This has been our 4th visit to Tasmania and we explore a little bit more every visit. Sadly, our friends who live here are travelling Australia at this time so we will not be able to hookup with them. We have no plans apart from participating in a sausage making class at Tarraleah and going to the Salamanca Market in Hobart. Every other day is just ‘free wheelin’.
We travelled over on the Spirit of Tasmania II with our camping trailer. Weather forecasts of -4 in the high country at night are a little daunting but we can always choose to have some luxury (and warmth) by using a cabin if we feel it’s unbearable.
We had a great start to our adventure, I had been under the pump at work and didn’t think I would be able to get packed or mentally prepared in time but somehow did. I desperately needed some new shoes and had found no joy looking locally so asked if we could stop at the Melbourne Walking Company on our way through to the boat. Sure, no worries, trying to find somewhere to park in Melbourne with a camping trailer attached! No drama, loading zone right out the front, I ran in, managed to buy 3 pairs of shoes and was back out in under 8 minutes? This shop has a great system where can ‘Reserve to Try’ online, you walk in, check out your choices and it’s done and dusted. That’s shopping I can cope with!
Stopped in South Melbourne, had lunch at the Downstairs Bistro with our son and then walked to the National Gallery to kill a bit of time before we could be loaded onto the boat. Off to the South Melbourne Market to get some nibbles to have on the boat. Tasmania has strict quarantine laws so we couldn’t take any fruit and veg, that will have to purchased on arrival. Still a little too early to board, so we found a bar on the St Kilda Esplanade and had a glass of wine while watching the wind surfers.
Was plenty of wind to keep them moving! I can’t imagine how sore your upper body muscles must be doing this sport.
Finally, onto the Spirit of Tassie, armed with overnight bag, nibbles, and an extra pillow. Watched the lights on the shoreline for a while, enjoyed some wine and cheese and settled into our cabin for the night. I love sleeping to the moving motion of boats and trains, I had a great sleep even though it was quite a rough sea. Woke up in Tas!
Offloaded in Devonport and tried to decide on which direction to head over Breakfast. Decision was to go towards Deloraine via Mole Creek, and then to lake St Clair travelling past the Great Lake which is beautiful and has hundreds of fishing huts dotted along its shoreline, many of which look like recycled scrap. Don’t get me wrong, love the recycled thing but it doesn’t do much to the aesthetics of this landscape. It was freezing, wind was really strong and when seeing the snow still on the ground we were a little concerned about setting up camp in such conditions.
At lake st Clair we decided to stick with pitching the camper and set up on an unpowered site. Was not the best pitch we’ve done!
Unfortunately you can’t have fires at many places in Tassie so we gave our little butane camp heater a good workout. It was great. We had packed our Ozpig hoping to use it wherever we stopped but this didn’t seem likely so far. We survived the cold night, worst thing was when you want to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and its about -2 degrees! Good sleep (after I’d braved the cold for a wee), no leaks in the camper and no trees came down. Breaky of bacon and eggs cooked on the electric BBQ, cup of tea was very well received! Did the Platypus Walk around the edge of the lake, it’s so beautiful! Lake St Clair is one of my favourite sites in Tassie.
Packed up the camper and headed off to see the Wall in the Wilderness. What amazing talent that artist has, well worth seeing. We continued towards our destination of Tarraleah for the Sausage Making Class. This town was originally the base for the community who worked and ran the hydro power station. A complete community that was once busy and thriving. When the hydro station was converted to automation, the town disintegrated and was virtually abandoned. Some forward thinking people purchased the entire village and have converted it to a dedicated tourism and accommodation facility. Cooking classes, conferences, weddings, golf trips, photography etc. You name it, I think they’d cover it. We decided to book a room for 2 nights due to the cold conditions and it was a well made decision.
We stayed in Scholar House which was the old school that has been converted to comfy rooms. Very reasonably priced and extremely comfortable. We’ve plugged the camping fridge into an extension lead to keep supplies all good, had a nice dinner after a few drinks at the pub the came back to sit by the open fire in our building. Great sleep in the comfy king size bed, waking up ready to tackle making some sausages! Wonder what we will learn! I’ll do a separate post about this class!
From Taraleah, we headed south and made a base camp at Richmond where we found a spot that didn’t mind us having a campfire. The great thing about touring Tassie is that you are never far from anywhere. We decided that it was better to travel a bit each day and come back to a comfy camp site rather than pack up and resettle everywhere. Good choice it turned out!
That’s it for the first leg, I’ll continue with the highlights next post. I hadn’t realised how much I wanted to say about this wonderful part of the world!
Sent from my iPad
Around The Mulberry Tree 