Sea Eagle

Another glorious day in northern Tasmania. Temperature mid 20’s, light breeze, and clear sky. All ready for our boat trip up the Arthur River.

After much conjecture we chose the Red Boat over its competition because it was red and the rest was all marketing hype. $90 bought us 5 hours of guided boat ride and lunch. At least they asked if we wanted vegetarian.

The Red Boat

The very unfriendly mouth of the Arthur River.

Turns out the current owners of the boat also own the caravan park we were staying in and are recent refugees from Canungra, Queensland. It is a large family affair.

The skipper and guide is Rob who has been with the boat for the last 4 owners. He is the real Aussie character with awesome knowledge of the river and hundreds of stories on every topic. He made the trip a very entertaining five hours.

Rob in story mode.

A few minutes up the river live a pair of sea eagles who put on a show while being fed from the boat. They were swooping around over us for quite a while before claiming the fish.

The Arthur River is the only Tasmanian river untouched by mining, logging or settlement and is now just as it was many thousands of years ago. The banks are mostly cool climate rain forest and groves of tree ferns often at least 500 years old.

Pademelon, part of the kangaroo family, enjoying the juicy reeds.

Platypus burrow.

Tasmanian Tiger Snake, common in northern areas of Tasmania, venomous and aggressive.

Rob discussing this 500 year old Myrtle tree.

Fern forest

14 km up river we stopped for lunch and a short forest walk. Rob was in fine form discussing all the trees and ferns and explaining the history of the forest over the last 20,000 years. It was fascinating and fun.

Rob suddenly went off looking for something. After a while one of the passengers asked what he was looking for. He replied “Told you we have been here 5 generations. From Scotland originally. In 1926 my grandfather lost sixpence around here.”

Then lunch.

The food was great and the wine unexpected.

Leatherwood in flower. The source of Tasmania’s unique Leatherwood honey.

Linda, Collette and Alan.

Still telling stories.

One of the stories was of the town of Balfour, once a thriving copper mining town of over 1000 people, now a ghost town. The pub burnt down many years ago but has been resurrected and is now the centre of the new town of 3 residents. The pub is strictly BYO. We had to go there.

After the boat trip we headed down the road in search of Balfour. The directions were sketchy and the road very 4WD. Alan did a great job getting us there but with many side roads we were not sure of finding our way out. Eventually, Balfour.

But first, Couta Beach, a wild and desolate part of the coastline but a popular fishing resort for some.

How they navigated boats in and out of here is a mystery.

The road to Balfour

Finally!!!

The Pub

All three residents of the town were present and we had a good chat. No beer was offered and we forgot our BYO.

A cemetery is nearby so we took a walk through the bush to check it out. Apparently an epidemic of Typhoid decimated the town in 1912 due to the water cart and the night cart being the same conveyance.

A beautiful walk through the forest.

Only 4 graves remain but the effort spent on them was enormous given the time and location.

We managed to find our way out eventually and staggered back to the vans for a well earned sleep. What an incredible day of totally unexpected adventure.