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  PICS DOWN UNDER Canon vs Fuji Navigation MAP of OZ FG Falcon XT                                                     

Hellyer Gorge to Burnie
 

 

  
Near Dip Falls

The BIG Tree
 
 

 
 
Near By

A fallen over BIG tree

 

 Dip Falls

 

 Dip Falls

 

 Arthur River

Somewhere near an old hut

 

 Arthur River

The old hut
 

 

  
 

 

  
 

 

  
 

 

  
 

 

  
 

 

  
 

 

  
 

 

  
 

 

  
 

 

  
 

    

Day 4 – Dip Falls      Back Next

 

            In the morning we left for Calder driving some out of the way tracks to get there.  Our plans for the day were to see the big tree, Dip falls, Arthur river in the middle, do a Forrest loop track and head out to the town of Arthur River, where we were to stay the night, but things did not go quit to plan.

             All was going well until we ended up stuck behind a forestry gate only 500m from the Big tree and about 1.5k from Dip falls.  So we decided to walk there which we had no problems doing.  The big tree was BIG! 16m in diameter and 65m tall it’s not the highest but definitely the widest, another had fallen near by which was almost as big, it lay out a long ways.

            The walk to Dip falls was hot but an easy stroll, not to be said for the walk down to the base.  It was a short but steep walk with lots of stairs which were not designed very well, they were on slopes and some were too small to fit you feet, but it was all worth it at the end. The falls were different from any falls we had seen, the rock formations were like hexagon shapes in long tubes, which the water flowed over. They were pretty cool.

We met a nice old couple at the top of the falls and got chatting to them, they were locals visiting the area for the day, they gave us some good travel advice and some ideas on some must see destinations in the area, which was great. 

We started the walk back to the car, and were passed by a forestry vehicle which fuelled our grumbling about gates and road closures.  The guy came back along our way and offered us a lift back to our car, which was great.  John got to ride in the back of the Ute and I sat up front, we chatted for a short time about Tassie and all the good things to see.  We also talked about Melbourne, he told me that it had been pretty hot in Melb and there were some major bushfires burning.  It made me think of home and get a little home sick, that’s the trouble with travelling you don’t really hear any news and you don’t know what’s going on around you.

From there we headed off to Arthur River (the town), but started by heading down a path which takes you to a section of the Arthur River mid way along.  There wasn’t really much to look at except for an old run down hut and the river which was nice.  The road down was a little rough with a few bog holes and fallen trees, the track was narrow and we did get a few extra scrapes down the side of the car.

 On the way back up the track the car started to run very rough and was losing power up the hill, in one section it was running so bad the engine nearly stopped.  We pulled of to the side and had a look but could not see any major faults.  That was just great in the middle of no were and kilometres from any town.  John thought it may be a fuel problem as it felt as thought the engine was not getting enough fuel so he tried switching over to our secondary tank which worked. That was great, now to get the nearest town to see what the problem could be. 

Now we had a change of plans. We were off to Burnie which was the closest big town but was over 100k away, it was late in the day and a Friday.  When we hit Burnie we found a 4WD mechanic which directed us to Toyota down the road with about 20min before closing time we were able to get the car looked at, it seems it was a blocked fuel line and it was fixed in no time and free of charge with some compressed air down the line.  Hopefully the blockage will not cause trouble again for this trip and until John can look at cleaning out the tank.

We decided it would be best to stay in Burnie so we found a caravan park and set up for the night and went for a walk along the beach to relax.  We bumped into a man who started talking to us, he was a bit strange really. We heard all about his private life even before we new his name (Bill de’veto, de'veto like the actor as he said but not related), I don’t think we could get away from him quick enough.

Not only was the car giving us problems the dual battery system was still not working properly, John rigged a system which ran the fridge off the main battery so it would stay cool until he could work out what was really wrong, so that was fixed at least temporarily.