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

East Coast Tasmania

Heading East from Hobart we made our way down the Tasman Peninsula. First stop was the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park at Taranna to see a bird show and some baby Tassie Devils, they were so cute although they easily chewed through 10mm think bones for their lunch. Maddi volunteered to have a falcon fly between her legs, very brave. After lunch we continued on to find our camping spot at Fortesque Bay in the Tasman National Park. Around the first corner on the narrow dirt road we met a huge logging truck, which somehow made it passed us as we dived into the scrub as much as we could, van and all, to avoid being squashed. A little further along was another one, we were prepared but still dived off the road just in time. We were very wary for the rest of the trip and had a hard time trying to select a campsite that was big enough, flat enough and out of the smoke drift from another camping group. We weren't overly impressed with the area as the walking tracks were closed and without a boat there wasn't a great deal to do except a load or two of washing. However, we did meet the Varley family (Mark, Michelle, Jack, Tom, Sam and Lily) there who had travelled from Perth and hadn't met many kids along the way. We shared a campfire both nights and Thea experimented by making a coconut and raspberry damper in the camp oven that turned out very well and disappeared in no time.

Three baby devils with mum at the back

Fortesque Bay Camp

Kai, Tom, Lily, Ella, Maddi, Jack and Sam at pancake breakfast

A friendly echidna around camp

While staying at Fortesque Bay we day tripped to Port Arthur Convict Ruins. Thea was a little unsure if she wished to visit this site due to the Port Arthur Massacre and her past visit when she had found the place quite eerie and depressing. This time however the sun was shining, their was no obvious memorial for the massacre that we saw and we had a great day exploring all the different buildings, surrounding grounds and even taking a boat ride to get a view of the islands which are part of the site from the water. Once again we bumped into the Varley family a few times and all up we found Port Arthur to be good value for money and not as expensive as some other attractions. Our ticket gave us excess to the site for the following day as well, which we decided not to take up as by this time the kids and ourselves where all Port Arthured out.

Port Arthur from the water

Looking down on the main building

Looking up the hill towards the officers quarters

Port Arthur Chapel

Kai taking in the view from the Commandants residence

Before leaving Fortesque Bay we gained some tourist sites knowledge from Michelle while Maddi joined Tom and Sam for some fishing at the jetty. Tom appeared after about a half hour with a fish dangling off his line and spinning another line that they had caught a shark too. Of course this got our attention and we all proceeded down to the jetty to find a hive of activity. Some local fishermen where unloading their catch from the nets at the jetty and we managed to score ourselves some free Tasmanian Salmon.  Apparently, the fishermen could only get about $1.50 per kilo for it as it is only good for bait since there is too much supply. They were targeting Trevally, which they had a few containers of and can get $8 per kilo. The fishermen where very kind and gave Tig a lesson is scaling, gutting and filleting and also removed the heads for us. Since dinner had already been prepared and was slowly cooking in our trusty thermal cooker the fish waited till the next night when we enjoyed some pan fried fillets and some baked whole fish with tomato, onion and lemon as per the fishermen’s instructions.

The jetty at Fortesque Bay

Tig, Ella and Michelle having a filleting lesson

Our fish before a sea water wash

Tig our now expert descaler

After our fishing adventure we finally left camp (our latest yet) at 2pm and made our way to the small town of Campania just north of the historical town of Richmond for the night. We stayed in a nice rest area at the local park. There was another traveling couple there and 4 French back packers who were waiting for the start of the cherry-picking season. They had two cars and had taken over the picnic table with every possession they had laid out, which was hastily pack away with a light shower of rain over night. We did stop off at a few local tourist attractions, Tasman Blowhole, Tasman Arch and a drive through the small town of Doo Town on our way.

Tasman Arch

Tasman Blowhole

East coast of Tasman Peninsula

The following day we went to investigate Richmond which has the oldest bridge in Australia, built in 1823. The township is made up of many historic buildings, which house gift shops, a bakery and a lolly shop of course. After lunch at the bakery and a very slow process of $1 worth of lollies per child at the lolly shop we wandered back towards the car crossing the historic bridge. Just as we where about the cross the bridge Thea spied a familiar car and campervan driving across. It was the Varley family again whom we had left the day before at Fortesque Bay. After a catch up and some lolly eating we crossed the bridge to return to the car and van but not before arranging to meet up with the Varley family in Devonport the following week.

