We left Bruny Island on the best day weather wise, isn’t it always the way.

Ferry to Bruny Island

Waiting in line for the ferry

I discovered a 4WD track from Grove on the Huon Trail area and through to Lachlan and onto New Norfolk; yes that will save us going through the Hobart traffic.  Well we drove from Kettering where the ferry lands and drove across to a town called Sandfly and out on a familiar part of the highway.  Just south of here is the turnoff at Grove and we stopped to talk to the guy at the servo on the corner about the road.  He told Steve he drove over it last week and it is ok, a bit rocky at the start but if we take it easy should be no problem (but Steve forgot to mention to him that we were towing!!!).

We had to go up there somewhere

 

Onward we went through a tiny little town called Crabtree and on most maps this is where the road ends…from here we are on gravel and come to a sign saying proceeding onto Jeffrey’s Track is two way traffic, 15km to Lachlan Valley and to respect other road users because the road can be narrow in parts.  So over a narrow wooden bridge, that should have been our first indication of the condition of the track, but we like to take the road less travelled so
onward and up up up ward we went and then I wondered…respect to other road users…WHAT ROAD?...it was rocks all the way, getting steeper and steeper, rockier and rockier.  Soon we were in a position where we could only go forward there was no turning back and we were on the never ending hill, I was sitting in my seat and all I was looking at was sky ‘cause of the incline.  We got to one



point and Steve nearly stalled the car but no, oh but he did have to stop and we had to do a hand brake start…OMG…we slipped and skidded continuously over rocks and still no end of this hill in sight.  I didn’t know I could hold my breath for so long!  Then the


incline started to level out and at this point the rocks looked more like a cleared area and then it was which way do we go now.  Oh yes the sign at the start said drive in a northerly direction.  Continued on the track and we finally flattened out to deep muddy ruts, fortunately there was “safe” mud to drive on, the guy at the servo did tell Steve there was plenty of places to play if we wanted and I think we found it. 

Some of the 'safe' mud

This was at the beginning



I didn't take any more pics I was too busy holding on for my life!

Then it was down a steep decline but only for a short spell (thank goodness), and then the road became a normal gravel road which was used by regularly housed people and I/we approached this with a great sigh of relief.

In summary:  we drove Jeffery’s Track, 15km long, up a hill of approx 750m elevation, for the first 8km we did not go over 10k/h and it took us well over an hour to get to civilization again.  What we do to save going through a bit of Hobart traffic.  We decided to have a stop in the next major town of New Norfolk to check the car and the van to see that we were all in one piece, and we were, we think.  The caretaker at the caravan park told us we’re mad and maybe we are or maybe we just needed to do something a bit different, but I wasn’t thinking that different at the time.

So a couple of rest days in New Norfolk along the Derwent River  was earned after some very skillful driving by the pilot

and some very intense praying by the co-pilot.