Tasmania, oh how you stand so far apart from the rest of the country.
After originally playing with the idea of a holiday in new zealand, we decided that seeing as we already in Australia, that we should spend some time exploring our own country! We narrowed our options to Darwin, Perth or Tasmania, each for a reason completely different from the others. In the end we opted for a good old fashioned road trip from Brisbane to Melbourne to catch up with some friends and family, and then to continue on down to Tasmania for a 15 day campervan adventure.
Being in Melbourne visiting friends already, we decided to get the spirit of tasmania across the bass strait. We opted for the day ferry instead of the night ferry as we could get away without a room, and also as its a lot more enjoyable to actually see where you going. We were lucky and didn’t even encounter and of the massive waves that can sometimes hammer the side of the boat!
Upon arriving in Devonport in the north of Tasmania, we were greeted by the rep from our campervan rental company (www.devilcampers.com.au) who in 2 mins flat gave us a quick tour of the van then said his cheery Tasmanian goodbye and was gone. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that we had been upgraded for free from a standard van to a pop-top van – a luxury which meant we could stand up in the van and didn’t have to cook outside – considering the freezing Tasmanian weather, we really did appreciate it.
By the time we drove into Devonport and tried to find some food, it was already getting dark and we had just enough time to drive to Lilico on the beach to see the daily fairy penguin march. I wouldn’t call them cute but hey if you're into small little bird like things with no feathers, tiny little wings and that smell like fish then thats ok by me. Apparently we were at the tail end of the season and only managed to see 2 babies waiting for their mum to come back with food, so with the temperature dropping below my comfort level, after about 10 minutes of no impressive back flips or wild penguin behaviour, we opted to retire to the warmth of our van.
Day2 - After a relatively sleepless night thanks to having parked in a carpark on the side of the highway, the next morning we decided to explore the area south of Devonport and all its quirky little places.
It seems each Tasmanian town is famous for something – a microbrewery here, a winery there, with a cheese factory in between, a chocolate factory, a raspberry farm (with simply AMAZING chocolate coated raspberries!!), murals in Sheffield, a waterfall in the middle of a town, or in the case of Railton – Topiary. For those of you who aren't familiar with topiary, imagine hedges – lots of garden hedges made to look like stuff that isn't necessary hedge-like, an elephant, a man on a bike, a guy fishing, a train, cartoon characters etc. A truly strange sight.
After originally playing with the idea of a holiday in new zealand, we decided that seeing as we already in Australia, that we should spend some time exploring our own country! We narrowed our options to Darwin, Perth or Tasmania, each for a reason completely different from the others. In the end we opted for a good old fashioned road trip from Brisbane to Melbourne to catch up with some friends and family, and then to continue on down to Tasmania for a 15 day campervan adventure.
Being in Melbourne visiting friends already, we decided to get the spirit of tasmania across the bass strait. We opted for the day ferry instead of the night ferry as we could get away without a room, and also as its a lot more enjoyable to actually see where you going. We were lucky and didn’t even encounter and of the massive waves that can sometimes hammer the side of the boat!
Upon arriving in Devonport in the north of Tasmania, we were greeted by the rep from our campervan rental company (www.devilcampers.com.au) who in 2 mins flat gave us a quick tour of the van then said his cheery Tasmanian goodbye and was gone. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that we had been upgraded for free from a standard van to a pop-top van – a luxury which meant we could stand up in the van and didn’t have to cook outside – considering the freezing Tasmanian weather, we really did appreciate it.
By the time we drove into Devonport and tried to find some food, it was already getting dark and we had just enough time to drive to Lilico on the beach to see the daily fairy penguin march. I wouldn’t call them cute but hey if you're into small little bird like things with no feathers, tiny little wings and that smell like fish then thats ok by me. Apparently we were at the tail end of the season and only managed to see 2 babies waiting for their mum to come back with food, so with the temperature dropping below my comfort level, after about 10 minutes of no impressive back flips or wild penguin behaviour, we opted to retire to the warmth of our van.
