We love Marrawah - it's a gorgeous place, right on the western edge of Tassie, with the cleanest air on earth. How do they know? Well, that's where they measure the air pollution. The wind rushes all the way over from South Africa, dropping it's particulates on the way. Everyone measures their air cleaniness against the west coast of Tassie.

There is something about breathing Marrawah air, because it's always bloody windy - you can't imagine pollution settling anywhere for long! Some days are just perfect there - still mornings, and not too much windy during they day, but often it's howling. We had two good days and two really windy days before we left - there's only so much windy you can deal with when you're camping.

I love pulling into the carpark and seeing Mout Cameron in the far distance. We've walked there before, along the beach - it's a really really long walk and you never think you're going to get to the end! Apparently you can drive to it as well but it's pretty sensitive in terms of Indigenous people. Known as Preminghana, it's a site of cultural significance and was declared an Indigenous Protected Area in 1999. Apparently there's exceptional Aboriginal rock engravings there, considered some of the finest examples of hunter-gatherer art - but they are covered by the dunes so you can't actually see them.

Staying in the free camp is usually really nice - everyone is really friendly. When we first arrived there was a heap of surfers there as the surf was good. We chatted to quite a few young people from Hobart who were just so nice and friendly. We also met some young crew from the mainland - arguably it's the young travellers that are the friendliest and nicest people you meet on the road. We met a couple from NSW who were travelling with two Perenties (Australian army Land Rovers) - hers was the brown one as she liked having her own space, and having mates join them so they could sleep in one car and them in another. What a great idea! You can kinda see the carpark behind. A lot of the space is slopey but there's some good flat bits alongside the tarmac you see.

Every morning and night we'd swim in the sheltered bay in the far left corner, until I spotted a giant stingray and decided I'd swim in the rockpool instead! The rockpoolwas really nice anyway - in the '60's someone dynamited the rocks to make the pool so it was safe for kids to swim in. You'd never know - it looked so natural, and you could see starfish in it and whelks.

From the carpark you can see a shed or house on the rocks. This is unusual in Australia and I don't think you could do it anymore these days. I think it's actually a studio. I had to really zoom in with my phone to see it - you can only see it if you're really looking. There's another hidden house too and the guy who lives there just jumps into the water to paddle over to the break from his own garden. Lucky bastard.

Here's it zoomed in a bit more (thanks Oppo Find x2). Imagine living there!

Honestly, Marrawah just has this amazing vibe to it. I was saying to Jamie that it's kinda weird that we keep returning here as there's not a lot here. You can drive up and down the coast to search out different breaks which is good, though we had a bit of an issue with the fuel pump screaming and then the Landie not starting at all, which was a bit annoying. We just couldn't go any deeper into the country as it would be too far to get towed. Jamie ended up ringing a mate in Hobart who's a TD5 expert and he said maybe fill it up more - we didn't think it was that empty. He got a lift to the petrol station from someone twice to get 20 L of fuel each time, and topped it up to full - this meant with the long range tank it really wasn't that empty. But we got it started and Jamie fiddled with all the connections (don't ask me about the technical detals) and it stopped squealing and it was alright, thank goodness. Jamie didn't want to drop the tank in the middle of the carpark, that's for sure!

Which brings me to the carpark and free camp itself. Tassie has a lot of free camps, which really rely on people being respectful to the environment lest they be shut down, like they're shutting down everywhere on the mainland due to people leaving litter, shitting in the bushes, and so on. Marrawah's pretty well maintained - there's free toilets which are always clean, they come and collect the bins regularly, and there's even bore water you can use for showers and washing up (you can't drink it). However, we saw some other behaviour which really irritated us and we ended up leaving as we just got fed up with people being dicks. They'd just drive in with whatever rig they had - big Maui rental campervans, caravans, big rigs, and just park right next to you, super close - and worse, not say a thing. The couple behind us in a van had a woman with kids park the caravan right in front of where they put their awning up and got annoyed when he asked if she could move six feet - which she didn't. He ended up moving closer to us so he could have the awning out. Another guy set up his tent right where we'd put our awning, so close to the car - we had gone for a walk and had to talk to him when he got back to move ten feet in the other direction. Are people stupid or what? I guess what we expected was that if someone was going to park next to us, they'd ask first or chat to us to see if it was okay they were camping pretty much on top of us.

We find it a little strange that people want to park this close. Everyone needs some space and to not create bad will with people you're camped next to? We had a huge, huge Jayco park right in front of us when we were sitting with our chairs watching the view! Suddenly our view was gone, and our awning was only two inches from their van. They didn't even get out of the camper! - if they did, I would have asked them to move five feet back which still gave them room and we would have had our view. Worse, they let their waste water out on the tarmac in front of us just as they were leaving. Facepalm times a million.

Jesus Christ, people, do better.

I don't think we'll go out to Tassie in January again - it's far too busy, and we just can't put up with that kind of madness.

With Love,

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