Awake for a while at various points but slept mostly ok. Early start - we drove off at 8:43.
Stopped in at the Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery for some takeaway coffees for the boys.
Lots of driving. Drove along the roads damaged by the fires - you can see black scorch marks on the road. Also past the remnants of the forestry plantations of pine and Tasmanian blue gums.
Our first stop was Hanson Bay for a photo reproduction. Would have been a nice place on a nice day.
Then onto Flinders Chase. It's free entry at the moment due the algae bloom around the coast. Had a quick look at the visitor's centre then into the park.
The first stop was the Bunker Hill lookout, although there's not too much to see from there.
Then out to Cape Du Couedic.
First up, the lighthouse, which is unpainted sandstone so has a unique look.
Then down to Admirals Arch which is still spectacular.
And over to Weirs Cove which had a pretty spectacular drop off down the cliff where they would winch up supplies every three months.
Next up was a stop at the Boxer Lookout, which like all places these days has been blocked off and you can't get the views along the cliffs like you used to.
Then joined the swarms of people at the Remarkable Rocks. I got a few minutes at the start where there was a slight lull in people, so was able to get a heap of photos without people in them. Then for other shots I had to wait ages for people to get out of the damned way. Still an amazing place. Remarkable in fact. Pity it was a cloud day though, photos would have been a lot better with blue skies and sunshine.
Came back up to near the visitors centre where we had sandwiches for a late lunch.
After lunch we headed out to West Bay. I would have been happy to skip this as it was starting to get late, but Graham had confidence we could make it (and he'd never been out there which was a good excuse for him to go). Stu's back was doing ok so off we went. Right near the beginning they had a cattle grid style pile of rocks and big signs saying 4WD only. So we put the ute into 4WD and hit the road. Well. We bumped along the epic corrugations and slid all over the road, even at like 40 which is the speed limit along there. And saw a huge echidna but didn't get a good photo of it. Finally got out to the beach and got my photos. Another nice place that would have been better on a calm day. And then the long drive back along the crazy road. Pretty amazing to think we made it out there in Red Car back in the day.
Then we headed up Shackle Road which was a lot better, and out to Cape Borda. The last couple of times Graham had been out there the road had been really bad, but they'd graded it and it was actually in really good condition, so we made great time. The lighthouse is only little, but you do get the feeling you're at the end of the world out there.
Then it was nearly two hours of driving back to the other end of the island.
We picked up Pam then went to the Hog Bay Saloon for a light dinner. I had a cheese hotdog and the others had toasties.
Got back to the house and had some wine while doing computer stuff. Unfortunately my laptop hard drive has filled up, so had to backup to an external disk so I could clear some photos off.
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