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