Trial Harbour To Strahan

Exiting Trial Harbour our first encounter was fire trucks and tankers, 3 fires had been started by the lightning and the fire service was very quickly onto it, their response time was impressive given the remoteness of the area.

Trial Harbour gets the seal of approval, confirmed.

Next desto, Strahan, planned to be here 2 nights in a caravan park again due to impending manky weather, arriving just after lunch at Strahan our planned slow ride in between weather cells worked as it provided onboard entertainment riding down the road.  

Drying the tent out on our parking spot with the patch of sun we were forced to swing it over onto the grass as the atmosphere turned black again, we nailed the tent down just in time and threw everything inside closing the vestibules down as very heavy drops started to plaster the landscape, the idea of staying here was realized as a good one as we stood undercover at the camp games room watching mum nature get very angry with flashes of lightning and the extremely loud booms all in the same second, it was impressive.

Very heavy rain, then hail, wind and more hail……argh stuff we love when camping LOL.

At camp we met Alex from Uruguay which was cool having a chat with him.

Being tough and kiwi we booked another night, to be honest there is lots to do and see here so our impromptu spare day became a day trip to Macquarie Heads with (attempted) fishing, we had bought 0.5 kg scallops the day prior so I was trying to Jinx out the fish ….but nah, later on the scallops turned out to be the winner.

At the jetty, no fush 😐

 At the beach, no fush 😐

Got swamped by the big boat wake, no fush 😂

The day kept up pretty nice until the ocean breeze wofted in then the air was chillier than a Russia/Ukrainian conversation (so I have heard)

A walk to Horgath falls was awesome and the railway café opposite the town before peeling back to cook said Scallops.

Wood turning shop

Hogarth Falls, see the Eel on the left hand side, we saw a black snake on the way back too.
 

I quick gin and a shower and I was a flash as Michael Jackson again.

Tomorrow…Queenstown and beyond…..

Arthur River, Wild West To Trial Harbour

Arthur river next in our sights we aimed to stay in the caravan park for facilities with impending bad weather coming in, a good choice it was with high winds and cold temps, we did discover Ozzies best kept secret of chicken salt on chips, we had a fantastic feed of greasies.

Coastal areas in this part of the world are worthy, stunning.

 

We did part of the Tarkine loop taking in the sights, so a few walks and paths

 

Then the show stopper on Sumac road, trying to jumps this one...nup I am beat, time to do a uie

Carrying on down the wild west it was cold to start with but the day got better, the west road was pretty rough and very remote, no services for about 110km.

Скиппи took it all in her stride although the powdered bull dust was stealing the front wheel occasionally as was the sidecar, it was a fairly physical ride for me wrestling Скиппи through the sandpits of entertainment not knowing what was hidden beneath.

Our chosen camp was a freecamp, brilliant spot, not normally our choice due to being only 10 meters off the road however the ferry runs between 9am and 7pm so just after 7pm through till just after 9am you are pretty sure the traffic is minimal, we had nothing which made it even etter, so peaceful, camp fire etc we had it made.

The morning came through clear so we did a hike up Mount Donaldson which allowed epic views of the surrounding area, lunch at the top and return to home base then off to the ferry at Corinna.

 

We headed inland from here enjoying a stunning road (and paved) through to Tullah then on to Roseberry for a caravan park with a hot shower.

Heading back toward the coast our 3 wheels took us to Trial Harbour, beach front camping, coming down of the hill descending into the bay it was an angry washing machine with massive waves and very turbulent sea.

 

It did calm back a bit and with low tide looming we took the advantage of exploring the beach and the pools appearing as the tide receded, our neighbours did a dive but netted nothing as the sea was simply to rough and dangerous to go any distance.

Sunsets, we are all suckers for these and we were not let down however during the night the atmosphere had a new idea of brewing state wide thunderstorms…starting with us.

 An early start saw camp packed up in record time with mum nature banging and cracking in the background, then in the not so background…yeap then on top of us, Скиппи was all packed and down it came, we sheltered in the early morning office (nothin but the best for my missis 😆) on our chairs to watch it pass…..no rush no point riding in that shit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smithton To Marrawah

Leaving Smithton the partial plan was to head to Montagu to check it out, maybe to camp there, very nice place but only 18 km up the road and unless you have a fishing boat then not a huge amount to do.

We carried on down the road lured by the wild west which lead us to Marrawah, the camping spot was an instant yes from both of us and we had the place to ourselves….for 2 minutes.

A camper trailer and ute rocked up and we had a chat, the fello was interested in the bike having not seen one so it was a good chat on Russian kit and how it was unlikely he would see another one.