Day2 - After a relatively sleepless night thanks to having parked in a carpark on the side of the highway, the next morning we decided to explore the area south of Devonport and all its quirky little places.
It seems each Tasmanian town is famous for something – a microbrewery here, a winery there, with a cheese factory in between, a chocolate factory, a raspberry farm (with simply AMAZING chocolate coated raspberries!!), murals in Sheffield, a waterfall in the middle of a town, or in the case of Railton – Topiary. For those of you who aren't familiar with topiary, imagine hedges – lots of garden hedges made to look like stuff that isn't necessary hedge-like, an elephant, a man on a bike, a guy fishing, a train, cartoon characters etc. A truly strange sight.
As a tourist, there is always something quirky or cute to stumble upon in Tasmania, although, being so sparsely populated, they can be quite away from each other. The micro breweries, wineries, and Cheese factories we visited were awesome, however with their sporadic opening hours, it can be sometimes frustrating to drive an hour to find that they are closed even though the sign on the main road said open.
Almost every town has an information centre and some even have hot showers!! Yes for a nice cheap price of 3$ for 6 min we were able to give ourselves a good clean up. With the majority of tourists in Tasmania driving campervans its no surprise that it is quite set up for it. Most of the time there were ample free camping options and we were most often than not alone with amazing views.
The weather was a tad colder than we had been expecting so we were really thankful that our van had a pop-top so we could cook all our meals inside the van, or even just boil water to heat it up a bit.
After eating lots of cheese, chocolate coated raspberries, chocolate and even having a shower, we headed through the rain to Burnie on the North west coast. The information centre directed us to a nice free-camping ground right on the ocean – idyllic I'm sure in any other circumstance. However, we found ourselves in the middle of a huge storm with 140km winds. We carefully positioned our little van in between the bigger Winnebagos and mobile homes, but still couldn’t put the pop-top up for the wind which made even standing up an olympic sport.
The next morning, with the wind still howling but a little gentler, we were confronted with broken trees and debris blocking our only exit point! Some delicate manoeuvring from Roh, and we said goodbye to Burnie, day 3 had just begun (although we had been awake most of the night!) and we had other cheese factories to explore after all!
We continued further west along the coast road, taking a couple of detours to visit such imaginatively named sights as “the big tree,” - which was a really big and beautiful tree; “the waterfall” - which was a very large waterfall; and the “wood-mill” - which was a wood shop/gallery specialising in local Tasmanian woods. Further on we headed towards Stanley and “the nut.” As luck would have it, just as we rounded the last few corners towards Stanley, the rain and wind parted revealing a beautiful morning and a stunning view of the nut. The nut is Stanley's claim to fame... a big rock headland that rises up out of the ocean which you can either climb or in true australian laziness you can get a chair lift (when there are no gale force winds!). We, in need of exercise to warm up our frozen bodies, opted for the walk, and after a short but enjoyable hike up a concrete path were at the top with a great view looking north over bass strait. With the huge whitecaps, I'm glad we were not crossing the Bass that day!
After a van cooked lunch we pushed on westwards to Marrawah - a sleepy little town with literally one pub and a petrol station/news-agency. It does however have an awesome (yet slightly overcrowded) free campsite, right on the beach and famous for its stunning sunsets. We took a nice stroll on the beach (a bit to cold to swim), drank a beer (from the one pub) as we watched the sun go down over South America, and cooked yet another delicious campervan meal.
Almost every town has an information centre and some even have hot showers!! Yes for a nice cheap price of 3$ for 6 min we were able to give ourselves a good clean up. With the majority of tourists in Tasmania driving campervans its no surprise that it is quite set up for it. Most of the time there were ample free camping options and we were most often than not alone with amazing views.
The weather was a tad colder than we had been expecting so we were really thankful that our van had a pop-top so we could cook all our meals inside the van, or even just boil water to heat it up a bit.
