Strahan to Shearwater

May 2nd
The sun was trying hard to shine and despite the weather of the previous day we managed to pack up a reasonably dry camper.  Drove north to Zeehan and visited the West Coast Heritage Centre and Pioneers Museum. Spent 2.5 hours wandering around.  The museum is in the original School of Mines building.  It has a wonderful mining history exhibition and great gem collection as well as all sorts of other things as you can see in the photos.


West Coast Heritage Centre

West Coast Heritage Centre

Wooden water pipe

Then continued on to Rosebery and then Wynyard on the north coast, stopping at some of the rivers, dams and waterfalls on the way. 

Lake Rosebery

We were fairly late into Wynyard so set up camp straight away on a great beach site.  By this time the sky had cleared and the temperature had reached double figures for the first time for a few days.  Balmy!!

May 3rd
Missed the sunshine this morning because we lay in bed enjoying the sun on the canvas and by the time we had crawled out it had gone.  Left the camper at Wynyard for another night and headed west.  By this stage it was seriously drizzling.  Strange sort of a day really, just could not get going.  Also we discovered that  'Agfest' was on (a three day agricultural show held at Carrick) and it was a public holiday, so a lot of places were closed.  We called in at Stanley and Smithton, the highlight being another wonderful wood gallery called 'Wildwood', then we headed back. 

Stanley at the base of  'The Nut'

Rocky Cape

I was driving at this stage and we took a detour into Rocky Cape National Park.  Rocky alright!  Picked up a stone that sliced through the tyre and by the time we were back in the main street of Wynyard we had a flat!!  Unbelievable.  To top it off, the heavy drizzle had not stopped all day and was not about to stop now.  Changing a tyre in the main street creates an instant audience.  Lots of sympathy, wise guys walking past telling us, 'it was only flat on the bottom' and then the really helpful people from Newman's Furnishings, who came to our rescue when Mike discovered that the wheel spanner didn't fit the new rims!!  Right size but too wide.  Big oops!

Another very wet (drizzle now rain) and windy evening.  We are becoming very skilled at dealing with soggy canvas and catching the drips.  Went to bed with a towel.

May 4th
A beautiful day, sunny and not a breath of wind.  Makes us think we imagined last night!  Packed up dry canvas again after Mike returned from buying the new tyre.  Meandered east along the coast to Devonport where we wandered around the town centre and had some lunch.  Then we went to check into Shearwater Resort just east of Devonport.  Excited to know we have a solid roof over our head tonight.  Great place, built around a golf course.  We have a one bedroom self contained apartment and are here until next Saturday.  Lots of washing to do, off to the laundry!!