Back to the mainland

After our indulgent lunch at Elephant Pass Pancake Barn we drove onto Launceston and spent the afternoon seeing the sights of the Cataract Gorge. We walked around the gorge and across the suspension bridge then took the chair lift back. This wasn’t a value for money tourist attraction so we decided to opt for a council managed free camp for the night rather then another caravan park just to save on some expenses.

View looking back towards Cataract Gorge Pool

Cataract Gorge Suspension Bridge

Bunch of monkeys

One of the many peacocks at Cataract Gorge

One the chair lift looking towards the Gorge

Self portrait on the chair lift

The council managed free camp was only available for camping between the hours of 5pm and 9am. It only had 5 or 6 parking bays that backed onto a lovely, grassed reserve complete with great play ground facilities, BBQs, picnic tables and some toilets housed inside a water tank. It was just perfect for us and we took full use of these facilities and even had a chance to spread out our green mat to dry on the lawn after our wet pack up in the morning. It also came complete with a view over the river and we only shared it with one other camper. Tig did manage to find some locals who where meeting up at the park for Christmas drinks and had a great chat about caravans and travelling.

Only us so far at the Council Managed Free Camp

The next day we ventured up a very long narrow drive, with van attached to a cherry farm to purchase some white and black cherries as well as a pun net of blueberries just for good measure. We decided to opt for only a few then and there and save the rest till later in the day, which we discovered later was a good idea since 3 year old boys and cherries cause quite a mess.

We had promised the kids we would go to Westbury Maze so that was our next destination. The maze is a small, family run operation based on one of the two main roads in Westbury and basically built in the front and side yard. It wasn’t overly expensive like a lot of mazes are and we had an absolute ball. We paid our fees in the café and where given our verbal instructions. The aim being to get to the platform in the center and then find our way back out. Sounded simple but this one had us a little stumped. We got a rude shock when we looked at the entrance to discover it was quite a narrow maze with Tig and Thea’s shoulders often bumping the hedges on either side. We split up in teams and off we went. It took us a little longer then anticipated since being a smallish maze but team Tig, Maddi and Kai made it to the center first and Thea and Ella made it out again first. We then enjoyed a coffee, scones and ice blocks for the kids at the café and watched another family go in. We sat there for quite a while and we never saw the family come out again but could hear their calls to each other while they tried to work it out. Once we had had enough at the maze we drove down to the main street and parked for a ‘lunch in the van’ pit stop before walking to a local photographic gallery. The photos were very beautiful of many Tasmanian places we had visited in the 3 weeks prior but nothing captured us so no bulky purchases were made. It would have been a good opportunity to make a purchase since our good camera died back on Bruny Island so our photos are very substandard since then.

Narrow Entry at Westbury Maze

Onto Devonport we wandered to set up camp at Mersey Bluff Caravan Park. The caravan park had the best view and was basically empty. It also had great facilities and what was even better then all of those things was the excellent public play equipment just down the hill at the surf club. From our vantage point we could watch The Spirit of Tasmania depart each night in anticipation of our own crossing in a few days. We spent our time in Devonport doing some last minute Christmas shopping, getting the car serviced (again) and taking a bike ride along the foreshore. We also picked up some Christmas mail which included a parcel from Tig's parents. His mum had been very busy once more making Christmas dresses for the girls which they gave us a brief fashion parade in.

Yippee for Christmas Mail

Christmas clothes test run

When we come across on the Spirit of Tasmania in our haste to pack up and get down to the car in the morning we hadn’t done a thorough check of the beds and soon after picking up Tig’s sister in Launceston Thea realised that neither her or Tig had packed Maddi’s white teddy bear from her bed. ‘Whitey’ had a lovely 4 week holiday wrapped in brown paper and stuck in a cupboard at The Spirit of Tasmania Devonport office and after some patient waiting while the staff tried to work out who to arrange to open the cupboard he was reunited with Maddi. She tried to tell us that she had wondered were he was but since she did not ask even once where he was we never mentioned his disappearance or the arrangements we had made with the ships staff for his return. ‘Whitey’ was really just another stuff toy Maddi or Ella had insisted needed to come around Australia with us. We even managed to sneak some others back to Sydney in August in Tig’s luggage that they never realised.

On the day before we left Devonport we met up with the Varley family again at our camp for a couple of hours to catch up. The Varley family where leaving Tasmania on the boat before us so after our catch up they set off to find some dinner before boarding. We headed to the supermarket to do our final big shop of our trip, which was to cover Christmas and our 9 night Snowy Mountain holiday. Since the shop took longer then expected we grabbed a BBQ chook and some bread rolls and headed to an observation point to watch the Varley family leave through the river mouth on the Spirit of Tasmania 1. We had arranged with them to be on the side deck so we ate our picnic dinner and tried to spot them on board.

Picnic dinner while waiting for Spirit of Tasmania 1

It's coming!

Here it is!

Once we had waved farewell to the ship we headed back to the van to pack up everything outside, tire the kids bikes back on the roof rack, unpack the shopping and put the awning down. It was all in anticipation of our early start the following morning. We had to leave camp by 7am to be at the boat for a 7.30am check in and 9am departure.

The bridge is going up.

The little Devonport commuter ferry we took on our bike ride

The observation platform and Mersey Bluff Caravan Park in the background

Having sailed over night to Tasmania we thought it would be good to sail during the day. We were on the first day sailing for the busy Christmas season, which was pleasantly not crowded and no bikies this time. 

We had a 4 birth cabin which provided a base to leave all our gear as we explored the boat. There was kids entertainment with badge making and face painting and at 4pm photos of the face painted faces was made into badges as keep sakes. We also had the advantage of seeing the other Spirit of Tasmania pass as it returned to Devonport. Something not many people see on the night crossing as the two ships pass each other around 1am.

Face painting for the girls

Maddi watching the Spirit of Tasmania pass by

Once arriving at Port Melbourne at 6pm we were lucky to be one of the first unloaded and navigated our way quickly out of Melbourne heading South East towards Lakes Entrance. We drove as far as we could with the knowledge that we weren’t going to make it the whole way but wanting to cover as much distance as possible so our Christmas Eve drive was as small as possible.

Waiting for the doors to be opened

Kai fast asleep before we even got out of the Melbourne streets

Next up we will share what we got up to for Christmas.

Tig and Thea