After eating lots of cheese, chocolate coated raspberries, chocolate and even having a shower, we headed through the rain to Burnie on the North west coast. The information centre directed us to a nice free-camping ground right on the ocean – idyllic I'm sure in any other circumstance. However, we found ourselves in the middle of a huge storm with 140km winds. We carefully positioned our little van in between the bigger Winnebagos and mobile homes, but still couldn’t put the pop-top up for the wind which made even standing up an olympic sport.
The next morning, with the wind still howling but a little gentler, we were confronted with broken trees and debris blocking our only exit point! Some delicate manoeuvring from Roh, and we said goodbye to Burnie, day 3 had just begun (although we had been awake most of the night!) and we had other cheese factories to explore after all!
We continued further west along the coast road, taking a couple of detours to visit such imaginatively named sights as “the big tree,” - which was a really big and beautiful tree; “the waterfall” - which was a very large waterfall; and the “wood-mill” - which was a wood shop/gallery specialising in local Tasmanian woods. Further on we headed towards Stanley and “the nut.” As luck would have it, just as we rounded the last few corners towards Stanley, the rain and wind parted revealing a beautiful morning and a stunning view of the nut. The nut is Stanley's claim to fame... a big rock headland that rises up out of the ocean which you can either climb or in true australian laziness you can get a chair lift (when there are no gale force winds!). We, in need of exercise to warm up our frozen bodies, opted for the walk, and after a short but enjoyable hike up a concrete path were at the top with a great view looking north over bass strait. With the huge whitecaps, I'm glad we were not crossing the Bass that day!
After a van cooked lunch we pushed on westwards to Marrawah - a sleepy little town with literally one pub and a petrol station/news-agency. It does however have an awesome (yet slightly overcrowded) free campsite, right on the beach and famous for its stunning sunsets. We took a nice stroll on the beach (a bit to cold to swim), drank a beer (from the one pub) as we watched the sun go down over South America, and cooked yet another delicious campervan meal.
Day 4 and we decided to start the journey south. Not having 4WD in our little van, we had to do a bit of backtracking towards to Burnie, before joining the Southern highway (pretty much a normal 1 lane road.) We visited Waratah – a town with a huge waterfall in the middle it (originally used by a mine site to run the machinery in the good old mining days) before deciding to take the scenic (not really advisable) route to Strahan via Zeehan. We were hoping the journey would be through forest instead of just being the usual town-hop, but it really was rather boring and we saw neither forest, nor towns.
Strahan, back in the hay day was a town full of bushrangers and copper mining, but now with a population of 637 people it is known for its river cruises and helicopter flights along the Macquarie river. Neither were really in our budget, so instead we used their free hot showers, visited the local laundromat, and went for a little meander along the shore. Feeling warm and clean, we headed out of town towards Western Beach and found a nice quiet place to camp and cook.
After venturing as far south as we could in our trusty van, day 5 saw us heading East towards the Southern end of Cradle Mountain National Park. We spent the morning doing a few short walks through some of Tasmania's amazing National Parks. The information centres are chocked full of helpful information and most often have well signposted trails so you can design your own walk.
After a morning of exercise and getting back to nature, we headed further south to stock up on supplies in a town called hamilton (that was listed on the map as a big town) but that was in fact a 1 horse, no shop town.. Our map lies.. Eventually a couple of little towns away we managed to find a convenience store with enough things to atleast allow us to eat, and so we headed back away from civilisation towards Mt Field National Park. We arrived just on sunset to a sweet little campsite (our first paid site) on a river with wallabies and paddy melons hopping around everywhere, and lots of little waterfalls to explore.
After a great night's sleep we decided to venture along the road less travelled and headed out further west for day 6 to a town called Strathgordon. We dubbed this section of road “roadkill road” as literally every 100m atleast there was dead wallabies, paddy melons, or bush turkeys that had been killed during the night or in the early morning splashed all over the road – some still faintly alive. Within about 30 mins we would have seen atleast 60 animals on a single stretch of road that we saw only 10 other cars drive down. It really made us sad.
