This 2nd route in Tasmania, you start at the North East B&B, where you can, if necessary, refuel and do some shopping immediately after departure. After about 6 KM you come to a gravel road, the Old Waterhouse Road, you stay on this road for 26 KM. You can also choose to skip this road, then skip points 2 to 5. Then go from Scottsdale to Bridport and then to Waterhouse. This is the only section of gravel road in this route, you stay on the Tasman Highway for much of the route, this road connects Hobart and Launceston, but runs through the east coast and is therefore twice as long as the direct route via the Midland Highway. The Tasman Highway is 410 kilometers long. Traditionally, the Midland Highway has been the main road between Hobart and Launceston. The Tasman Highway is named after the Tasman Sea it runs along, the Tasman Sea is located between Tasmania and New Zealand. The road is mainly important for the villages on the route, and somewhat for tourism.

While driving enjoy the surroundings and the villages you pass through, stop in some villages to take some pictures and possibly have something to eat and/or drink, it's great to get to know the locals. You will also pass countless rivers and creeks, some of which are marked in the route. The route makes a nice loop past Fingal, Avoca, Rossarden and Mangana, where you drive around three parks, Castle Cary Regional Reserve, Sawpit Ridge Regional Reserve & Pepper Hill Regional Reserve. The first part from Fingal, keep following the railway until Avoca. In Avoca it is time to have lunch, refueling is also possible here. After you have completed the loop around the parks, you will return to Fingal, where you can also refuel, because this is the last possibility before the end point of the route. You have to travel another 50 KM before you reach the end point.

Once you have arrived at the end point, you can enjoy a drink while sitting in your jacuzzi and a great view over the Tasman Sea.

Info Tasmania

Tasmania was connected to the Australian mainland for most of the past 100,000 years. As a result, it probably became populated fairly quickly after the arrival of the first explorers in Australia. The first Australians may have arrived on the continent as early as 60,000 years ago. Tasmanians looked like dark Africans. They were quite large: the men averaged 1.63 to 1.70 meters, but some were up to 2 meters tall. The oldest archaeological sites on the island are Warreen Cave, estimated to be 34,790 years old, and Parmerpar Meethaneer Cave, which is between 44,200 and 34,000 years old. The stone tools of the Tasmanians were quite primitive compared to those of other modern humans. The island again became separated from the mainland about 8,000 years ago. This subsequently underwent considerable development, while in Tasmania some techniques, such as those of handles with handles, were even lost. The Tasmanians lived as hunters and gatherers. They were, by estimate, between 3,000 and 10,000 people. There were different tribes who regularly fought among themselves. Like people elsewhere, the Tasmanians made art, including rock art.

The governor of the Dutch East Indies, Antonie van Diemen, ordered Abel Tasman to embark on a voyage of discovery to mainland Australia. On his journey, Tasman discovered the island later named after him on November 24, 1642. He named it after his client: Van Diemensland. At the end of the 18th century, the English colonized the island and housed English and Irish deportees there. After these deportations from England were stopped, the Vandiemenslanders changed the name of the island to 'Tasmania' on January 1, 1856, after its Dutch discoverer. The capital Hobart is, after Sydney, the oldest city in Australia. In 1803 the English governor, John Bowen, proclaimed martial law. The original Tasmanians (Aboriginal people) were almost completely wiped out until 1830. There are no direct descendants of Tasmanians anymore, only people who are descended from female Tasmanians and Europeans. The last full-blooded Tasmanian, Trucanini, died in May 1876. Although the island is the smallest state, there are about 500 self-contained protected areas, covering 40% of Tasmania's land area. For example, the Styx Valley is threatened by logging companies and many other nature reserves that are not protected are also threatened with total destruction. Nevertheless, the Tasmanian wilderness is on the World Heritage List in terms of nature and culture.

Tasmania has two species of predatory marsupials. The island is the only place where the Tasmanian devil still roams, a 60 cm long, carnivorous and black and white colored marsupial, known for its great gluttony and ferocity. Since the late 20th century, the number of Tasmanian devils has been declining rapidly. This is the result of, among other things, a tumor disease. Another marsupial predator mainly found in Tasmania is the spotted marten, a marsupial marten averaging 35 cm in length with a white-spotted, light brown color. Until the early 1930s, Tasmania was also the only area where the possum (or Tasmanian tiger) remained, but the last specimen of this marsupial predator died in 1936 at Hobart Zoo. Tasmania is home to a number of other animals that are not found anywhere else (anymore). The Pseudomys higginsi is an approximately 13 cm large rodent, which mainly lives in the higher forests. The red-bellied pademelon is a brownish kangaroo about 60 cm high that only jumps in Tasmania. The Tasmanian brush-tailed kangaroo rat is a 30 cm long, brown-grey kangaroo rat that only has Tasmania as its habitat and moves at night and on the ground.

The Tasmanians were the indigenous people of the Australian state of Tasmania. Today, however, they are considered extinct as there are no more Thoroughbred Tasmanians. The people disappeared (through murder and European diseases) in the years after the European colonization of Tasmania. The last full-blooded Tasmanian, a woman named Truganini, died in 1876.
The descendants of the Tasmanians still live in Tasmania, but much of their original culture and language has been lost. Since the 1970s, however, attempts have been made to revive this culture.