathy country - not pretty postcard stuff. Tiny settlements were probably once thriving towns but most of the mines in the area that would have supported them are now abandoned. Derby, back on the highway, was also mining town with the remains of the old tin mine in the centre of town and with the prettiest collection of old timber buildings that were once the bank and the school and so on. At the entrance to town a suggestively shaped rock has been painted, with some skill, as the trout it so resembles!

More forestry tracks took us to St Columba's Falls, a very impressive waterfall at the end of a lovely walk through rain forest complete with a grove of huge tree ferns. The track became steeper and rougher with the now constant drizzle adding some slipperiness. At one stage several tracks diverged off ours with no clear indication which way to go. The GPS showed us that our first choice was wrong and we returned to take the correct one - what would we do without a GPS these days?? - take the wrong track frequently probably…

Legerwood is a small town with a water bottling factory as its only industry but with a most unusual park. After WW1 trees were planted as memorials to those locals who fought and died. The trees became dangerous and a chainsaw sculptor has now fashioned the trunks into carved memorials of the people for whom the trees were planted. One would think a chainsaw to be a less than delicate instrument to do such a task but they are brilliantly done. The plaques under each tree tell something more of the men than just a birth and death date. They tell of their families and their occupations and where they came from, making them all the more real to the viewer.

Another night, another camp. This one is a council provided recreation area outside of Launceston on the banks of a fast flowing stream with wonderful facilities and all for the princely sum of $6 a night. Magic.