After visiting a local Saturday farmer's market, we decided to head to hobart and the famous Salamanca markets. After parking at the wharf and day-dreaming about boats that we could never afford, we wandered through the markets, admiring beautiful made timber products and lots of local produce, that for the most part, was also, way above our budget. We met up with our friend Annie at the markets and had a delicious Tasmanian Pub lunch as is quite customary, and people-watched. It is easy to see why Hobart is affectionately referred to as “slow-bart.” We really liked the feel for Hobart, but with Annie on days off from work, we decided to take her along for a bit more of a road trip.
From hobart we headed south along the coast road through some of the cutest villages we have seen in Australia with amazing little cottages directly overlooking the beautiful sea below – If only the weather was just a little bit warmer we would have found paradise! We found a nice little seaside free camping ground with toilet AND shower in Gordon and set up camp for the night.
The next day (day 7) we continued our trip south through some more amazingly funky little towns with inviting cafes and yoga classes and organic farms in and around Cygnet and Huonville, before reaching the southern most point of Tassie – ingeniously named “Southport,” and then turning around and heading back to Hobart to drop Annie off.
After saying goodbye to Annie we headed East towards Port Arthur. We wandered around tessellated pavements in awe of mother nature and were stoked to find a free camping place right overlooking them with stunning sunset views!
This part of Tasmania was our favourite. We found the coastal roads to be stunning with farmland meeting clear Turquoise water and the coastline so rugged and yet green and dense.
In the morning of day 8, we went to eaglehawk neck an amazing natural bottle neck that has awesome beach views, checked out the dog-line, marvelled at the devils kitchen and a few other natural formations that just leave you in awe of nature.
Strahan, back in the hay day was a town full of bushrangers and copper mining, but now with a population of 637 people it is known for its river cruises and helicopter flights along the Macquarie river. Neither were really in our budget, so instead we used their free hot showers, visited the local laundromat, and went for a little meander along the shore. Feeling warm and clean, we headed out of town towards Western Beach and found a nice quiet place to camp and cook.
After venturing as far south as we could in our trusty van, day 5 saw us heading East towards the Southern end of Cradle Mountain National Park. We spent the morning doing a few short walks through some of Tasmania's amazing National Parks. The information centres are chocked full of helpful information and most often have well signposted trails so you can design your own walk.
After a morning of exercise and getting back to nature, we headed further south to stock up on supplies in a town called hamilton (that was listed on the map as a big town) but that was in fact a 1 horse, no shop town.. Our map lies.. Eventually a couple of little towns away we managed to find a convenience store with enough things to atleast allow us to eat, and so we headed back away from civilisation towards Mt Field National Park. We arrived just on sunset to a sweet little campsite (our first paid site) on a river with wallabies and paddy melons hopping around everywhere, and lots of little waterfalls to explore.
After a great night's sleep we decided to venture along the road less travelled and headed out further west for day 6 to a town called Strathgordon. We dubbed this section of road “roadkill road” as literally every 100m atleast there was dead wallabies, paddy melons, or bush turkeys that had been killed during the night or in the early morning splashed all over the road – some still faintly alive. Within about 30 mins we would have seen atleast 60 animals on a single stretch of road that we saw only 10 other cars drive down. It really made us sad.
After visiting a local Saturday farmer's market, we decided to head to hobart and the famous Salamanca markets. After parking at the wharf and day-dreaming about boats that we could never afford, we wandered through the markets, admiring beautiful made timber products and lots of local produce, that for the most part, was also, way above our budget. We met up with our friend Annie at the markets and had a delicious Tasmanian Pub lunch as is quite customary, and people-watched. It is easy to see why Hobart is affectionately referred to as “slow-bart.” We really liked the feel for Hobart, but with Annie on days off from work, we decided to take her along for a bit more of a road trip.
