4WD Adventure

Off to Cockle Creek and now our aim is to reach the most southerly point we can in Tassie we reach the most westerly & easterly tip already (you can’t get to the most Northerly without a permit. I have been told you can get there after a short walk.
We had a fish in the bay where we are camping and finally a breakthrough even though it was just an undersize Salmon it was still a fish. Apparently it was bigger than Brian’s 4cm Flathead.
Another nice night a little chilly but its OK because we are finally listening to the Aussies kick arse in the cricket. Unfortunately not as good a news for Adelaide United but better than the last 6-0 final we played against Melbourne Victory.
A pleasant morning a little cloudy has greeted us, along with 1 million mozzies. A peaceful morning is spent updating stories and reading the paper. We only have 1 week left in Tassie and although during the trip I had thought it was to long now I’m a little sad it is coming to an end. We are going up through the centre of Tassie on the way back to Devonport so some fresh water fishing is in the cards. Look out Trout here I come.
In the afternoon I headed out for a canoe in the bay. I’m not a keen one to head out to far into the ocean so I tend to hang within 100m of the coast. There is a lot of kelp here so I just kept moving around the bay. After an hour I have not had a single bite and are getting a little frustrated. The wind has picked up so I have headed into the mouth of Cockle creek and I’m in search of Bream. After ½ an hour or so still not bites so I’m just about ready to chuck it in. I head back down the estuary towards the mouth and then bang I’m on and the reel is spinning. I get it to the canoe and it’s a Flathead my first ever on a lure. He seems a tad small so I let him go. The lure goes back in and bang of it goes again, another just undersize flathead. Off again and this time the reel is spinning so fast I think I’m going to run out of line. A good fight and finally I get a big one to the canoe. Now what do I do, should of bought that bloody landing net. He is at the side thrashing around with his big spike so I cut him lose lure and all. I’m sure I have mentioned this before but fishing in a canoe isn’t all its cracked up to be, sure you can get to good spots but getting thrashing fish into the canoe without falling in or losing everything else is bloody tough work. I have already lost two lures today so I put on a big hook and bluebait to try to flush out something else. And it didn’t take long a big hit but not much fight, must be a gummy shark. Well it was and it was big got him to the canoe and had to cut him loose. I have seen Rex Hunt And these guys on the TV doing the catch and release and it didn’t feel that bad, mind you they do always get the hook out. It was one of the best days fishing I have had in Tassie and not a single fish to eat!!

Although there has been lots of great forest tracks in Tassie there hasn’t been quite as much real 4WD to be done. All the logger roads are in bloody good nick. So after we packed up today I was in search of the mountain track that links the South with New Norfolk, otherwise you have to drive all the back through Hobart. We picked some blackberries before we left to have with pancakes, they are everywhere here. And then headed back towards Huonville. We stopped a t a spot where we were told there are oysters on the Huon river. There certainly are and we picked up 20-30 in about 5 minutes most coming off without even a knife.
We got to Judbury and stopped for lunch before heading off in search of the mountain road which is marked on the map. Off we went down Judd creek road which had no signs on it about making it through to Lachlan this is not a good sign. The GPS was not happy with me and was ordering a U-Turn, you think by now it would know that I ignore it. The road was quite good for about 20km and seemingly heading the right direction when it turned into a track. A brand new one just made by the Bulldozer. TI use the term brand new but let me assure you that means it is fallen trees, big rocks, and massive waterholes. We climbed for a while before the track became nearly impassable and turned around. A little way back there was another bulldozer track so we tried this.
We bumped into a Forestry Tassie guy who was sure the track went through but tried to seriously talk us out of it. Despite some hesitance from Tina we were off. According to the GPS the nearest road is 23km away. Low range 1st gear and we are off. The Tojo is getting a serious workout slamming rocks underneath and lots of water crossings, this all at 600m above sea level on a big steep mountain.
This track went on for ever with some great hills and mud crossings. It’s a real shame that the pictures don’t show you just how hard this track was. Finally we got to a section that was not just dozed but was the old track at the other end. He we were thinking great it will be easy form here. This is where it got exciting massive washouts, huge boulders and deep water holes (mostly filled with hidden boulders.) Well didn’t the Tojo get a bashing at one stage we thought we had smashed a hole in the exhaust but it turns out the end pipe is just crushed, I’ll cut that off tomorrow. We made through and the car still works, well the step tread has a big rock dent and I bet it needs a new Wheel Alignment but this was the best 53km of 4WD I have done and we didn’t get bogged once. (we did have to winch a fallen down tree earlier in the day of a track) Maybe tomorrow we should go back and Tina can have a turn.