Date: 18th February 2022
Travelled: 110 kms from Franklin to Hartz NP and back, Tasmania.
Visited: Geeveston, Tahune and Hartz Mountains NP
Stayed: Franklin Camping Grounds, $10, S43.09296, E147.00920 ย
Budget: 21 days @ $0 per day.
Another windy night in Franklin with a bit of rain as well. The morning sun disappears quickly and a some dark clouds gather, looks like another day of all four seasons.
Our plan for today is to drive the 15 kms south to Geeveston once again, give the place the once over, get a map of the Hartz NP walking trails and go exploring. We do all the usual things and roll the Jayco back onto the Huon Hwy, stopping just short of Geeveston for breakfast as we did yesterday.
Morning traffic in Franklin 
Geeveston is a timber town
Geeveston, Tasmania, Australia
Rolling into Geeveston we find a parking spot and have a walk around. We found Geeveston a lovely village and well worth a stop. There is an excellent bakery, something we havenโt seen too many of in Tasmania. The tourist office is a highlight as well.
There are several carved statues 
Of local identities around town 
Inside the tourist office 
Another one 
Dunny murals
Armed with a couple of maps, a big slice of quiche and a chunky steak pie we return to the Jayco and head west for Tahune.
Tahune adventure park is scenic 24kms west of Geeveston. All sorts of activities are available here, but weโve come for the Airwalk and Swing Bridge Walk, so we pay the basic entry price of $27.90pp (seniors) and head off for a look.
The Huon River 
Floods here apparently 
The airwalk provides a scenic walk 
At tree top level 
Pam loves a wobbly steel structure 50m up.
The airwalk does provide a different aspect of the forest and terrain with some nice views of the Huon River. There are information panels on the tree varieties and their characteristics.
From the airwalk we walk up the Huon River for 20 minutes to the swing bridges. Pam loves a swing bridge. The bridges are situated about 100m from the confluence of the Picton and Huon Rivers. Mind you one of the bridges was closed which was a bit annoying as we had to backtrack on the same path back.
Arve Road, Geeveston, Tasmania, Australia
Departing Tahune we drive back 12 kms to Hartz Road and turn into the NP once again. The gravel road is good and because of the earlier rain no dust. We continue on to our first stop the Waratah Lookout.
Looks like the weather has changed for the better. 
The weather changes so quickly here.
We stop at the Waratah lookout and it has whited out. The temperature gauge on the Jayco has dropped to 7ยฐ. We walk down the path and cannot see a thing then suddenly it clears so I take this photo.
We continue up the mountain for 2 kms to the Arve Falls carpark. The temperature gauge is now on 5ยฐ and the Jayco is rocking in the wind. So we opt for 3 layers, gloves and beanies for the 20 minute walk to the falls.
The walk to the falls would normally be easy and the path hard to miss, but the weather is changing by the minute as the wind howls across the open country. Anyway the view of the cascading falls at Arve was worth the walk.
Given the weather we shelve our plans to continue further into the park and do the Lake Osbourne walk. Itโs only a couple of kms further on but significantly higher than where we are now.
So we head back down the mountain and return to Geeveston stopping at the Sushi popup (highlighted in the LP as the best in Tasmania) for something different for dinner tonight before continuing on back to the camp at Franklin.
Michael + Pam
