The west is the best, they say, especially if it's wild you are after. The frantic and ceaseless winds that rush across the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean buffet the wind farms and sanddunes and support the huge waves that crash on hapless rocks. There's nothing much between the west coast of Tassie and the southernmost parts of South America, and the winds that blow up from the south blow from the Arctic, cold.

But in the north west, at the beginning of it all, is arguably Tassie's best surf break, Marrawah, and sometimes the wind is just enough to hold up the waves and let surfers have their way.

I've been here before, and I was so eager to head there again for a few days before starting our journey down the west coast and hopefully do some 4WD tracks for which Tassie is also famous. Keen is an understatement - sometimes returning to a place you love is like expecting an old lover.

The campground at Green Point is free. Everyone manages to squeeze everyone else in, moving RVs forward an inch or beckoning a late arrival to a spare patch of grass. The overflow ends up on the road or in the carpark. We gain a prime position overlooking the left hand break and enjoy ocean views and surf from bed. It's too windy for us. I swim instead - it's cold but exhilarating. I could spend all day checking the surf and the view.

Down the beach, at the very end, is windfarms and indigenous art buried somewhere under the sand. At a loss to what to do with the finding, they left it buried so it wouldn't be further disturbed. The mountain is a beautiful sleeping dragon. The wind buffets the Defender at night so it is like sleeping in a ship.

In the morning we drive down to Arthur Point and look at the large river and the huge tree logs that end up here from inland. We find a few tracks that lead down to the beach and an old lighthouse remains, admiring the views.

In the afternoon we head back to Marrawah. It's too late in the day to find camp anywhere else. We regret not heading off with some Landrover people we met as they were doing some tracks we were too nervous to do ourselves. These tracks have a reputation of damaging cars and swallowing them whole in quicksand.

We also skip the idea of the Tarkine drive - I did it last time and it seemed too choreographed for me and too full of day trippers.

We have a windy night on top of a hill at the free camp and then the wind and swell suddenly drop, but we have a great little surf and I practiced going left, which I nailed and was so happy with. My new board is so easy to spin in the direction I want to head and does exactly as I want it to.

After that we head off, down to a few coastal towns that are full of shacks that are common on this coast, for those that like this wildness, and for fisherman. Then it's the Northern Explorer, but that's for the next post.

With Love,

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