From hobart we headed south along the coast road through some of the cutest villages we have seen in Australia with amazing little cottages directly overlooking the beautiful sea below – If only the weather was just a little bit warmer we would have found paradise! We found a nice little seaside free camping ground with toilet AND shower in Gordon and set up camp for the night.
The next day (day 7) we continued our trip south through some more amazingly funky little towns with inviting cafes and yoga classes and organic farms in and around Cygnet and Huonville, before reaching the southern most point of Tassie – ingeniously named “Southport,” and then turning around and heading back to Hobart to drop Annie off.
After saying goodbye to Annie we headed East towards Port Arthur. We wandered around tessellated pavements in awe of mother nature and were stoked to find a free camping place right overlooking them with stunning sunset views!
This part of Tasmania was our favourite. We found the coastal roads to be stunning with farmland meeting clear Turquoise water and the coastline so rugged and yet green and dense.
In the morning of day 8, we went to eaglehawk neck an amazing natural bottle neck that has awesome beach views, checked out the dog-line, marvelled at the devils kitchen and a few other natural formations that just leave you in awe of nature.
To us it was simply beautiful, but to the convicts who were stationed in Port Arthur, the same coastline was enough to take their will away. Eaglehawk Neck at it's narrowest is only 100 m wide. During Port Arthur times, a line was run across it section with ferocious and starved dogs placed every 10 m, along it – called the dog line. If any prisoners came near it the dogs would bark and subsequently let the guards know, and even attack the escapees out of hunger. The only other way was to swim – yet most of the convicts didn’t know how to swim, and even if they did, they were lead to believe that the waters were teeming with sharks. As such, it was the perfect deterrent to would-be escapees from nearby Port Arthur.
For those a little rusty on Australian history – Port Arthur was Australia's largest penal colony from 1833 to 1853. It was the home to criminals from England and Ireland's – some hardened, some soft,, and was profitable as a boat building yard and timber mill. Torture was rife and punishments such as a limited ration of bread and water, whippings, beatings and in extreme cases – silence, where even the guards wore felt on their shoes so the prisoners couldn't even hear footsteps and they were hooded when rarely allowed out of their perpetually dark cells. It is no surprise that a lot of convicts died here, or that those that survived solitary confinement went crazy. Today Port Arthur is a major tourist destination and has been tastefully restored in great detail with a fantastic amount of information available.
After lunch in the mental asylum, and a free tour and cruise, we jumped back in our roadtrip'n van and punched on up to a free campsite near Mayfield.
Tasmania really is so small that you can do a full day's sightseeing and still have time to change campsites before dark!
This camping ground had toilets and was hence, a little more crowded than we were used to and we spent a good 20 min trying to find a nice patch of ground without our view being obstructed by another van.
Day 9 and it was time to head towards Freycinet and Wineglass bay. We were surprised by the amount of people walking the Wineglass bay lookout walk, vying to get up to the lookout first wearing full-on hiking gear with clamps and studded shoes! Thinking it was going to be a hard hike we headed off, however to our surprise it was a simple well marked comfortable hike, and we smashed it to the top in great time overtaking lots of fat sweating tourists gasping for breathe.
Impressed with the views from Wineglass bay (it really was quite pretty) we decided to head further north to the equally famous “Bay of Fires.”
Along the way we picked up two hitchhiking backpackers who were two of the dullest backpackers we have ever met and who barely said a word - which made the trip a little more painful.
After stopping at another microbrewery for another afternoon beverage (free tastings of course), we dropped our antisocial hitchhikers off in town and headed on out and into the national park to try to find somewhere to stay. The bay of fires is apparently called so for 2 reasons, firstly for the red moss that is unique to the area and that covers the rocks, and secondly because sailors reported seeing hundreds of campfires along this stretch of coast most likely lit by the local aboriginal communities. Eager to explore the next day we set up camp in the National park by some red moss covered rocks and awaiting morning to reveal the bays full beauty.
However when we awoke, we were a little disappointed to see that it was, in fact, just a bay of red moss covered rocks. Being so famous we were expecting it to be a bit more magical but alas, to us it wasn't, but maybe we had just seen too much beauty over the last week and were becoming accustomed to it?
