0011 Christmas in Tasmania

31st December 2019
0011  We drive to Tasmania for Christmas

Sophie & Emily arrive

As were boading our flight home in Perth, literally as we were stepping off the walkway through the door of the plane, Janet's phone rang - And it was a message from son Nick in the Netherlands so she immediately knew the twins had arrived !  Janet walked on into the plane as if on a cloud, and when the flight attendant chased after her to see her boarding pass, I knew he had no hope of succeeding, so I hurried after him to reassure him that she was with me, and that I had a copy of her boarding pass for him !!   Needless to say, Janet didn't sleep a wink all through the night on the way back to Brisbane.




Flying east from Perth and losing 2 hours is always a bad flight - For some reason it seems to take longer to recover than it does from a London to Australia flight !  Eventually we recovered, and I had to get on with preparing Troopie for the 2500 km journey to Hobart.  While I had already had Troopie fully serviced and all oils changed, brakes checked etc a couple of months ago, there were a bunch of small things to do inside.  I have been having trouble finding some small plastic clips for a sliding shelf that had got broken - And finally found them 4 days before we departed - And they were out of stock - "Due in next week" !!  Grrrr !  Well, at least I know where to get them when I get back, and I did a bodge job just for the trip.

Additionally, the stitching on the cover of the rear awning was degrading in the sun, and because we have used it almost every time we camp, it has had a lot of use.  Remember that most people may go camping once or twice a year - I camped every day for nearly 3 years, and as the rear awning also forms the roof of our rear tent, it has had more use in the past 5 years than most zips and stitching would get in 20 years !  I had taken the measurements of the cover and sent them to the manufacturer, but unfortunately he made the cover incorrectly and it was too small !  Luckily I still had enough time to get a new one made up, although I had to go up and get it in order to make sure I had it in time !  Eventually all fitted and ready to go.

After that, the first packing job was to get all the many Christmas presents loaded - And there were lots of them, since the opportunity to hand carry all Santa's work doesn't come very often !  This year was good for Santa - We had managed a trip to Perth when we carried lots of Santa's parcels for him, and now we had the opportunity to do the same to Tasmania !  Once the parcels were all loaded, it was just our clothes, the food for our trip, and our sleeping bags etc to load.  Finally we set off south on the 10th December - Plenty of time to reach our ferry in Melbourne by 5 pm on 12th December.  Or so we thought.

Fire ravaged trees

The bush fires in Queensland and NSW have been terrible this year, and a number of main roads have been affected.  Our normal road south would have been across west across Cunningham's Gap to Warwick, and then S on the Newell Hwy.  However we knew the Cunningham Hwy had fire damage problems and was closed, so we headed S down the coast, intending to cross west on the Gwydir Hwy from Grafton.  However, once we got there, there were signs saying the hwy was closed.  We were now worried that if we went further south, where fires were still burning we might have further problems - But in the end we had no choice.  So we continued on down the coast, and after checking out a few camp sites near Macksville that turned out to be not much good, we ended up in one at Nambucca Heads for the night.

Scorched signs beside the road

Next morning we continued on down the coast road, and tried again to get west from Port Macquarie,
out through Wauchope.  We found a "Road Closed" sign there too, but on asking at the local gas station, were told not to worry about the sign - They said they had driven the road the day before.  So off we went, but 30 kms along the road, there were road works and another "Road Closed" sign.  When we asked the workers on the road, they told us the road was definitely closed - So we had to turn around again and go all the way back to the coast road at Taree, and continue south.  We were now seeing a

Repairs underway

lot more fire damage, with road signs almost illegible where they had been scorched, and dead trees on both sides of the highway.  In places, even the armco was deformed from the heat - And in fact it is the residual fire damage to infrastructure that keeps the roads closed long after the fire itself has passed.  We were now in thick smoke haze in several places, and were concerned because it wss turning out to be really difficult to get up to date fire information now we were on the road, and when we left home, the worst of the fires had been in the Sydney - Canberra area - Which was basically where we were headed !  Anyway, long and short of it was that we got through

Goulburn campsite

the west of Sydney on the freeways, and got as far as Goulburn before we needed to stop for the night - Although we were now starting to get a bit concerned for our arrival in Melbourne for the ferry as we still had  some 700 kms to go, and if there were any more delays, it might make things tight.

Tesla cars on diesel truck ?

Next morning we started a bit earlier with the plan to get onto the Hume Highway as quickly as possible, and just drive the quickest route possible to Melbourne - No time to wander through the High Country now !  In the end we had no further delays, but by the time we had negotiated our way through Melbourne all the way to the Port, it was 4.30 pm, and before 5.30 they called us through to start boarding, so we didn't have that much time up our sleeves !  Soon we were on the Spirit of

Heading onto ferry

Tasmania, car parked, cabin located, and sitting in the bar having a beer.  Over the past few years I have been on so many car ferries with Troopie that it was just like being back on the road !  Very comfortable with it.   A good dinner and then off to bed, ready for arrival in Devonport the next morning.

We were up in plenty of time, deciding to wait for breakfast until we were on the road, and were driving off by 7.00 am.  We planned to take 2 days to drive the 250 odd kms to Hobart, in

Tamar Valley

order to give Benn & Sarah some breathing space since their last guests !  So we headed east across to the Tamar Valley, stopping in Exeter for breakfast at the local bakery, where we had a good coffee nd croissant before buying some groceries at the local IGA and heading on across to the coast at St Helens. On the way we

Fields of poppies

past field after field of pink poppies - Apparently grown commerically to supply the medical requirements for opiates.   Then it was on down the coast towards Bicheno, where we stopped for a picnic lunch on the waterfront, where

Big beaked seagull ?

there were hordes of seagulls after our sandwiches, and even a  kind of albatross looking bird with a very big beak !  From there it was on down the coast down to Freycinet National Park, where we found a great free-camping area right on the beach.  After setting up camp, our days-end drinks were disturbed by a small wallaby that was keen to inspect our site,

Wallaby at campsite

plus lots of little fairy wrens, which are always a delight to watch.  Janet also chatted to some US & Belgian girls who were camping nearby, and we ended the day with a walk on the beach at sunset, with lovely views across the water.

When we woke up it was raining !  We were enjoying the cooler weather in Tas, but hadn't expected the rain this morning !  So we had a wet pack up - And of course, 5 minutes later, it stopped raining !!  We then wandered our

Sunset on Freycinet

way slowly down to Hobart, to be welcomed by Sarah, Olivia and Evelyn, with Benn being at work in their Fox Friday brewery till later.  We spent a couple of nights with Benn & Sarah before the neighbours left on

Meeting chickens !

they holiday to Queensland, and after meeting the 5 chickens and cat that we were to babysit, and learning their feeding habits, we moved into their house where we will just be sleeping and showering, so that as much as possible the family can keep to their normal schedule.

Preparing for Christmas !

Over the next few days we had fun getting to know the girls, going to the park with everyone plus the dog, going shopping for Christmas, feeding chickens, and generally enjoying sitting still for a while.  Actually quite tiring reading stories, feeding chickens and cats, and generally doing all the things one does with grandchildren !



Rest of the photos are here :-  https://photos.app.goo.gl/GQ9xcrxSKdF6LDJ19