Day One - Scarborough - Moree 22 January, 2022
Our first big interstate trip - YAY!
Because this trip was going to be our longest yet, we picked up Matariki from storage 3 days prior to leaving, on the Wednesday, to make sure we had plenty of time to get loaded up and to check supplies already in Matariki before our Saturday departure.
We spent the next couple of days stocking up the fridge and cupboards with food and clothing, and also filled up with diesel and drinking water.
The plan to get to Tassie was to leave on Saturday, 22nd January, and take about three days to drive down to Melbourne, where we were booked on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry for a night crossing of Bass Strait on Tuesday 25th (our 2nd wedding anniversary), leaving at 9 P.M. and arriving in Devonport, Tasmania about 7 A.M. on my birthday, January 26th.
As usual on the first morning of a trip, we were awake early, all coffeed up, abluted and on the road by 7:30 A.M., with a rough plan to stop somewhere around Goondiwindi, and to find a free camp for the night somewhere around Moree.
The initial part of the drive out west was uneventful, via the Gateway, Airport Link and Legacy Way tunnels to the Warrego highway, heading for the Toowoomba Bypass. Had a bit of a whoopsy at some point when Meg noticed we were actually on the Cunningham Highway heading for Warwick, which required a detour to get back on track.
We had a quick morning tea stop at a truck stop midway through the morning, then stopped beside the Macintyre River in Goondiwindi for lunch.
While lunching I checked out possible overnight free campsites and found one beside the Tareelaroi Weir, about 20 km out of Moree, which WikiCamps had indicated was a campground.
With lunch over, we drove the 120 km or so to Moree, then turned off to the weir. Turns out the last 5 km was badly corrugated gravel and the weir itself was gated and locked, but there was an area under some trees that was suitable for our overnight camp.
Even though it was quite hot, about 30 C, we were good and had a cuppa first before hitting the adult drinks.
Meg went for a walk to check out some people nearby making noise, because she thought they may drive by our site later in the day/night and disturb us. Thankfully they couldn’t get their boat or vehicles past our camp.
By this time it was about 4 P.M., so we chilled for the rest of the afternoon, blogging and catching up on socials.
Dinner was massaman and rice, washed down with a wine or two.
We were pretty tuckered out after our first day on the road so had an early night.
Day Two - Moree - Forbes, NSW 23 January, 2022
Day two of our adventure dawned a little cooler than we’ve been used to lately, about 17 C, which allowed us to sleep in a bit, after a fitful night’s sleep.
After hot drinks and brekky we packed up and left our camp about 8:30 A.M, planning to drive to Forbes where Meg had sussed out another good-looking free camping spot, beside the man made Forbes Lake in Wheogo Park.
First stop was Narrabri for fuel, about 100 km from Moree, and a quick morning tea stop.
I suggested to Meg we stop at Pilliga Pottery for lunch, which we agreed to do. It’s a beautiful place that we’d lunched at in the past. Meg had a Bratwurst sausage and I had the Frankfurter sausage, both served with German-style potatoes and sauerkraut, washed down with wine and beer. The road into Pilliga, which was 10km off the highway, was very rough and corrugated, and we may have changed our minds if we’d known how long that stretch would take us. It was well worth the effort though, being such a beautiful place. I was pleased we were driving so slowly because about halfway in an emu ran across the road in front of us.
The rest of the day’s drive, about 300 km, was via Coonabarabran, Parkes and various small towns to Forbes, with a brief toilet stop in Parkes and a detour to get a photo of the Parkes telescope that starred in the movie The Dish.
Our final stop for the day was the camping area at Wheogo Park, beside the Forbes Lake.
We arrived at the camp about 5:00 P.M., right on beer o’clock, so we got busy setting up for the night and getting the tops off a couple of bottles.
Dinner was Thai pumpkin soup that we’d bought with us.
We stayed up a bit later, because it was daylight a lot later than we are used to in Queensland, and because it was such a beautiful night.
Day Three Forbes - Tocumwal, NSW 24 January, 2022
We were woken before 7 A.M. this morning by the noisy Galahs in the trees we’d parked under, and also the garbage truck noisily emptying bins.