Richmond Bridge - Australia's oldest bridge

Tig, Kai and Tom

Maddi, Lily and Ella

The afternoons driving took us to Coles Bay and the local caravan park. After setting up on our second smallest site ever we cooked our free fish, bought a few chips from the local shop and enjoyed our feast. We ate well which was needed as the next day we took the kids for a little walk in Freycinet National Park. Tig first completed an early ride to Cape Tourville, before a family walk to the famous Wine Glass Bay lookout. It was getting rather warm but we decide after consultation with the kids to venture down to the beach, another 1.5km of steps down (which we impressed on the kids also meant a steep climb back up). We ate our lunch on the beach and played at the waters edge before walking back up. The kids did a fantastic job and Kai didn't complain once. He got lots of thumbs up from the Asian tourists walking down who thought he was very clever walking such a challenging walk back up. Maddi didn't think it was fair that they were all interested in Kai giving him thumbs up when it was a tough walk for a seven year old too. After our 6km return walk we drove around to Cape Tourville to wander the boardwalk, enjoy the view and visit another lighthouse.

Examining our walk

Kids thought this was like Pearlie's Shell in 'Pearlie the Park Fairy' 

Kids at little out of buff at the top of the climb

Wine Glass Bay

Refuelling at the lookout

Lunch time at Wine Glass Bay

Girls risk getting wet

Tourville Boardwalk

Looking back at Wine Glass Bay from Tourville

Kai and his jelly snake

The following day we moved onto a free camp on the lower section of Bay of Fires near St Helens. We had a glorious beachfront spot, which provided us with plenty of breeze and the next day with lots of rain. With the weather closing in we decided to leave the van and go exploring further inland. We took some good forest trails through the nearby state forests and found a lovely little picnic spot for lunch at Halls Falls before moving on to St Columba to see the waterfall. We then decided to take some more Tasmanian C class roads which we would call more like E or even F class as often they were just a single lane dirt track winding through the mountain sides with few pull off areas for passing vehicles. We were thankful we didn't have the van attached on our days explore. As we navigated our way back to the van we kept our eyes out for a playground for the kids and some afternoon tea. We finally found one at Legerwood where the kids let off some steam before we noticed a very interesting sight just down the road. Legerwood has nine big tree stumps carved into remembrance pieces for seven soldiers who fought and died from the area in World War I. The nine trees were originally planted in 1918 but in 2001 they were deemed unsafe and were required to be cut down. The towns folk were distraught that their Memorial Avenue would be destroyed so they hired Eddie Freeman to chainsaw each stump into a likeness of the men for which each tree was planted. After our park and memorial visit it was a long windy drive back to the van. That night we had a huge storm that continued all morning, which meant we had fun packing up the awning and hooking up the van in the pouring rain. The kids got to hide out in the van till the last minute before running to the car where the adults had to make a change of shorts before we could get in. Thankfully our rain jackets kept our heads and top halves dry even when we had water running down our arms when folding up the awning. 

Bay of Fires on our first afternoon

Picking our way through the thousands of blue bottles

Kai dune surfing

St Columba Waterfall

Legerwood Anzac Tree

Chainsaw sculpt tree stumps

This guy worked at the railway station before enlisting

Once we were all loaded in the car and dry we headed south back through St Helens to St Mary's and onto Elephant Pass Pancake Barn for lunch. Apparently these pancakes are on the ‘Top things to do in Tassie’ list and they certainly didn't let us down. While the parents tasted some beautiful savory pancakes the kids stuck to something they knew, lemon and sugar but got a bonus as it came with a scoop of ice cream. Tig couldn't resist the temptation of a sweet pancake for dessert and ordered a rocky road pancake, which Thea helped him finish. It was yummy. 

Ella polishing off her pancake

Kai - so like his father and sister Ella

Next up we will tell you about our trip through Launceston, Devonport and back to the mainland.

Tig and Thea