First thing first: warm up in the morning sun with a mug of coffee. Pack up and take the gravel road back to the Tamar valley. The first stop was a museum in the ruins of a once functioning gold mine Beaconsfield. It started in 1877 but closed already in 1914. The gold price was too low. It was reopened in 1999 with a new hoist in the mine shaft and pumps to pump out the mine water for years. In 2006 after an earthquake some 3 miners were stuck underground. One died but 2 were eventually rescued. The mine continued working till it was finally closed in 2012 due to low gold price. Now with high gold prices ($5000+) there is talk of re-opening it up again via an incline shaft.

After lunch we drove further south to the second largest town in Tasmania, Launceston. We went straight to the Cataract gorge the start of the Tamar valley. We wandered around the park with an open air swimming pool, suspension bridge and cataracts. Also many old large trees dot the slopes.

Some 16 km up the other side of the Tamar valley, we camped in the large paddock of a farm near the forest. Huge area with trees around.

In George Town, the third town established in Australia we visited the Bass and Flinders centre, which has a replica of the boat Flinders and Bass who circumvented Tasmania in 1798 and proved that it was not connected to the main continent. Flinders made a detailed map of Australia and changed the name from New Holland to Australia. Tasman was the first European to visit Tasmania (van Diemans Land) in 1648 but sailed along the south coast unaware it was an Island. 
There are 2 lovely elderly ladies who act as guides and told us all about the history of the island, the boat and the 2 explorers.

A bit further up the Tamar valley is Low Head with a lighthouse protecting the Tamar river entrance.

We drove some 110 km further north east inland from the coast through large irrigated grass lands with cattle, cows and sheep. Past Bridport we turned off the tarmac road and over a 16 km graded road we reached our current camping spot in the bushes above the Bass strait (at Waterhouse). We parked in between the bushes hoping that they shelter us from the sea breeze.