While we were having our morning cuppas we were entertained by a flock of white-headed babbler birds looking for food around our camp.
After the morning routine we packed up and made use of the campground dump point and fresh water facilities, before heading back out to the A39 Newell Highway, which we’d been travelling on since Queensland.
We drove about 100 km to West Wyalong to stock up on comestibles at a handy IGA that contained a booze shop - great idea! It was still too early for morning tea so we drove a little further to a rest stop on the highway to boil the kettle for a cuppa and to scoff the ginger kisses we’d bought at the IGA.
There was some discussion about where a suitable lunch stop would be and we finally decided on Jerilderie, a town whose claim to fame was being raped and pillaged by Ned Kelly in 1879, which was another 250 km along the highway. We had pies for lunch at the Jerilderie Bakery because there didn’t seem to be much else on offer at 1:30 in the afternoon on a Monday.
After lunch we popped into the Visitor Information Centre to grab a map of locations around Jerilderie where Ned Kelly had done his dirty deeds.
We walked around the first few sites on the map, reading information boards about the events in those places, until we got too hot to carry on, and because we’d forgotten to take hats with us.
Meg offered to drive the last stretch to our camp for the night, which we hadn’t decided on at that point. I was tasked with finding a camp over the Victorian border. The first attempt at this didn’t go so well. I chose a free camp on the banks of the Murray River called Brentnall’s Beach, which was only about 60 km away. I plugged that destination into the GPS and hit go.
Unfortunately the GPS doesn’t always get it right and it took us over the wrong side of the river to where we wanted to be. So, it was back along the road for a couple of kilometres, then into Tocumwal, passing through while I checked out how to get to our destination manually.
The second attempt went better, despite the very rough track from the sealed B road into a free campsite beside the Murray River at Koonoomoo, just short of Brentnall’s Beach.
We were surprised when we got in near our campsite as we passed other campers, some with large caravans and horse floats, because the track in was so rough that we engaged 4WD.
We got set up for the night and ripped the tops off a couple of bottles to wind down for the day.
It was a beautiful spot, literally about 5 metres from the river, apart from the noisy jetskiers.
Dinner was spag bol we’d taken from home.
We sat outside until dark enjoying the serenity.
Day Four Tocumwal - Port of Melbourne, VIC 25 January, 2022
Today, for a change, we were woken by hundreds of noisy Corellas that were hanging out on the other side of the river.
We had a fairly simple mission for the day - drive about 250 km to Port of Melbourne by 7:00 P.M. when boarding started for the Spirit of Tasmania, the ferry that would take us across Bass Strait to Devonport, Tasmania.
After the usual morning routine, and packing up, we got on the road about 9:00 A.M. We had all day and drove slowly to kill some time, stopping occasionally to let trucks and other cars pass us. After a few kilometres the GPS took us off the highway onto an alternative road - we weren’t sure why but thought what the hell, we’ve got plenty of time. Turns out that road was actually in better condition than the highway and took us through some small towns we wouldn’t have otherwise seen.
After stopping for a short morning tea break on the side of the road we carried on driving directly to Port Phillip Bay beach on the waterfront, adjacent to where we’d be boarding the ferry later in the day. It was around 1 P.M. by this time so the first order of business was finding somewhere for lunch. Just along the road we found a nice place called the Port Melbourne Local, where we had a couple of drinks, and we both had Caesar Salad for lunch.
We then walked the short distance back to Matariki, donned our swimmers and went for a refreshing swim to cool ourselves down on this 33 C day.
With nothing else to do other than wait for boarding the ferry later in the day, we parked as close to the boarding as we could get, got our chairs and sat under the shade of a palm tree to kill some time catching up on blogging and socials.
There was a pier across the road from where we were waiting, that had some nice looking restaurants that we decided to check out for dinner, so that we wouldn’t have to worry about food later on the ferry. We settled on Generation Restaurant & Bar, which had a nice covered outdoor area looking out onto the water. Because we’d had a good lunch we decided on a couple of entrees, bruschetta for me and a nice squid dish with coleslaw and chipotle sauce for Meg, with the usual obligatory couple of drinks to wash it down.
