A Birthday for the Ages

Thursday, 17.1.18

Oh, it's my birthday. Once again, not at home.

I wake up just before 7am and shower at 7:30am. Then I finally have to catch up on my diary and that takes until 9:30am while I drink coffee and eat cereal. My most important and first stop today has to be a gas station. In Stanley, there is a kind of gas station, but they don't have 95-octane fuel again. Smithton is the next town, slightly larger than Stanley, and Google Maps shows me a number of gas stations there. My fuel is more than enough for the 20km, so I head to Smithton, go to the first gas station, and fill up with the most expensive fuel of the trip at $1.69 per liter. But I don't care, as long as the car is full because it has to last until Arthur River and the entire Tarkine Drive, possibly until I come back to Smithton from the south in two days. I discover a nice Woolworth supermarket and get some new mineral water, blueberries, cheese, and half a liter of milk. I find Manuka honey from NZ for $32, which is a bargain considering it's 500g and has a potency of 70+. I grab it, even if it's an extra pound in my luggage. It'll do.

When I come out, the sun has cleared the clouds and it has gotten noticeably warmer, so I can take off my fleece jacket. I am now heading towards Marawah. The road is great and runs along fields and meadows. There is nothing in Marrawah. I had read about great beaches with incredible surf, but that's not the case. I drive to Greenpoint Beach in search of the frequently mentioned surfers, but I don't see any. The General Store in Marrawah is funny. Seems to have everything somehow.

So I continue on a side road to Arthur River. It's only about 60km from Smithton. The campground that I pass by is quite far away in a forest above the village, which has less than 400 inhabitants spread on both sides of the Arthur River.

I first drive past the Visitor Center, cross the Arthur River on a long single-lane wooden bridge that is not very reassuring and narrow, and turn right at the second cross street on the other side towards the Edge of the World. The End of the World is here. It is a promontory in front of a mostly rugged bay with lots of driftwood on rocks.

A landmark stone with a poem can be found here before the cliff descends to the sea.

“I cast my pebble onto the shore of Eternity.

To be washed by the Ocean of Time.

It has shape, form, and substance.

It is me.

One day I will be no more.

But my pebble will remain here.

On the shore of Eternity.

Mute witness for the deons.

That today I came and stood.

At the edge of the world”

Brian Inder

Brian Inder is a Tasmanian tourism pioneer who was born in 1930 and commemorates the wild and timeless nature and the enormous winds of the "Roaring Forties" here in Arthur River with these lines.

I drive back to the village and the Visitor Center because now I have to find a place to stay overnight.

Behind the Visitor Center of the park administration is a somewhat meager campground where you can camp for $13. There is no store to be seen here. There is a small, somewhat closed-looking hotel diagonally across the street and no gas station to be found either.

I ask the people about wombats and they give me two places where I might see them. They tell me to drive south to Nelsons Bay and stop along the road. Or to look in the evening on the sand track to the Edge of the World.

OK. First, I check the Peppermint Campground at the Visitor Center next door, where I can position myself best for my $13.

There is no electricity and the ground of the grass is mostly sloping, so the car is tilted and you will lie in bed accordingly, and the dishwater will not drain and cooking on the gas stove will only work with compensators so that the pot or kettle does not fall down.

But for now, I drive towards Wombat watching or to Nelsons Bay, where there are Aboriginal rock art on the beach. My stop at the indicated location on the road doesn't lead to anything at first, until I see a wombat crossing the road about 50m ahead of me. By the time I get there with the car, it's long gone. So I drive towards Nelson's Bay, where there are two or three houses that look rather deserted. Before I reach the beach with the Aboriginal remains, I see a beautiful bay on the left with a boat floating. I check out this spot, there are no flies but sun and tranquility, so I unfold my beach chair, turn on the gas stove, make myself a coffee, and sit in the sun, just enjoying doing nothing.

I stay for about 2 hours, wander through the bay, which has very pretty blue rocks, and stay completely alone again. Not even a car drives past me.

Shortly after 5pm, I drive back to the campground, set up my table, make myself a salad, and regret that I'm doing this. I could have done this at the Edge of the World or on my beach. Because there is no fresh water here and no electricity either. So it's not really different from being in the wilderness. Only the toilets make a difference. There isn't even a garbage can here, so I will still be driving the Tarkine Drive tomorrow with my full trash bag. The place has no light at all, except in the toilets where there is one cold water shower left. Well then. I eat my salad, pack everything up, wash the dishes, take down the table, lift it back above the driver's seat, and start making my bed so that I don't have to do it later. Because I want to spend my birthday evening with a sunset at the Edge of the World.

Wonderfully, I am also completely alone in the evening at the Edge of the World. Since I am here about an hour before the actual sunset at 8:53pm, I grab my camping chair and place it right in front of the marker with the poem and sit down here and soak in the views of the now red-lit rocks, the driftwood, and the sparkling water. What an evening! What a day!

First, I have a bay all to myself and now the End of the World with a fantastic sunset. A birthday to remember for eternity!

Around 9pm, I bump along the bumpy 2km track back to the main road and turn right again, hoping to see wombats or something similar in the twilight. Now I have to drive really carefully and attentively, so as not to run over anything else. But besides a few scared wallabies, there is nothing.

Back at the campground, almost everyone is already brushing their teeth or sleeping. It's dark and within a few minutes pitch black, because there are no lights here.

To celebrate the day, I open a nice white wine, sit on my bed, and chat a little while enjoying the wine. Content