​February 14 - back on Tassie mainland
Back on the mainland, we were rather achy and tired after 4 days of rather rough roads - but it was worth every bump. We took a much needed day or so rest, time to wash and regroup before heading west to Burnie and Wynyard. We spent a few lost moments wandering in the Tamar wetlands and picked a swag of plump blackberries growing wild along the side of the road - blackberries and cream for dinner that night ... yum!

All clean and rested, we headed slowly west stopping every now and then to ogle the view - it is so beautiful on this part of Tassie, lush and green and delightfully bucolic (unfortunately I didn't get a photo). Villages with British-sounding names, gardens bursting with glorious colour, fat cows ... one place we stopped Chudleigh is wall to wall, or rather roadside to roadside, roses. The reason we stopped was to buy honey. The variety was astonishing from honey collected from the iconic Tassie Leatherwood, through messmate, stringy bark etc etc to honeys flavoured with lavender, rose, spices, chili and many more - plus honey icecream, yum!
We took the scenic route from Mole creek - such a cute name - with views over the West Tier mountain range and ended up at Gowrie Park where we camped for a couple nights - an easy drive to Cradle Mountain NP. This tiny village is surrounded by soaring, rocky peaks and nestles at the foot of Mt Roland a huge steep rock wall.

Lorinna 'railway station'

After we set up camp, we took a drive through some awesome countryside including a very interesting settlement, Lorinna, deep in the highlands. No through roads. It's real 'hippy' territory and quiet fascinating - lots of 'veggie' gardens, buildings cobbled together, shells and odd pottery tucked into tree hollows. Back to nature with some interesting farms built near the Lorinna railway station. Never did figure out where the line started and finished but presumably it was connect with either mining or the timber industries.
We came across a young woman stripped to the all together bathing in mud on the edge of Lake Cethana. This is the other Tasmania, the interesting one harking back to the days of Bob Brown and the Gordon below Franklin protest days. It was a fascinating drive albeit longer that we expected because we ended up on a mountain track with no place to go!