Not long after we got back to the motorhome around 6 P.M, people who were also waiting for the ferry started heading to the check-in point, so we played sheep and tagged along. That was the start of a very long two-hour wait until we actually made it on to the ferry. After doing an initial bio-security check-in and the actual check in to receive our cabin access cards, we drove to an undercover area where we sat waiting in the motorhome, in stifling heat, for about an hour and a half before getting the signal to board.
Once we were parked up it was upstairs to our cabin, which was a basic room with two single beds and toilet and shower. A shower was much appreciated after sitting in the heat for two hours, then we went for a drink in one of the bars before going to the information booth to find as much info as possible to help us along our way for the next four weeks.
We took all the brochures back to the cabin to study for a while before turning in close to 11 P.M,, which was very late for us. Despite the late time going to bed neither of us slept very well, even though it was a relatively smooth crossing.
Day Five Port of Melbourne, VIC - Low Head, TAS 26 January, 2022
We were mostly awake when the announcement was made at 5:15 A.M. that we should prepare to leave the ferry at 7:00 A.M.
After a quick shower we went to one of the cafes on our deck (level 7) for coffee and croissants for breakfast.
It wasn’t long after that the ferry docked and the level Matariki was parked on (level 5) was called first for disembarkation, which meant we were thankfully first off and didn’t have to wait for hours.
Meg had chosen Beauty Point as our first stop in Tasmania, where there was a Seahorse World that we wanted to visit, and another experience adjacent that showcased echidnas and platypus, Platypus House.
We had decided to use back roads as much as possible on this trip, and avoid highways, to see the real Tasmania, which is what we set out to do to get to Beauty Point.
The first part of the back road plan went reasonably well, with a short drive on a highway, then onto some B and C roads, one of which was the C701. However, this road, that took us over a mountain, was 20 km of rough, corrugated gravel road, which was bad enough for us to engage 4WD. After a few kilometres of that we were starting to rethink the back road plan but persevered. The only highlight of the part of the journey was having a Spotted-Tailed Quoll cross the road in front of us. Back on the sealed roads we drove past Port Sorrel and York Town to Beauty Point.
We chose to do the Seahorse World experience first, which turned out to be a very informative guided tour around their facility, that included visitors being allowed to handle some of the seahorses.
Once we’d learnt all there was to know about seahorses we headed over to Platypus House. By then it was 10:30 A.M. but unfortunately the next tour they had available was midday, so we decided to skip that and carry on with the rest of our day, with the next stop being Beaconsfield to visit the mine heritage centre and to do some grocery shopping.
Back on the road, we drove to the Beaconsfield dump point to empty the toilet cassette, and searched for a fresh water tap noted on WikiCamps but failed to find it.
Next up we parked in the Beaconsfield main street and headed into the IGA do some grocery shopping, before stashing our purchases in the motorhome.
Just around the corner from the IGA was the Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Centre, which was our next stop for the day. We paid the $23.00 entry fee and did a fairly quick self-guided tour around the mine buildings and museum, as it was getting close to lunchtime.
Once back in Mata Meg searched for a suitable lunch venue, preferably one of the many local wineries.
She settled on the Moores Hill Winery, which was only a ten-minute drive from where we were.
We had a beautiful birthday/wedding anniversary lunch that included wine tasting and an amazing charcuterie platter, washed down with more wine.
After reluctantly leaving the winery we drove to Georgetown for a quick booze stop, then started looking for a place to camp for the night. We’d decided to stay in a campground for the night so we could do some laundry.
We drove out to Low Head over the Batman Bridge, passing the first campground we may stay at to take a look at another option before deciding on where to stay the night.
Further along the road we stopped to look at the Low Head Pilot Station Maritime Museum, which was very impressive with thirteen separate rooms that included historical items and information dating back as far as 1807.
After leaving the museum we went looking for the second elusive campground, but never found it, so we went back to Low Head Tourist Park, set up for the night, did the laundry, then caught up with blog and socials. It was quite windy, but not too cold at that point so we sat outside for as long as possible and helped a lady from Aspley in the site next to us who was having issues pitching a small tent.