A little disgruntled, day 10 saw us heading inland via some more short hikes, more cheese factories and past lots and lots more wineries. It was Rob's turn to “sample” and sample she did. We must have visited 7 wineries? We also stopped off at a Seahorse museum which was pretty cool, and drove through Beaconsfield where 2 miners were trapped underground a few years ago. From there we headed over some of the toughest road we saw in Tassie, pure pot-holed dirt roads with no traffic and lots of trees and random roads (making us hope our map wasn’t going to lie to us again) towards Narawntapu National Park (almost back at Devonport), famous for its Wombats! It didn't take long for us to find some and a simple stroll saw us spotting atleast a dozen!
For those a little rusty on Australian history – Port Arthur was Australia's largest penal colony from 1833 to 1853. It was the home to criminals from England and Ireland's – some hardened, some soft,, and was profitable as a boat building yard and timber mill. Torture was rife and punishments such as a limited ration of bread and water, whippings, beatings and in extreme cases – silence, where even the guards wore felt on their shoes so the prisoners couldn't even hear footsteps and they were hooded when rarely allowed out of their perpetually dark cells. It is no surprise that a lot of convicts died here, or that those that survived solitary confinement went crazy. Today Port Arthur is a major tourist destination and has been tastefully restored in great detail with a fantastic amount of information available.
After lunch in the mental asylum, and a free tour and cruise, we jumped back in our roadtrip'n van and punched on up to a free campsite near Mayfield.
Tasmania really is so small that you can do a full day's sightseeing and still have time to change campsites before dark!
This camping ground had toilets and was hence, a little more crowded than we were used to and we spent a good 20 min trying to find a nice patch of ground without our view being obstructed by another van.
Day 9 and it was time to head towards Freycinet and Wineglass bay. We were surprised by the amount of people walking the Wineglass bay lookout walk, vying to get up to the lookout first wearing full-on hiking gear with clamps and studded shoes! Thinking it was going to be a hard hike we headed off, however to our surprise it was a simple well marked comfortable hike, and we smashed it to the top in great time overtaking lots of fat sweating tourists gasping for breathe.
Impressed with the views from Wineglass bay (it really was quite pretty) we decided to head further north to the equally famous “Bay of Fires.”
Along the way we picked up two hitchhiking backpackers who were two of the dullest backpackers we have ever met and who barely said a word - which made the trip a little more painful.
After stopping at another microbrewery for another afternoon beverage (free tastings of course), we dropped our antisocial hitchhikers off in town and headed on out and into the national park to try to find somewhere to stay. The bay of fires is apparently called so for 2 reasons, firstly for the red moss that is unique to the area and that covers the rocks, and secondly because sailors reported seeing hundreds of campfires along this stretch of coast most likely lit by the local aboriginal communities. Eager to explore the next day we set up camp in the National park by some red moss covered rocks and awaiting morning to reveal the bays full beauty.
However when we awoke, we were a little disappointed to see that it was, in fact, just a bay of red moss covered rocks. Being so famous we were expecting it to be a bit more magical but alas, to us it wasn't, but maybe we had just seen too much beauty over the last week and were becoming accustomed to it?
A little disgruntled, day 10 saw us heading inland via some more short hikes, more cheese factories and past lots and lots more wineries. It was Rob's turn to “sample” and sample she did. We must have visited 7 wineries? We also stopped off at a Seahorse museum which was pretty cool, and drove through Beaconsfield where 2 miners were trapped underground a few years ago. From there we headed over some of the toughest road we saw in Tassie, pure pot-holed dirt roads with no traffic and lots of trees and random roads (making us hope our map wasn’t going to lie to us again) towards Narawntapu National Park (almost back at Devonport), famous for its Wombats! It didn't take long for us to find some and a simple stroll saw us spotting atleast a dozen!
As the sun set we contemplated our next move as we had now completely navigated the entire costal road around Tasmania!
