LUCKY AT LOW HEAD

After The Storm

Well, best laid plans and all that!!! We headed off from St Helens with Bridport in mind. The drive was an interesting one, albeit a little more challenging than we had anticipated. We found ourselves back in mountainous country sporting winding roads with lots of twists, turns, steep inclines and devilsome dips. Our policy of always endeavouring to travel on Sundays (with the van in tow) proved once again to be sensible as there were no timber trucks to terrorise us. The traffic flow too, was light and caused us no problems.

Rustic Beauty

The trip to Bridport was only around 100ks but it did take us a little longer than anticipated due to the road conditions. We did finally lumber into a delightful little caravan park right on the ocean only to discover that.............it was closing the following day for ‘renovations’! Great!! We were quite disappointed, not only because we were looking forward to stopping, but also because it really did look inviting. Ah well, onwards and westwards – we elected to continue on our way to George Town which would have been our next stop anyway – it was only another 60 or so ks so off we trundled. The country-side was not terribly inspiring, fairly typical coastal stuff, flattish, scrubby and not very appealing. This was a first for us in Tasmania I have to say. Arriving in George Town we found a small, attractive town which appeared to be let’s say, down on its luck. The town was well maintained, neat and tidy but it just had ‘that’ look about it. We followed the signs to the Caravan Park which was located not in George Town itself, but at neighbouring Low Head. The Park was well set up with immaculate ablutions and a dump point at each powered site – brilliant! As per usual these days, bar one other van, we were all alone there. The park was directly opposite the shore and we took a front bay so as to capitalise on the somewhat ordinary water views. It was not actually the ocean we were looking at but rather the Tamar River, just inside the mouth. There was a substantial tide and for a good part of the time when the tide was out, the exposed black rocks and mud comprised most of the view. There were a few gulls and of course the ever present masked plovers, but other than that it was a little desolate we felt. It is hard to believe I am belittling water views but they were not that impressive – mind you – you could purchase a water front property there for a couple of hundred thousand – we would be paying close to a cool mill at home for the same thing.

One of the Low Head Lighthouses

When we arrived, the wind was screaming in from the north west – it continued to scream for the first 3 days we were there and then the rain came down – well – we were not sure what to be the most worried about – being blown off the planet or being washed out to sea!!! The park was very flat and as it turned out, very boggy. The water just laid around and walking around in ankle high grass was interesting – the squelching was unattractive to say the least as were the cold wet feet. I squelched my way across to the ladies one evening and as I was attending to affairs I was astounded and not a little concerned when all the pipes started to bubble and gurgle – it sounded like we were under attack from a swamp monster. As I hurriedly returned to the van, all the dump points started to gurgle around me – it was an eerie and somewhat disquieting experience I must say. Even though common sense told me it was just the drains gurgling, I have to confess to wasting no time in returning to the van.

Batman Bridge Across The Tamar

Despite the bad weather we took a series of drives out of town exploring. We headed back east and dropped in at several little fishing villages Weymouth and Bellingham amongst them. We also checked out the Tam O’ Shanter Golf Course and accompanying settlement. It was all quite desolate and the ocean views whist expansive did not excite us. Perhaps it was the weather. Once again the property prices for absolute water frontages were amazingly low – although snob value seemed to add to the prices at Tam O’Shanter.

We also drove out to have a look at Mt Direction to the north of us and all along the upper reaches of the Tamar. We did find some amazingly pretty and desirable spots along the river – gorgeous views of the river and rolling pasture lands – typical Tassie and beautiful. Little towns like Legana and Exeter beguiled us and further north, the other side of Beaconsfield (the site of the mining disaster of a couple of years ago) Beauty Point impressed also. The top of the Tamar, a little spot called Greens Beach failed to impress although the property values there were a little higher than elsewhere. It’s odd sometimes to see how developers have managed to inflate prices in areas no better than those around them.

While in Beauty Point we visited Platypus House, this was worth doing and seeing these amazing and wonderful creatures up close was a pleasure as was interacting with the delightful echidnas they keep there.

George Town as I mentioned before seemed a little down on its luck – we had the feeling there was a fair bit of unemployment there – there was also a high proportion of elderly (just like us!) living in the area. The town did sport a Woolworths tho, and seemed to have reasonable infrastructure.

Hmmmm............

All in all it was a pleasant if uninspiring stay and we left there feeling rather fortunate to have withstood the very considerable force the elements had cast against us there.

Until next time, think positive and weather the storm. Stephanie.

Scenic View At Beauty Point