Monday, October 25

 

We’re at home today, enjoying a break after a few days on the North-West Coast.  Nera was working in Smithton, a place we’ve never been, so we took the chance to travel down to see her and do some sight-seeing in between times.  Smithton is not much of town. It’s on the coast so there’s the usual fishing activities, but it’s also the stepping-off point for a lot of the industries of the West Coast.

 

We took a drive south from the town, just following our noses with no clear idea of where we were going or what we would see.  The alternative was to follow the sign to Beaches but they were 50Km away and that sounded a little pointless.  I’m told the beaches are very popular with Extreme Surfers who like the big waves which come in with the Roaring Forties  and the Indian Ocean behind them but we’ll leave that for another day.

 

So we headed south.  We had hoped we might find a remote coffee shop with a good range of home-baked cakes, but there was nothing.  There was a sign pointing us to a bridge whose name I’ve forgotten.  “That must be worth a look,” we thought, so drove for 30-odd Km through rainforest, avoiding huge log trucks to be met with a single-lane concrete crossing of a nondescript river.  Why did they bother naming it?

 

Another sign informed us that 160Km on, at a town called Corinna, there was a ferry to carry us across the Arthur River.  Clearly there was no one living out here so why would they need a ferry?  If we had continued on we would probably have ended up at Zeehan but that didn’t appeal.  We were certainly not intrigued enough to drive on to find out what delights Zeehan might offer so turned around and headed back to Smithton for morning tea.  Looking for a coffee shop which would allow for Archie, we noted one which was advertising Goat Curry.  Maybe another time.

 

Driving around the town in the afternoon, we changed our impression of the place.  We followed signs to a Scenic Lookout and drove through a very attractive suburb with homes that would have graced any city in Australia.  Clearly the population is more focused on their personal living standards and are prepared to tolerate a very shabby little shopping centre where the biggest operation is The Reject Shop.

 

Tasmania is a very small place, but there are vast expanses of emptiness separating the little pockets of population.  We sometimes forget how few humans there are in this place