By morning we had a plan and so Day 11 and we were heading towards Launceston. To get there we had to drive through some of the best wineries in Tasmania again though so the morning consisted of Robyn driving and me enjoying some samplings for a change. We found some really nice wines, and some really not nice wines..
As far as Tassie's big cities go, we really didn’t like Devonport, and really did like Hobart but found it a bit too cold for us. Launceston was the perfect mix, situated in the north it was more like Melbourne in terms of weather, but still had the same funky vibe as Hobart. It even has a giant limestone crevasse in the centre of town!
After lunch in Launceston, and some jam and chutney tasting, we headed west again towards Mole Creek National Park with hopes of exploring some of the caves there. We camped in a nice little caravan park right on a little creek and with a nice little campfire to sit around and stare at the stars. Day 12 saw us visiting the caves only to find out that our National Park pass didn’t cover entry to them, and with gates looking a little too pointy to climb, we decided to re-attempt Cradle Mountain instead.
We had already attempted it once but had terrible weather and were hoping it would be better the second time round. When we arrived at the carpark and saw people standing around, huddled together in the sleet, rain and wind and with only about 5 m visibility, we came to the conclusion that if there was a good excuse not to go this was it, so, being far more comfortable in our heated dry van, we quickly changed plans and headed towards the Central Plateau and the Great Lakes instead.
We had noticed that the landscape had changed a lot and there were no longer any large trees, instead replaced by small scrubs, but we hadn’t realised that by the time we had reached the Great Lakes and found somewhere to camp, that we had in fact climbed more than a thousand feet above sea level. It was by far the coldest, most miserable night of our trip.
Day 13 and desperate to thaw out from the night before we packed up early and drove towards Langford where we found a great bakery/cafe with heating and settled in to defrost over breakfast and lunch and to charge our appliances.
Feeling recharged ourselves we continued south through some really cute little towns – we really liked Ross, and decided to free camp by the swan-covered lake in Oatlands. The town was very cute with some very nicely restored pubs and even a shop purely dedicated to lollies!! We decided to splurge and headed to the local RSL for drinks and were stoked to find not 1 but 2 fireplaces inside. It was so cosy that we stayed for dinner as well! The true Tasmanian experience!
After a beautiful sunrise over the lake and feeding and being stalked by some swans and geese we packed up and spent day 14 heading back towards Hobart. We decided to check out the local brewery and winery at MONA (the Museum of Old and New Art) just outside of Hobart. Both the beer and the wine were some of the best we had tasted and we vowed to come back and visit the museum as well, but with the day half over, we jumped back in the van and headed towards Opossum bay, directly opposite from Hobart city – where the Lawyers and Doctors live. I'm not sure how Hobart's rich felt about us free-camping right on their beach but we did anyway and went to sleep with beautiful views yet again.
After cleaning the van and packing, ready to part with it and fly our of Hobart in the afternoon, we drove back towards MONA to attempt the museum – a fitting way to spend our 15th and last day in Tasmania. MONA is privately owned and run by a super rich guy who apparently won his money gambling and decided he wanted to showcase his personal art collection – in the hope of getting others interested in art as well We saw part 1 of his 6 part collection and it was pretty crazy! The museum itself cost a few million dollars to build, not including the winery and microbrewery as well! And to visit it is FREE! When you enter they give you an ipod touch that guides you around the museum and gives you information about what you are looking at. There are no labels on any of the art and there doesn’t really seem to be any particular order either, with old sarcophagus' from Egypt next to extremely modern art. There were some, um, interesting displays to say the least.. But it was an excellent museum and the perfect way to spend our last day.
In total we drove over 3500km, and traversed every single major and not so major road on the Island! We saw a stunning amount of wild life and diversity, and it was easy to imagine what the rest of Australia looked like 50 years ago. The only sad thing was the number of logging trucks you pass in every national park.
Tasmania was beautiful, I think the only thing stopping the rest of australia from moving here is the cold!