I phoned Mum & Dad to check up on how they were going with their latest issues, and they were reasonably well apart from one of Dad’s injuries that wouldn’t stop bleeding.
Dinner was Butter Chicken that we’d taken from home, then spent the rest of the evening planning the next couple of days adventures.
Day Six Low Head - Seatons Cove 27 January, 2022
I must have found the right combination of adventures, food and wine yesterday because I slept like a baby for a change.
The day dawned overcast and cool, which soon turned to rain, which soon turned into a thunderstorm, which then turned into steady rain.
I wanted to catch up on my blog, so we had brekky then hung around in Mata until we had to leave the campground at 10:00 A.M.
We had a few loose plans for the day, but the weather had other ideas about what we would do.
As we left the campground we were driving through torrential rain, lightning and thunder.
We drove back through George Town, then toward Pipers River heading for Lilydale Falls, which was to be our first stop for the day. Because we’d had a late start to the day we stopped after a short time for morning tea in the Underwood bush recreation area car park.
We then drove on back roads, that were quite rough, to Turners Marsh then towards Lilydale, where we stopped briefly to take some photos of their claim to fame, painted power poles.
It was still raining so we decided to skip the falls and carry on our planned route to the Bridestowe Lavender Farm. It was still raining, and it was past lavender flowering season, so we went into the gift shop and bought a couple of gifts to give to our helpers back home looking after our unit.
By then it was lunchtime so we drove through Scottsdale and had a lunch stop at a recreation area outside Scottsdale, which was a nice salad and wine, chez nous because it was still raining.
Our next destination was St Helens, to do a booze run, which took us through Legerwood where there are some amazing carved wooden soldiers that are carved out of trees that were planted in 1918 to commemorate fallen soldiers in the First World War.
After Ledgerwood we travelled on some radical roads through the Mount Victoria Forest Reserve. On the drive up the mountain roads were reasonable enough to allow us to do 40 - 50 kmh, although the road was very narrow so we were pleased we didn’t meet any logging trucks travelling in the other direction.But it was a different story on the way down, as the road was very rough and corrugated, enough so that we went into 4WD. It was a very slow journey down to the bottom, meeting only one logging truck that thankfully was at a place where we could pull over on the side of the road to let it pass.
The reward for that rough drive was the next stop, which was the Pyengana Dairy Company where we had a beautiful cheese tasting platter. All the cheeses were excellent and we had enough to take half home with us despite it only costing $15 for the platter.
Back along the road a few hundred metres we had passed a place called Pub in the Paddock, so we drove back there just to get a couple of photos before carrying on to St Helens.
It was getting quite late by this time (for us oldies) so it was time to find a camp for the night. We drove to St Helens for a booze top up, and then headed north to find a free camp further up the coast, which we found at Seatons Cove.
After setting up for the night we chilled until dinner time, which was Q Sauce and pasta.
It was a very pleasant evening so we sat outside until dark before retiring for the night.
Day Seven Seatons Cove - Coles Bay 28 January, 2022
Today dawned warm and sunny but that didn’t stop us from having a sleep in.
We’d planned an easy day, only having to drive around 100 km, so we took our time with the morning routine and I spent some time catching up on our blog, and we didn’t leave the campsite until 10:00 A.M.
The first part of the day’s journey was driving back through St Helens, where we looked for a source of fresh water, but didn’t find one, then onto Bicheno where we wanted to stop for a seafood lunch.
We skipped the touristy instagram photo opportunities that we’d planned to check out and didn’t stop until we got to the Bicheno Blowhole, which we had to walk over rocks to get to. The blowhole was impressive and we poked around the rocks for a while killing time until lunchtime.
We’d had a recommendation that we should try the lobster burgers for lunch, so that’s what we did at the Lobster Shack. The lobster burger was ok, but neither of us thought it was anything special, although the location was amazing with the beautiful view, the sea, a shady seat and thousands of seabirds sitting on rocks across a small channel making a huge racket.
