Melbourne to Burnie - 833km

*DAY 14 to 23*
Our Tasmanian adventure begins...I arrived a day earlier on the plane and Bernie overnight on the Spirit of Tasmania with our vehicle and trailer. Good friends Jo & Jamie let us stay at their place in Burnie for a few days and they took us out sightseeing and also to Bernie's delight on a fishing trip to the Pieman River which is on the West Coast. It took 2 hours from Burnie. It was the most amazing place and once the early morning fog lifted it showed us its pure beauty. Between the four of us managed to catch 16 trout by trawling the river and Bernie was extremely stoked to catch a trout using his soft plastics. What a magical day for us all, and the weather was exceptional. Reminded me of NZ, just the serenity of the place. I treated the day as "MY RIVER CRUISE". On one of the days around Burnie, we were lucky enough to see whales breaching just off the coast line as we drove past, not once but twice in the same day. Sensational! So many great memories of our first few days in Tassie. Thanks to Jo & Jamie. It was time to move on from Bernie's namesake "Burnie" and head west to the North West Coast. So many wonderful sights on the coast, like Table Cape (amazing views), Tulip Farm (beautiful rows of different colours as far as the eye can see), Boat Harbour Beach (silly name for such a beautiful spot - pure white beach, with crystal blue water but apparently its freezing water all year round). Found a spot to camp at Black River up the road and Bernie was ecstatic to be able to find his own oysters & pippies just in the sand off the beach. He had an awesome feast 2 nights in a row. "The Nut" in Stanley which is a huge rectangle looking land mass that juts out of the ocean, was a steep trek to get up it but it was well worth it as we walked right around the top of it. Arthur River was a very remote town on the rugged West Coast and we stayed there for a few days as the weather had turned bad, so Bernie was able to go for a ride on one of the days. We drove the coastal road on the way out and had a really nice drive thru the South Arthur Forest and had a few short walks into the Tarkine Forest. Back to Burnie again where we are having to repair a few things that broke due to the rough roads on the West Coast. Looking forward to summer temperatures, its not so bad though when Bernie has his roaring camp fire every night.