All Aboard...Tassie here we come (28 April to 3 June 2015)

After delaying our crossing to Tasmania for a month, the day had finally arrived.  The Spirit of Tasmania was due to sail at 7.30pm and boarding is 2.5 hours prior to that.  So, we got in the line early, parked illegally, kept an eye out for the parking police and waited for the gate to be opened.

Nick, John and Deb, waiting to board.  

And, up we go....into the hold.

Well, we spotted the guy walking towards the gate, we started up & snuck in ahead of some other vehicles, ending up in the front of the line for large vehicles going onto the deck with the trucks and semi-trailers.

Having done this before, we divided up.   My task was to get to the Leatherwood Restaurant to make a dinner booking, Deb was tasked with hitting the travel shop for brochures and the boys were tasked to locate our the cabins.
We met up again and were able to purchase yearly National Park Passes for only $70....bargain considering it costs $25 entrance fee to each park.

We had a lovely dinner then sat in a lounge having couple more drinks before heading to the cabins to sleep.

Deb and I found it a bit rough and were glad our ginger tablets.  It wasn't until the early hours of the morning that the sea calmed down and we had smooth sailing into Devonport.  

Deb and I...and you can see Nick taking the photo in the mirror behind us and a part of John's head. 

The internal PA woke us up about an hour before we were due to disembark.  We met in the lounge for coffee and the first thing we saw out of the window was Macca’s…..what an awful sight....they are everywhere.

Anyway, we were called to go to our vehicles and off we went.  It was very cold in the hold and even colder outside.


We stopped at the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm for breakfast, sitting in front of a lovely open fire.  At last, we are here, Tasmania, were we plan to stay for a considerable period of time, experiencing all the seasons and what they have to offer.

First stop, Campbell Town.  We free camped in Blackburn Reserve for a couple of days …. it was windy and cold. Set the vans up to with a windbreak to create an warm cave between them.  But, by 4pm, it was getting cold and we had no fire to light but did have the diesel heater inside.  

Parked in the Blackburn Reserve, the kinky Kedron and the hot Halen are now friends.  

We headed for Snug, which is 30 minutes south of Hobart, stopping in Ross of course, for one of their famous pies.

Snug turned out to be a great base from which to explore the area and we ended up staying there for 5 weeks.    Being winter the park fees were very reasonable, AUS $19 per night (if you stay for 28 or more days).  It also had a great camp kitchen with an awesome fireplace.

Nick sitting next to the Fire in the camp kitchen

You would find us there most afternoons, from around 3pm.  One of the boys would light the fire and we would take our camp chairs down along with drinks or if we were there earlier in the day, we would take tea and coffee etc.

Looking from the beach in front of the Snug Caravan Park across the D'Entrecasteaux Channel to Bruny Island at dusk.

Snug was discovered by Admiral Bruni D’Entrecasteaux, and the channel running between the coast and Bruny Island is named after him. There have been a number of industries in Snug or nearby, the most notable was the Electrona Carbide Factory which later became a silicon smelter which finally closed in 1991.

Sunrise....

During the 1967 bush fires, (which became known as the Black Tuesday bushfires) Snug was devastated, with two thirds of the houses, two churches and half of the school destroyed.  Eleven people lost their lives.

During our stay in Snug, John did some research and found a man in Melbourne who converted 9kg gas bottles into fire pits so we bought two of them and had them delivered to the van park.  John couldn't wait to try his out…well….he had to make sure it worked you know and it sure did.  We store ours on the caravan rear bumper and I sewed a waterproof cover for it, by hand, I might add.

From Snug, we ventured by ferry to Bruny Island for a day,  did our shopping in Kingston, went to the Salamanca Markets in Hobart (twice). Went to numerous coffee shops, toured the area along the Channel Highway which runs parallel to the broad and very full, Huon River, taking in Oyster Cove, Kettering, Woodbridge, Cygnet, and up the hill to the Hartzview Winery, then onto Woodstock and Huonville.

The quaint Ida Bay Station.  

Later on we toured Huon Highway on the other side of the Huon River through Geeveston, Dover and Southport (very English names), stopping for lunch at the Ida Bay Railway, and then on the dirt road down to Cockle Creek which is the southern most point on mainland Tasmania…..the next stop…Antarctica. In fact, standing at the Cockle Creek, you are closer to Antarctica than you are to Cairns.

Nick and Deb standing next to the beautiful Whale Sculpture at Cockle Creek

Cockle Creek, even the weather looks cold and is was also very windy.

We visited the Grandvewe Cheese place, which we did the last time we were in Tassie in 2010.  That time we actually took our vans there….we must have been crazy…..it is a narrow road, how we turned around I will never know, but we did.  Anyway, their organic sheep’s cheese is as nice as we remembered….and we stocked up.  Not cheap..but what the hell, you only live once.

The sheep that provide the milk that makes the cheese.  

View from the deck

There is never enough sheep's cheese in the world……

The owner doing the Cheese tasting at Grandvewe told us about an abattoir in Cradoc that opens to the public on Friday afternoons from 2 - 5pm with limited meat available.   So we went up there and bought some steak…it was fantastic and went back the next week.  Unfortunately, a lady got there before us and nearly bought everything….lesson, be early next time. We did leave Snug with a freezer full of good steak though, so we can't complain.

Next stop….New Norfolk