Australian Adventure: Free Camping

After an amazing time at Mansfield Zoo we made our way, via Melbourne to Tasmania.

Our first day there involved landing at the airport, which seemed very small, and getting a taxi to the campervan pick up. There was a bit of a wait, as we arrived before it opened. And after 2 hours we were off, in our upgraded van, not car.

We made our way to the free camp site approximately an hour from hobart. There was some misunderstanding with the satnav at first but we got there in the end.

Having found the area we where looking for, finding the actual camp site did prove to be an issue. One solved after driving though a forest and finding another site in the same area.

We spend the night in the field with one other van, and left quickly in the morning to have breakfast at the beach. We found Alan's house (Chloe's work friend). Then made our way to Swansea. We visited the IGA and the Jetty. Then continued on our way towards the first National Park.

Our first day there we decided to be optimistic and take on the 5 hour walk through Wineglass Bay and Hazards Beach. An awesome walk with stunning views, resulting in quite a few photos. Of what one may consider slightly similar views, though no less stunning.

We ended up staying in the national park for a few days. On the second day we walked and climbed Mount Amos. As big as the achievement was, getting down proved more...eventful. I'm sure Chloe will tell you how 'funny' some parts of the journey were, when my very life was in peril.

The following day we returned to wineglass bay, for some time at the beach. Having not had access to a shower for a few days I was happy to get in the water for a rinse. However Chloe wasn't to pleased by the temperature so stayed on the beach. Later that day we decided we needed a bit of a plan so started to look through the booklets at what we could do and see in tasmania. Which quickly turned into looking for the best walks and National Parks.

That night we moved from the free camping site near the park to one further out. We were so pleased to see 'real' toilets, having survived pit toilets at the last site. It was a nice place and the beach was lovely so we decided to stay another day. The next day we walked the beach, hoping to reach the next town. However our maps seemed a bit misleading, after about 70-80 minutes we turned around and walked back, driving to the town instead.

When we returned it was salt water shower time behind the van. Chloe really didn't seem to enjoy the experience all that much? Though did start talking to someone while I finished my shower. We chatted to Jan for a while, then her husband George came over and invited us for dinner (Jan and George are from long reach and in Tassie for 11 weeks touring with their trailer. George is 72ish and very funny. Jan wants us to visit in the future). Once we had eaten, laughed, and once it was so dark we could no longer see, we returned to our van.

The next day started early, off to a blow whole in Bichino, then Nature World to see the Tassie Devil and feed more Roos. Then we were off again to find the next camp site. This one had showers!

One night we had lightning, this lead to us wondering if being under a tree was a good thing or not, another night we had to walk around houses looking for the correct road (for the camp site) we did eventually find it, half a mile back and not near the houses.

And so that was our start to Tassie. In the time that followed we decided to make our way around National Parks, Great Walks (of Tasmania), and other sight seeing destinations.

Chloe, of course, wanted to visit Penguin and a chocolate shop (which was closed when we went). We saw the End of the World, this looks like a rocky beach. I hugely enjoyed visiting the caves at Mole Creek, it was something very different to the other views we saw. Later in our journey we followed the convict trail through to Port Arthur, hearing about convicts of the past and how throwing a lot of criminals onto an island can actually work?!

There were, obviously, other trips and sights, but we don't want to say everything now or we will have nothing to tell you when we return in June.

Orford