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The best last day available, and staying in Launceston bought the time for it: Poatina up the escarpment, the full Lake Highway south to Bronte Park, then back north and down the Western Tiers hairpins.
Bread + Butter, or Sweetbrew, both central
Find itDeloraine cafes on the Meander River, or the Empire Hotel
Find itAshgrove Cheese, and Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm next door
Find itEat in town before check-in, or on the ferry
Find itThursday 12 November. Ferry departs 18:45, so be at Devonport by 16:45. This route has you there about 15:00 with Liffey Falls included.
Unsealed today. Gulf Rd to lower Liffey, about 5 km. Steep, winding, logging trucks.
Weather needs signal. Everything else works offline.
Four tiers in myrtle and tree-fern forest, World Heritage listed. Watch for logging trucks.
Trailhead in MapsGorge lookout near Mole Creek and a significant ochre site.
Trailhead in MapsLighthouse and Aboriginal rock engravings, minutes from the terminal. The safe time-filler.
Trailhead in MapsTwo underground streams and a glow-worm chamber. Guided tours only, fixed times - check before building your morning around it.
Open in MapsSmaller, drier, more heavily decorated. Same ticket office as Marakoopa.
Open in MapsLong-established devil and wombat sanctuary with hands-on keeper tours.
Open in MapsSalmon and ginseng farm with a constructed wetland walk and a smokehouse shop. Quietly excellent.
Open in MapsAbout 50 honey varieties including leatherwood, which you cannot get anywhere but Tasmania. Honey ice cream.
Open in MapsFarm-gate cheddars, flavoured curds and milkshakes, right on the B13 to the ferry.
Open in MapsWorld Heritage convict farm estates, still family-owned. On the way to Poatina.
Open in MapsBare, treeless, wind-scoured trout country. Feels nothing like the rest of Australia.
Open in MapsBronze ring in a clearing on the sealed A5, for the highland families.
Open in MapsFour tiers in myrtle and tree-fern forest, World Heritage listed.
Open in MapsStriped lighthouse and Aboriginal rock engravings, minutes from the terminal.
Open in MapsThe extension staying in Launceston bought you. High, empty and sustained, with almost no traffic - arguably the best stretch of the A5. Turn back at Bronte Park or Pine Tier Lagoon.
Open in MapsBack on the list only if you skip the Bronte Park extension. You have been to Launceston before, so the plateau is the better use of the morning.
Open in MapsOn the way to Poatina, before the plateau.
Open in MapsTrout-fishing lodge at Great Lake. Check hours, and carry something anyway.
Open in MapsDecent cluster on the Meander River.
Open in MapsAround 50 varieties. Leatherwood is unique to Tasmania.
Open in MapsFarm-gate cheddars and a good cafe, directly on the B13.
Open in MapsEat before the ferry. Onboard food is functional at best.
Open in MapsNothing here is scheduled. This is what else is on today's road, roughly in the order you pass it - for when a walk gets cut short or the weather turns.
Central, opens early, and walkable from St John Street.
Open in MapsIn the old Hydro village at the foot of the escarpment, with an art gallery and a small shop. Last coffee before the plateau.
Open in MapsSalmon and ginseng farm with a constructed wetland walk and a smokehouse shop. Quietly excellent, and good for something to take on the boat.
Open in MapsAround 50 honey varieties including leatherwood, which you cannot get anywhere but Tasmania. Honey ice cream.
Open in MapsFarm-gate cheddars, flavoured curds and milkshakes, directly on the B13. Your last real stop.
Open in MapsRaspberry everything, in a valley setting. Next door to Ashgrove.
Open in MapsChocolate factory and cafe, five minutes off the B13 and ten from the terminal. Where you started.
Open in MapsWorld Heritage convict farm estates, still family-owned, directly on the way to Poatina. The Woolmers servants' kitchen does breakfast and Devonshire tea.
Open in MapsGeorgian sandstone, and the town was laid out for the Norfolk Island settlers.
Open in MapsStop on the way up and look back over the midlands. The climb is the point, but the view earns a few minutes.
Open in MapsBare, treeless, wind-scoured trout country at about 1,000 m. The hotel is the only real building for a long way.
Open in MapsOfficially the coldest inhabited place in Tasmania, and it looks it. Trout hatchery and a weather station.
Open in MapsClassic highland fishing water right beside the A5. Stark and beautiful.
Open in MapsYour turn-around on the southern run. A hydro village and a lagoon, and the point where you have driven the Lake Highway properly.
Open in MapsBronze ring in a clearing beside the A5, commemorating the highland families. Easy to drive past.
Open in MapsWhere the A5 descent lands. Farmland under the escarpment you have just come down.
Open in MapsFour tiers in myrtle and tree-fern forest, World Heritage listed. Lower car park via Gulf Road - about 5 km of steep gravel with logging trucks.
Open in MapsA four-panel silk hanging of the Meander Valley, made by 300 people. In the visitor centre, and better than that description suggests.
Open in MapsTwo underground streams and a glow-worm chamber. Guided tours only, at fixed times - check before you build the morning around it. King Solomons is drier and more decorated.
Open in MapsLong-established devil and wombat sanctuary with hands-on keeper tours.
Open in MapsGorge lookout over the Mersey and a significant Aboriginal ochre site. The sealed alternative to Liffey.
Open in MapsHeritage railway with a shed of restored locomotives and carriages, minutes from the ferry. WATCH - confirm operating days before relying on it.
Open in MapsStriped lighthouse and Aboriginal rock engravings, minutes from the terminal. The safe way to burn a spare hour.
Open in MapsGulf Rd to lower Liffey, about 5 km. Steep, winding, logging trucks.
285 km · 4.3 hrs driving · Spirit of Tasmania