Yes, it is twelve years since I visited Tasmania, though it seems like yesterday since my last trip. I filled in the time between with England and New Zealand, along with various spots around Australia. But I particularly love Tassie. It was time to return.

I decided to take it easy this time, make it more of a holiday rather than exploration, and so I chose places I’d been before and knew reasonably well. 

I also decided to try the day crossing on the Spirit of Tasmania, the car ferry across Bass Strait.

I get sea-sick very easily, though it had never happened on the Spirit before, maybe because I travelled at night and spent a fair bit of the time asleep? Sadly, the minute we left Port Philip Bay and hit the waves of Bass Strait, I was in trouble. Ginger tablets do nothing for me, so thank heavens for travel-sickness drugs, which also send you to sleep. All in all, it ended up being a long day but still, worth a try.

It was 7.30pm by the time we docked. I’d booked a motel around the corner from the ferry terminal, very handy, and so next day I headed out, refreshed, along the Bass Highway to my favourite spot, Arthur River, on the north-west coast.

I stopped in the little town of Penguin, looking out over Bass Strait, for some breakfast,

then continued past Burnie to the turn-off to Table Cape.

Table Cape is a flat-topped promontory, with sheer cliffs dropping to the sea. The scene looking out over the ocean was spectacular, to say the least.

In the 1820s, Mr. C.B.Fenton, a former mariner, kept a light burning in the front window of his house to guide ships through to the burgeoning port of Wynyard. After several shipping accidents, it was decided  a good idea might be to build a lighthouse. They took their time; it wasn’t completed till 1888. A pretty track takes you along to the lighthouse precinct and back to the lookout.

After stopping at Smithton for supplies (there are no shops at Arthur River, other than a small takeaway), I arrived at the small, quiet Arthur River Cabin Park, and felt as if I had arrived home.

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One of the reasons I came back here was for the Arthur River Cruise, which I loved last time, so next morning I was up and out early.

The Arthur River is one of the State’s seven major rivers, and runs through takayna/Tarkine, the second-largest cool-temperate rainforest in the world and the largest in Australia. It’s fed by several tributaries, including the Frankland, as it makes its way from the mountains down to its mouth at Arthur River.

It’s a magical place – the wild river running through the wild forest.

The cruise takes you 14 kms upstream to the Arthur and Frankland Rivers junction, before returning to Warra Landing for a barbeque lunch.

High above the river bank, White-bellied Sea-eagles perch in the trees and wait for a fish to be thrown from the boat, creating a special photo if you have a camera good enough. I wish I could have caught this one in flight. It was a spectacular sight.

We went on a bush walk while our barbie was being prepared.

It was lovely sitting in the rainforest, swapping travel stories with other road-tripping, nature-lovers, while chomping on a hamburger and sipping a glass of red.

I wandered off into the forest while they cleared up,

then headed back to the boat for the trip back, very happy with my day.

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In the morning, I spent some time at a picnic table in the park, reading and swapping the odd travel story with anyone who wandered past,

then it was time to return to the spot that was the inspiration for the title of my book, The Edge of the World: Next Stop Cape Horn, which describes my past four trips around Tassie. Arthur River is the most western point of the island, and standing at Gardiner Point, looking out over the ocean, it really feels as if you’re at the edge of the world (though just a touch touristy these days) and, in fact, if you set out in a boat and kept going, you would hit South America without touching land.

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The Tarkine Drive is a 60 km loop through the forest. Not having time for the whole trip, I drove for an hour or two, stopping inside the forest for awhile to commune with the birds and the trees. On the way back, I stopped for a wander around wild and beautiful Couta Rocks.

I finished the day by wandering the beach, blasted by the wind.

The logs all around the beach are carried down the river and deposited here where the river enters the Southern Ocean.

It has a special feel about it, this place.

Brian-Inder felt the same way. His poem, set into an iron plaque at Gardiner Point reads:

THE EDGE OF THE WORLD: North West Tasmania

I cast my pebble on the shore of eternity

To be washed by the ocean of time,

It has shape, form and substance, It is me.

One day I will be no more

But my pebble will remain here

On the shore of eternity,

Mute witness for the aeons

That today I came and stood

At the edge of the world.