On the road into the Lobster Shack we noticed a dump point, so we stopped there after lunch to empty the toilet cassette and grey water before continuing on the road to Coles Bay, in the Freycinet National Park. Unfortunately, just as I’d started doing that down came the rain again! I donned a jacket and carried on regardless. Of course, by the time I’d finished, the rain had stopped.
Had a quick pit stop for Meg to buy some new thongs because she’d had a blowout on her current thongs a few days previously and they were getting to the dangerous stage. While we were stopped we decided we’d prefer to have a guaranteed camp for the night so Meg booked a site at the Coles Bay Iluka on Freycinet Holiday Park for a night.
When we arrived in Coles Bay it was too early to check in to the campground, so we drove through to the National Parks Information Centre that was through the other side of Coles Bay to pick up some brochures on local walks. After we found a brochure we did a short ten minute walk out to Great Oyster Bay, where we put our toes in the sea, but it was so cold no other parts of our bodies were going to be exposed to that!
The brochure we picked up there showed a twenty minute walk up at the Cape Tourville Lighthouse, which was a 20min drive, so we decided to do that before returning to Coles Bay for the night. The walk around the lighthouse was mostly on a very well constructed boardwalk so it was an easy walk with amazing views of the entrance to Wineglass Bay and surrounding bays.
On the way back down we stopped briefly at Sleepy Bay to get some snaps of the orange lichen coloured rocks, which are the same rocks that the Bay of Fires rocks are named after.
Having exhausted all other possibilities we drove to the campground, filling up with 111 litres of diesel at the pumps outside the camp at a cost of $203 - ouch!
As we were driving to our campsite after checking in, the rain, thunder and lightning started again, so we got in the back as quickly as possible and set up what we could from inside Mata.
We made use of the camp facilities and enjoyed a long hot shower, then wound down for the rest of the afternoon, catching up on the blog and socials.
Dinner was an entree of the leftover cheese from the day before and a salad of our leftover salad vegetables.
Day Eight Coles Bay - Triabunna 29 January, 2022
Had another great sleep last night - Mata is so warm and comfortable and with the lower temp’s we’re finding it easier to sleep, and to sleep in.
Our plan today was to get up early (FAIL!) and after our morning routine and packing up, do one of the many walks in the Freycinet National Park, to the Wineglass Bay Lookout. After that we planned to drive through Swansea to Triabunna, with a couple of stops along the way.
We set out from the Coles Bay campground around 9:00 A.M to drive back into the National Park where we’d been the day before, but further along the road to the Wineglass Bay Lookout car park.
The car parks were already quite full even at that time of the day, so we were dreading having to cope with loads of people on the walk, but it turned out that it wasn’t as bad as we’d feared.
After parking up and sorting the backpack we set out up Mount Mayson to the lookout.
The first part of the walk was a gentle climb, which sucked us into thinking it was going to be like that all the way, and thankfully nobody else was around us at that point. Because it was quiet we were lucky enough to see a couple of wallabies, an adult and juvenile, on the track in front of us.
The views back across Coles Bay and Great Oyster Bay were amazing.
We carried on climbing fairly slowly to conserve energy, because this was our first walk for nearly ten days. There were some interesting rocks along the way, like this one, and some Easter Island-like rocks at the top of the mountain.
Quite a few groups of people came up behind us, so we stopped for each of them and let them pass so we could continue at our own pace.
Further up towards the top of the mountain the track became a lot steeper and it was steps rather than a path.
After about 45 minutes climbing, and over 200 metres in elevation, we arrived at the lookout, which had amazing views of Wineglass Bay.
We rested up for a while, had a snack and started the descent back down to the carpark, which took about another 45 minutes.
On the road again, with the next part of the journey taking us to the south side of Swansea where there was a berry farm that sounded good for a pre-lunch snack.
We arrived at Kate’s Berry Farm just before lunch (wrong I know, but we had the sweets first before lunch!) and ordered the scones with jam and cream with a pot of tea each. Very civilised!
It was time to press on again, this time heading a little further south to the Spiky Bridge.
The bridge was built by convicts in 1843 and the reason for the spikes has been lost in the annals of time. The best guess was that it was a quirk of the designer of the bridge.
