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Beachside feast caps river tour

A hot potato chip arcs through the air. It doesn't reach the ground. Another follows, its flight, also interrupted by one of several hovering seagulls. These Ilfraville gulls could teach Australia's cricketers a thing or two about holding on to a hot chance. We have arrived at our destination just to the north of Beauty Point to buy fish and chips. It's a summer thing to do and the penultimate day of spring is turning on a beauty. The fish and chippery is Chef's Catch, where you can take your marine plunder, wander across the street to a beachside lawn and set up on a picnic table with a ripper view of the broad Tamar. The feathered flyers with such impressive beak-eye co-ordination don't crowd around until you unleash the first chip. The feast is superb and caps an eclectic short trip along the West Tamar. The first target is Bradys Lookout, which I suspect is one of the most bypassed lookouts in Tasmania. Here's why: time-rich travellers leaving Legana on the West Tamar find three options at Muddy Creek. To the left is the road to the wonderfully unusual Swiss village-built-by-a-Dutchman, Grindelwald; and to the right the picturesque river-hugging road to Rosevears. Both tempting paths that bypass Bradys Lookout, which is accessed from the West Tamar soon after a stretch of uphill passing lane. Passing traffic aside, Bradys still gains plenty of visitors who find tidy, working electric barbecues,  clean toilets and the view that escaped convict Matthew Brady reputedly used to garner opportunity and avoid trouble. The rocky escarpments of Bradys put visitors on eye level with the tops of trees - some living and some dead - standing stark and spectacular against the vast estuarine valley. We learn from an information board that upon his capture, Brady's "firm deportment excited much attention'' in Hobart. Clambering up to the lookout probably helped the gentleman bushranger's physique. We chat to two couples from Queensland, who say they have heard great things about the Exeter Bakery, so we confirm their suspicions. The thought of bakery food makes the fish-and-chip mission that much harder but we stay strong and pull over at the Tamar Visitor Centre at Exeter. Behind the desk are two welcoming people, supervisor Karen Burnett and volunteer Anne McManus. They are immediately helpful and interested in our trip, long before I tell them that there might be a bit of a story in the newspaper. It's a really good sign. Gateway people are a massive resource for Tasmanian tourism and it's always uplifting to talk to people who are good at their work. "Our job can be a bit of a reality check for people,'' Ms Burnett says. They often find tourists, especially those who have just driven the 45 minutes from the Spirit of Tasmania terminal at East Devonport, have underestimated travel times. They might, for example, suggest an overnight break for a visitor planning to drive from Launceston to Cradle Mountain to Strahan and through to Hobart in an afternoon. A glance at the visitor book shows that last week the centre helped people from Taiwan, England, Malaysia, Vietnam, France, Singapore, Canada, Germany, Scotland, Holland, Japan, New Zealand and all Australian states. We throw our fish-and-chip challenge at them and are given several options, finally plumping for Ilfraville, with its scrumptious calamari and dexterous avian prodigies.