Tasmania II - North west coast

So we continued along the North West coast and paid a quick visit to the town of Wynyard, to visit the 'Wonders of Wynyard' Veteran Car Display at the information centre.
 Now this town has 2 hour parking restrictions but NO meters (and no wardens), at the information centre it has free parking and extra long bays for caravans and motorhomes, what a nice welcoming feeling.
The motor collection is Australias largest collection of locally restored veteran Ford vehicles, and has the equal oldest Ford in the world. It is all the work of one local man, Francis Ransley and he can be very proud of the collection, it may be small but all vehicles are in excellent condition and well displayed.

This is the equal oldest Ford still in existence today.  

1903 Model A.

In 2003 (Ford's centenary year) the owners drove it to 58 locations around Australia covering 28,000km.

Then we carried on hugging the coast up to Table Cape. 

We were surrounded by poppy fields,

 but this was serious business - these poppies were for the 'pharmaceutical' industry.

We are constantly told that these are grown in 'secret' locations, but here they were along the main road and next to the tourist strips.

Then we continued along the coast going into Rocky Cape National Park (better make use of the pass we'd bought). This area wasn't as stunning as Table Cape (which was farm land). There was no great lookout and the dunes were occupied by beach shacks (and hoons). It was relatively quiet when we visited but imagine it will be crowded (and awful) once the school hols start.

We continued along to Stanley and decided on a couple of days in the caravan park. The park was right on the beach at the base of 'The Nut'.

The Nut rises 152 metres from Bass Strait and there is a 2km walk around the top.  

You can walk up to the top or take the chair lift - we took the chair lift.

 and walked around the top. Fantastic views out over the ocean and the town.

There was some wildlife up there too

We got down from the Nut just as the town's Christmas parade was starting, we had a good view from the cafe at the bottom of the chairlift.

We really liked Stanley, it reminded us of a little coastal town in Ireland, its quaint cottages and up and down streets.

 There was only one fly in the Stanley ointment, the local supermarket (IGA) was incredibly expensive - now we know people in business have to make money but charging double for basic items (Cola and potato chips) is going too far! So IF you are going to Stanley make sure you stock up on groceries.

Before heading out to the far West at Arthur River we called into Smithton to replenish stocks (couldn't afford to do it in Stanley). As we were leaving Smithton we noticed the 'Saturday Market' hall, always interested in markets so we checked it out. At the back there was a book shop - oops! A few years ago a friend in New Jersey sent us a book by Janet Evanovich about a New Jersey female bounty hunter (Stephanie Plum). It was a good read, really funny even if you didn't know Jersey. We've started buying more of these as we drive across the country and this shop had 8 of them!

We came to an agreement with the owner and bought all 8!!

Then it was out to Arthur River. The camping out there was a choice between a very basic "parks dept" site with cold showers or a caravan park with no better site but a hot shower - we had a quick look at the river and drove back to Smithton. We spent the night next to a lovely little park, on the town esplanade.

Then it was time to head back inland, heading south to Cradle Mountain.

The road was Tasmania's usual winding mountainous road - we stopped for lunch at Hellyer Gorge and took a walk through the forest along the river. It was very pretty but when we got to the traffic bridge we saw this piece of graffiti which made us smile and with which anyone travelling on Tasmanian roads would have to agree.

(tune out now if bad language offends!)