We’d planned lunch to be finishing off the leftover salad from the day before, and the cheese from the day before that, so we had that while sitting in the Spiky Bridge car park.
Once fed and watered it was back on the road again to travel to our stop for the night, Triabunna, which is where the Maria Island Cruise leaves from that we would be doing the next day.
Our free camp for the night was in a large grassy area behind the Spring Bay Hotel, with quite a few other campers already there when we arrived.
It was only about 2:00 P.M. by this time, so after setting up, and donning some warmer clothes, we went for a short walk to the marina to check out our surroundings and see where the cruise would leave from the next day. Although the temperature was around 20 C, a cool wind was blowing enough to make us feel the cold.
Spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on bits and pieces, having showers and chilling (literally!).
Dinner was French Chicken that we’d brought with us from home, with some fresh veg we’d bought a few days ago that needed to be consumed before it went off.
Watched some ABC TV on the tablet before bed, as there was no reception on our TV.
Day Nine Triabunna - Maria Island 30 January, 2022
For the start of the day’s adventure to Maria Island, we had to be at the tour company’s offices, about a 200 metre walk from where we were parked, before 9:00 A.M., so there was no real need to get up early or rush our morning routine.
The morning was overcast when we got up, with very low cloud around the surrounding hills, and very light drizzle was falling. This didn’t look very promising seeing we’d be on a boat most of the day cruising around an island.
We got to the tour company office before the appointed time, checked in, then walked to the boat a few hundred metres away at the port, adjacent to the hotel we were staying behind.
There were about 25 other people going on the tour and we boarded straight away. After the obligatory introduction and safety messages we cruised out of Triabunna Bay towards Maria Island. The water was relatively calm and there was very little wind, which we were pleased about, not being sure if we’d get seasick or not.
Mike, the tour guide and captain entertained us with information about Maria Island and surrounding areas on the 30-minute journey across the bay to Darlington. We stopped on the boat at the port of Darlington while Mike told us about the building we could see and some of the history of that area.
We then began the clockwise circumnavigation of the island that would take us initially to the Riedle Bay isthmus for a lunch stop. Along the way Mike explained some of the amazing geological features of the island, including lichen-covered rocks and various formations of layered rock that had been created over millions of years.
Some of highlights of this section of the tour were seeing wedge-tailed eagles and white-bellied sea eagles, and taking the boat into a cave with brightly coloured lichen on the tide lines, kelp hanging off the walls of the cave around the tide line and unique rock formations on the roof of the cave.
Motoring from the cave towards the lunch stop there were many examples of how the island had been formed over millions of years clearly displayed in the rock strata.
We stopped for lunch, which was pre-ordered smoked salmon salad and wine, just off the shore of Riedle Bay. Up until that point we’d been sitting inside, and decided to take our wine and check out the outside top level of the boat to get some sunshine and warm up a bit. While up there we were treated to a visit by a number of large stingrays swimming around the boat.
Once lunch was done we carried on with the circumnavigation back towards Darlington, stopping several times to see some more beautiful rock formations like the Painted Cliffs.
We were also lucky enough to see two groups of seals basking on the rocks we passed.
We eventually arrived back in Darlington where we disembarked the boat and where we had a couple of hours to either join a guided tour with Steve, or to explore ourselves. We chose to go with the local knowledge Steve offered.
Maria Island had gone through many changes in its history, since European occupation, including starting off as a whaling station, becoming a convict settlement, sending the convicts back to the mainland, being leased and largely run by an Italian immigrant and later becoming one of the largest producers of concrete in that part of the world.
During the walking tour we had the chance to look through restored buildings that are now used to display historical information and artefacts. We were also lucky enough to see several wombats cruising around with heads down eating grass.
Along with the wombats we crossed paths with many Cape Barren Geese and Tasmanian Native Hens.
On the walk back to the wharf, Steve took us over a hill where trains used to run supporting the concrete industry, to show us some fossilised sea shells in limestone rocks.
The sun had been out for some time by this point, which made the views from the hill back across the bay picture perfect.
