The Edge of the World

We wanted to cover the north western part of Tasmania and so we decided to hitch up the car to the back of the motor home and drive right through to the furthest point west then slowly work our way back visiting places on the way.

Green Point

We camped at Green Point just 3km from Marrawah. This is a free camp but more like a car park, it is mostly a gravelly/bitumen top though there is some grassy surrounds on which people were also camping as much for room as for the grass underfoot. This place didn't appear to have any restrictions against camping on the grassy area and it certainly allowed a lot more people to fit in this way which was rather busy at the time we were there.

The beach at Green Point

You can't actually see the beach  from the camp ground as there is a grassy sand dune between us. There is a park just 100m down the road towards the beach that has a toilet, water and a cold water shower. There is also a gas BBQ and a small playground in the park too.

A very colourful sunset at Green Point. Robbiebago II at bottom left.

We unhitched the car, settling the motorhome into a spot  and so we could go off sightseeing down south a little to "the edge of the world". We intended to leave first thing in the morning leaving the motorhome and pop back later in the day.

Sometimes things don't go to plan. We quickly found that our car wouldn't go back into gear from neutral. It was going nowhere. At first Rob thought it was the solenoid playing up. We are insured and we called the mechanic in Smithton. He couldn't come out straight away. He advised that 3 different things to try including checking the fuses. Rob and some friendly free campers all tried different things in the meantime to set things right but to no avail. Eventually the mechanic rings and says he can't make it until the next day esp as the car was not blocking traffic, causing danger and we had accommodation!

How we tow the car behind the Robbiebago (this was taken in Newcastle)

Following advice that it was possibly a fuse problem and fiddling some more we managed to at least get the wheels unlocked but still not into gear. (I am so  happy that it is yours truly - who is almost completely hopeless with cars - who found the extremely hard to find set of fuses above the accelerator in, what appears to me, to be a stupid place and certainly one that is not easy to get to! Go figure!).

There is a plaque at the site.

Anyway, we decided to use the motorhome to sight see in, leaving the car behind as the mechanic was not going to come after all since we could hitch the car and bring it to him. So off we went to see the Arthur River and The Edge of the World lookout, which was only about 20km away. The ocean at this point is wild and rough. No wonder they call it the edge of the world. It is a wild place. When you stand there and look west, there is nothing but ocean until the east coast coast of Argentina - more than half way around the world!

Another motorhome is arriving at the Edge of the World

We had some lovely hot chips for lunch and a good look at the Interpreter's Centre at the Ranger's Office which also had a small but interesting display in it.

The mouth of the Arthur River is strewn with logs that have washed down.

We went for a bit of a drive further south since we believed that a cruise was not going to offer us a different experience to what we've already seen and done down on the Gordon River, we decided to save our money. We weren't terribly impressed with the area, but you've got to look and maybe we were a bit put out by our car experiences and just weren't in the mood for sight seeing. The road through the Tarkine Forest appeared to be open but we had to get back to the car at Green Point and anyway we didn't know if the road was suitable for a motor home. 

This Pacific Gull put a lot of effort in trying to crack open this oyster shell to no avail.

So back to Green Point we went. After spending some time walking the beach and we sat and watched the hard work of a Pacific Gull (like a large seagull) trying to repeatedly crack open a oyster shell by flying high and dropping the shell onto the rocks. After watching dozens of attempts, the Pacific Gull finally gave up and dropped the oyster into the sea and flew off to find an easier way to get dinner. We walked back up to the camping area and went blackberry picking for fruit for immediate consumption as well as dessert for later. Yum.