FRIDAY 10 MARCH   ZEEHAN TO STANLEY   235kms

There was light drizzling rain when we got up in the morning.

Knowing we had a comparatively long drive ahead of us, we were away about 9am. Had to get fuel in town before we left – 93cpl.

It was slow and careful driving to Rosebery and Tullah and on up to Waratah Junction. We could smell the brakes a couple of times, especially on the big hill out of Rosebery. The country was a mix of forests and the open swampy heathlands common on the west coast.

At Waratah Junction, we turned off the Murchison Highway onto the Burnie road. This road was fine – it used to be the private road for the APPM trucks. Going that way allowed us to avoid the Hellyer Gorge.

Came to the coast at Burnie. Saw a Woolworths supermarket so we stopped to have a shop – first decent stock up I’d done for a while.

Turned west on the Bass Highway, along the coast. This was winding and fairly slow – but a pleasant change in scenery from the forests of the past few weeks.

Turned off the highway and drove down into Boat Harbour – a hamlet of holiday houses, mostly – and sat in Truck to eat our lunch, with a pleasant outlook over the bay and beach. It had turned into a nice day at the coast.

Back onto the highway and we arrived at our destination, Stanley, mid afternoon. We’d chosen to come here as a base to explore some of the north west, that seemed to offer history, scenery and be fairly central for what we planned to do.

Stanley is interesting, geographically, being situated at the base of The Nut – a volcanic plug – which is a really impressive, square, high, hill, rising out of the sea, it seems. The road in follows a narrow neck of land that connects The Nut to the main coast, like a natural causeway, for several kms.

We booked into the very pleasant Stanley Caravan Park. $13 a night, with the seventh free, which we thought was a very good price, given the standard. It is one of the handful of better caravan parks we have come across in our Tasmanian travels.

Set up camp then walked up to the shops for a look around. Up was the operative word, as the township is on the lower flanks of The Nut. The township streets create a kind of terraced effect, with walkways between levels. It is a very pleasant seeming town.

I ordered the papers kept for us at the newsagency. I could see the morning walk up to get the papers would be a lovely way to start the day.

Tea was bought fish and chips.