We made it back to the wharf by 4:00 P.M. and boarded the boat for the return journey to Triabunna, arriving about 4:30 P.M.
We both agreed that the day was a truly amazing experience.
Once back at Mata we had a well-deserved drink and caught up with chores.
Our plan for the evening meal was to eat at the pub we were parked behind, rather than having to prepare a meal for ourselves after a long day out.
Alas, as with all plans, they are subject to go awry, as this plan did. When we went to have our dinner at the pub it was closed! What self-respecting pub in a port town is closed on a Sunday evening?
Luckily, right next door to the pub, was the Fish Van, a fish and chip shop that isn’t actually a van but an actual building. The Fish Van was doing a thriving trade so we ordered the fisherman’s basket and took it back to Mata to eat.
After dinner we caught up on blogging and socials and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Day Ten Triabunna - Taranna 31 January, 2022
The day started off quite cool, well for us anyway at 16 C, but at least the sun was shining brightly.
The plan for the day was a simple one, which was to drive the short distance to Taranna where we had a campsite booked for the night. This was the closest campsite we could find, about a 10 km drive to Port Arthur, where we were going on the following day. The drive would take us to a few local tourist sites that were all located close together on the Tasman Peninsula.
We set out from Triabunna around 8:00 P.M. and the first stop was a dump point to empty the toilet cassette and grey water, before returning to the fresh water tap we’d used on the way into Triabunna, which was adjacent to the cemetery, to fill up the fresh water tank.
We started driving via Dunalley, which is the gateway to the Tasman Peninsula, to the first lookout at Pirates Bay, but we passed a turn off on the way to 3 Thumbs State Reserve Lookout, which was only 2 km up a hill so we decided to check that out first. We had impressive views across the bay to Maria Island through the beautiful bush.
Then it was back on track and we drove to the Pirate Bay Lookout, where we had a quick morning tea stop.
Once again the views were amazing across Pirate Bay.
Our next stop was a short drive to the Tessellated Pavement, which is actually a natural phenomenon, despite it looking man made.
There was an easy track down to the pavement that allowed us to walk on it right up to the water’s edge.
Next up was another short drive to the Pirates Bay Blowhole, which wasn’t actually very impressive because it must have been close to low tide.
What was more impressive was the next two tourist sites, Tasman Arch and Devils Kitchen, which apparently are related to the Pirate Bay Blowhole geologically.
The Tasman Arch was once a sea cave and at some point most of the roof had collapsed, leaving an open cavern where the roof had once been, and the arch.
Even more impressive we thought was the Devils Kitchen, where a similar event had occurred to the Tasman Arch, but on a much grander scale, albeit not with an arch.
The last stop we had planned for the day was at Unzoo to see some Tasmanian Devils. By this time it was lunchtime so we parked up in the Unzoo car park and had chicken sandwiches sitting in Mata.
After lunch we went into Unzoo and forked over the $40 or so dollars each for entry and went into the park and tagged onto a guided tour with a couple of other families.
On the first part of the tour Meg fed kangaroos before we walked by ourselves around some of the other areas of the park, not seeing much interesting, before returning to the Tasmanian Devil area for a presentation by a park guide on Tassie Devils.
We learnt a lot about them before the guide fed them some roadkill Pademelon so we got to see their eating habits, which turns out are quite disgusting.
Our only other mission for the day was to stock up on wet and dry supplies, which led us to the Nubeena booze shop and IGA that were thankfully next to each other.
Once stocked up we drove to our final destination for the day, the Rosedale Homestead, where we had booked an unpowered site for the night.
While the actual site itself was nothing special, we were surrounded by farmland and farm animals and while the homestead didn’t have much else apart from a few powered and unpowered sites, it did have a restaurant.
After setting up we had a well-deserved drink before hitting the showers, then chilling until dinner time, which was in the homestead restaurant.
While passing a large shed near the toilets we were entertained by a Galah and a Corella in a large cage who would bob up and down and would say “Hello, what are you doing?”
After dinner we relaxed some more before hitting the hay earlyish, in anticipation of a big day at Port Arthur the next day.
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