Beaches And Rugged Cliffs

From the beaches, mountains and forest of the north-east of Tasmania to the great cliffs of freycinet np, you’ll be surprised at what our smallest state has to offer.

- Ron Moon

Our trip had not started well. We were on top of Jacobs Ladder ... or at least that was what the sign said … when we were close enough to see it!

We could have been anywhere, I guess, as the thick cloud that swirled around us limited visibility to just a few metres. Occasionally a wind gust would blow in a thinner patch of heavenly moisture and we would catch a glimpse of craggy rock faces above us, or the beginnings of a rugged valley below. Then all would vanish in another billow of grey matter and we were back to wondering where the vehicle was that we had just walked away from. We waited for some time for the view to improve before giving up and headed back down through the switchbacks that the ‘Ladder’ is so well-known for.

Originally the only access to the top of the Ben Lomond Plateau was via a rough walking trail from the south, and while other walking routes followed the one and only road to the top of the mountain was cut up the near sheer cliffs in 1963. Today the route remains narrow, unsealed and with a speed limit of just 30km/h. It also rates on the ‘Dangerous Roads’ website, but they do beat it up quite a bit! Still, it is reportedly a pretty impressive drive and from the photos on social media, it looked pretty good – I guess, if nothing else, we have an excuse to go back again.

While there is a small camping area up on the plateau, we drove off the mountain and descended to a lower level amongst the rolling verdant plains of NE Tassie, where we could see more than 50 metres. With such visibility we cruised effortlessly towards Bridport.