Western Explorer Highway
05.01.2018
It was our last weekend of the Summer holidays so we decided to go for a roadtrip to the North West of Tasmania through the Tarkine, an area which we haven't had the chance to visit yet. We left Hobart early on Friday morning with not much of a plan, and headed towards Corinna. Corinna is the gateway to the Tarkine and is where we crossed the Pieman River on a barge and started our journey along the Western Explorer Highway. The highway weaved through rainforests and mountains and opened up to the rugged coastline. We stopped in at as many places we could along the coast, with many small villages and coast shacks dotted along the way. We pulled in to one of these to cook up dinner, then continued to the Edge of the World at the entrance to the Arthur River for a walk while we watched the sun setting over the ocean. We decided to leave just before it got dark and find the campsite we had planned to stay at just north of Arthur River.
The next morning we continued along the highway and decided to change our plans and make a stop in at Cradle Mountain. It was a busy weekend at Cradle, but we were lucky to get a park at Dove Lake. We had always wanted to hike up to Kitchen Hut but there was always a reason why we couldn't make it there. This time we were determined, and kept walking through the wind and rain and made it to the hut for an early dinner. We had planned to stay up there to wait for sunset but we were both exhausted and didn't feel like walking back in the dark if it was going to keep raining, so we made our way back down to the car park. As we got back earlier than expected, we decided to head home rather than staying the night. After about an hour of driving we noticed the sky start to light up behind us and pulled over to enjoy the most spectacular sunset. We kept driving and around the next bend we saw a huge double rainbow glowing in the red sunset and we had to pull over again! We arrived home late and exhausted, but it was definitely a weekend to remember!
