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 in...

It has been raining for some days now and we are getting a little tired of being constantly damp! Amazingly though, each time we go for a walk somewhere, the rain stops and at least we can walk in relative comfort. But this morning we were greeted by some blue skies again and a little warmth in the air. Is summer beginning to arrive? The Bay of Fires is the next big ticket item on the tourist trail, but before heading there, we detoured inland a little to see...

Our night at Friendly Beaches was fantastic - yes, Friendly Beaches is its real name! The campsite here is one of the best yet - National Park and free! The pademelons were friendly enough to come very close and not be at all perturbed by movement around them. The Freycinet Peninsula is particularly famous for Wineglass Bay, its beautiful curving proportions gracing every postcard, calendar and tourist brochure in Tasmania. The walk to the viewing platform is...

After a night of steady rain, we hoped for a clear day, but alas the weather continued the same. Another day, another 4WD track and we headed into the mountains behind the coast. The idea was to do a loop stopping to walk to Hastings Falls about halfway. Two things wrong with that idea: the rain continued and made the track 'interesting' and the Falls, after a very wet walk, were decidedly disappointing. Three hoses over a ledge would have delivered more water de...

Only ten days left till we are on the ferry - where has the time gone. We could certainly do with another couple of weeks to see the north and north-east and we have yet to squeeze in Cradle Mountain! Rather than take the main road off the Tasman Peninsula, we found some 4WD tracks. The roads weren't too difficult in themselves but the rain had made them extraordinarily slippery so we drove with great care not wishing to slide of a mountain anytime soon. Doo ...