By morning we had a plan and so Day 11 and we were heading towards Launceston. To get there we had to drive through some of the best wineries in Tasmania again though so the morning consisted of Robyn driving and me enjoying some samplings for a change. We found some really nice wines, and some really not nice wines..
As far as Tassie's big cities go, we really didn’t like Devonport, and really did like Hobart but found it a bit too cold for us. Launceston was the perfect mix, situated in the north it was more like Melbourne in terms of weather, but still had the same funky vibe as Hobart. It even has a giant limestone crevasse in the centre of town!
After lunch in Launceston, and some jam and chutney tasting, we headed west again towards Mole Creek National Park with hopes of exploring some of the caves there. We camped in a nice little caravan park right on a little creek and with a nice little campfire to sit around and stare at the stars. Day 12 saw us visiting the caves only to find out that our National Park pass didn’t cover entry to them, and with gates looking a little too pointy to climb, we decided to re-attempt Cradle Mountain instead.
We had already attempted it once but had terrible weather and were hoping it would be better the second time round. When we arrived at the carpark and saw people standing around, huddled together in the sleet, rain and wind and with only about 5 m visibility, we came to the conclusion that if there was a good excuse not to go this was it, so, being far more comfortable in our heated dry van, we quickly changed plans and headed towards the Central Plateau and the Great Lakes instead.
We had noticed that the landscape had changed a lot and there were no longer any large trees, instead replaced by small scrubs, but we hadn’t realised that by the time we had reached the Great Lakes and found somewhere to camp, that we had in fact climbed more than a thousand feet above sea level. It was by far the coldest, most miserable night of our trip.
Day 13 and desperate to thaw out from the night before we packed up early and drove towards Langford where we found a great bakery/cafe with heating and settled in to defrost over breakfast and lunch and to charge our appliances.
Feeling recharged ourselves we continued south through some really cute little towns – we really liked Ross, and decided to free camp by the swan-covered lake in Oatlands. The town was very cute with some very nicely restored pubs and even a shop purely dedicated to lollies!! We decided to splurge and headed to the local RSL for drinks and were stoked to find not 1 but 2 fireplaces inside. It was so cosy that we stayed for dinner as well! The true Tasmanian experience!
After a beautiful sunrise over the lake and feeding and being stalked by some swans and geese we packed up and spent day 14 heading back towards Hobart. We decided to check out the local brewery and winery at MONA (the Museum of Old and New Art) just outside of Hobart. Both the beer and the wine were some of the best we had tasted and we vowed to come back and visit the museum as well, but with the day half over, we jumped back in the van and headed towards Opossum bay, directly opposite from Hobart city – where the Lawyers and Doctors live. I'm not sure how Hobart's rich felt about us free-camping right on their beach but we did anyway and went to sleep with beautiful views yet again.
After cleaning the van and packing, ready to part with it and fly our of Hobart in the afternoon, we drove back towards MONA to attempt the museum – a fitting way to spend our 15th and last day in Tasmania. MONA is privately owned and run by a super rich guy who apparently won his money gambling and decided he wanted to showcase his personal art collection – in the hope of getting others interested in art as well We saw part 1 of his 6 part collection and it was pretty crazy! The museum itself cost a few million dollars to build, not including the winery and microbrewery as well! And to visit it is FREE! When you enter they give you an ipod touch that guides you around the museum and gives you information about what you are looking at. There are no labels on any of the art and there doesn’t really seem to be any particular order either, with old sarcophagus' from Egypt next to extremely modern art. There were some, um, interesting displays to say the least.. But it was an excellent museum and the perfect way to spend our last day.
In total we drove over 3500km, and traversed every single major and not so major road on the Island! We saw a stunning amount of wild life and diversity, and it was easy to imagine what the rest of Australia looked like 50 years ago. The only sad thing was the number of logging trucks you pass in every national park.
Tasmania was beautiful, I think the only thing stopping the rest of australia from moving here is the cold!