The next day they left their van parked to do an inland drive, Ellen and I were just setting up for a coffee and I was going to adjust the sidecar brakes to balance them…. we heard a bike, turned around….no way, another Ural, no less than the same model but in flat metallic orange. 

We chatted with interest to the owners Wayne and Kirsty and they decided to stay pitching up along side us.

Even a local farmer came down to see our rig having spotted us earlier in the day and to his surprise (and ours) we had doubled in numbers.

Ol mate and his good lady in the camper back from their inland drive to see 2 of these bloody things (oh yes they are rare 😊), so ol mate asks me if I was joking the day prior about seeing another 1 let alone 2 now in 1 camp, he said they appear to grow quickly when planted 😁.

A great walk along the beach jellyfish spotting (actually I think they were small UFOs that crash landed while trying to get the technical details of the Ural for their space ship) and a relaxing time I managed to establish why I could not balance the sidecar brake with the bike as our brake level system had be mucked around with by the previous owner and was all wrong which I have since corrected having viewed Waynes side by side with ours, I thought that was good of them to come to our camp to help me 😂.

Marrawah, it is a beautiful spot, there seemed to be some sort of competition between locals for the coolest Christmas display, some going to pretty good lengths to outcompete the neighbours. 

 

Next up Mc Arthur River.

Omeo To Tassie Including Melbourne

 A few days have passed with a combo of lowlands and towns.

Our aim was to hit Wilsons Prom, take it in and kick around for about 3-4 days, first it was Thursday, WHOLE place was supposedly booked out from Friday and Thursday full? but from our view you could fire a cannon through the place and not hit a thing.

Second, the weather, that night is blew like a bastid and our tent got full of gravel and sand with everything closed, would not have wanted to have been in the cheap shitter tents that blew down.

With the combo of awesome weather and booked out we wofted off, I suggested inland away from the coast incoming, back at Foster with a great coffee we met locals who pointed us in the right direction and we got to Korumbarra, very nice quiet camp with facilities which was mint as the weather closed in.

That afternoon I asked a local if it was going to rain, he said nup, not today, well one hour later there were epic thunder and lightening storms with the skys lit up which made our paid campground very cheap at that point with value going up with every bolt of lightening 😆

At night we were out in the heavy rain which was welcome to wash the shit off the tent but our (not so) secret weapon, undercover table, room for the tent and Скиппи so the second night was dry and we were as flash as Michael Jackson again.

Leaving the camps grounds and fireplaces we headed to civilization of South Melbourne to see Ellens friends which was well cool, very nice people and Скиппи provided some much loved entertainment of hooning around in a Russian sidecar.

I was head chef for a night as we made them a kiwi roast complete with Central Otago Pinot Noir for a taste of New Zealand.

Our departure saw us ride into what was the worst day we have had so far, the southerly wind was staunch and the driving rain was fresh, we crossed on the Sorrento Ferry to Queenscliff to meet up with Harry (met at Omeo accidentally), a fello like-minded Uralnutcaseengineereccentric so we get on like a house on fire.

Harry and Marge accommodated us with the first real bed of our trip…wasn’t bad 😃.

As Скиппи needed some geo work and Harry was well educated in this area we spent the better part of the day doing ….stuff (non civilian moto stuff) but knocked off so we don’t waste our drink and nibles time.

Two hot Russian ladies 👧

 Next desto, Tassie, an eye wateringly early and wet start (Sorry Harry) to the Spirit Of Tasmania we arrived to line up in quarantine etc, no worries there and our sailing was pretty flat considering the previous days weather, we are even acknowledged on the Ferry although I didn't think my chefing was that good 😍

 Arriving at Devonport was a late finish so opted for greasies Oz style before setting camp at a Caravan Park.

 Tassie, well, not a bad spot so far (really missing Melbournes weather 😘), we left the big city lights and ended up in Smithton, a great caravan park again with great facilities, we did shamrocking from here, this means a central base set up and do all the cool shit around the area 👌.

Smithton sign.

 Dip Falls stair down

 Dip Falls at the bottom

Big mofo tree, 16 metres girth.

 Limestone arch pond

Limestone arch looking up

 

4 nights, one flat topped hill, ice-creams and curry scollap pie, one limestone arch, one pillared waterfall, one humongous tree, many accounts of UDF (Ural Delay Facter) from fascinated humans, some dodgy rough backroads and some wine with our final night being a scollap and seafood chowder saw Smithton to a finish, no doubt there will be more to see here as we are bound to have missed something…that is travelling and exploring.  

Few vids at Twomotokiwis on Youtube too if you want to see live action.