Camps 4

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Day 119

Another slow start to the day, I do think it is because it is cold outside and we have all of the flyscreens closed on the tent so it does not let any light in at all. Last night I was warmer, we had borrowed a blanket from reception, still not quite warm enough, but using Andy’s socks was a bonus.

After showers and breakfast we jumped to it packing up camp as we were once again moving on, a day later than anticipated but never mind, it would have been awful packing up in yesterdays rain, especially as we are finding that the bedding gets damp with condensation when the trailer away has been packed away.

We had the full annexe up including the walls, but find that it still only takes just under an hour to pack up. Andy gets on with his things and I get on with my things, no one gets banged on the head or otherwise.

I gave the blanket back and got my deposit back for the gate key and away we went back into Hobart, well Rosny Park a small suburb of Hobart, first on the list was to claim back the money for Andy’s visit to the doctor so we popped into Medicare and before long the money was refunded, well almost you do only get 50% back on the initial bill, but it is better than nothing.

Although by now the sun was out, the sky was blue and the day was heating up, we still decided to go and buy a blanket, it really had become a necessity now and neither of us was prepared to have another cold night, especially as we know we are going back to Cradle Mountain before leaving Tasmania. Someone has even suggested that it may snow on Cradle Mountain in the coming days.

We buy a blanket from Big W, roughly $35 cheap and cheerful, as long as it does the job, we didn’t want to spend a lot of money on an expensive blanket only to ruin it by camping.

Back on the road, we head out on the A3 towards Sorell and ready to take in the delights from the East Coast, my Hema Maps in hand and Andy at the wheel.

The countryside is vastly different today with the sunshine, it looks Australian again and not like a dark damp day in England.

We drive up to Orford, a beautiful little town on the River, which opens out into Prosser Bay; we sit in the sunshine and have a cup of coffee soaking up the atmosphere of this holiday weekend.

Yes! It is a bank holiday weekend, this could be a disaster if we are not careful. We have not booked into a campsite as now I am armed with my new Camps 5 book, we decided to go “Free Camping”. Neither of us realised that it was bank holiday weekend and the chances of finding a campsite where we wanted it may be slim. We are heading toward the Freycinet Peninsula and the lovely Wineglass Bay. I have picked a campsite called River and Rocks Campground (No 42 in the book), we know nothing about it except what the symbols in the book tell us.

We move on driving past beaches with lovely white sands, turquoise waters and beautiful rolling white crested waves, it looks like paradise again. We stop at a lookout to admire the view and take a couple of photographs, a lady pulled in behind us, we chatted and she mentioned a campsite (very cheap) just up the road. I check my book and find that she is talking about Mayfield Bay.

Curiosity meant that we should check it out. Already very busy, Andy asked if we should stay here. I said no I would prefer to press on to Freycinet and take our chances there.

We drive through Swansea and before long is the turn off for C302 and Freycinet. We need to drive 19Km South of the turn off and find River and Rocks Road at the end of which will be our campsite. (We hope!!)

We arrive and start to drive round, it looks busy and everyone glares at you as if to say “you’ll be lucky, but we are ok as we arrived much earlier”. I do find there is a bit of a territorial thing once you have found your spot; you do what you can to protect it, for want of a better word.

We spy a couple of possibilities, but they both look fairly tight. We knew we would not get a full awning up but that did not matter at the moment, a pitch and thus a bed for the night was more important. We pull up and get out to survey and discuss how we can squeeze ourselves in. We work it out and before we know it the trailer is in, the tent is up and the kettle is on.

We are not on an ideal site, but put it this way. If we did not squeeze into it then someone else would and at a cost of $49.95 this will pay for itself after a couple of nights here. For a few hours afterwards people would come in drive round and then go. There is another site up on Friendly Beaches; it is National Park so there would be a small fee involved.

We meet a couple of the neighbours, Keith is a retired photographer and although he has driven around Australia in its entirety a few times he has never done Tasmania. We were discussing the free camping sites. Keith explained that until Camps 4 was published no one knew of these sites, which meant that you could be guaranteed a nice quiet spot. But now everyone has a copy of the book these sites are often crowded. I told Keith that we had the new version of Camps.

Don’t expect the toilets to be up to much on these sites, they are just holes in the floor with porcelain to sit on. No flushing as it goes into a big pit and more importantly just hold your breath! I chuckled to see a little scribble on the back wall to “check the paper before sitting”. There are no showers

We pop into Coles Bay just down the road; we needed a couple of provisions. There is nothing much there just a tiny little grocery shop that charges the earth for everything, it seems they do have a monopoly on the area. We drove into the Town Centre, but that consists of a couple of restaurants, a Pizza place and a Fish and Chip shop.

After a dinner of chicken in a tomato sauce and rice we went to sit on the rocks and watched the sun go down. The water in Great Oyster Bay is almost still, we watch the cormorants and the seagulls do their fishing. The view is beautiful it is very romantic.

Back at the camp we have a drink and the gauntlet is down for another game of cards. We play Rummy, I am sure we will learn a new game soon, this time I beat Andy hands down. As it is now dark the temperature has dropped. We have no fire going, as we do not have the facility on our squeezed in campsite. So we went to bed. At 9.30 an early night, but it did not matter as long as we were warm under our new blanket.

I can hear a couple of thuds around our camp but take no notice just drift off to sleep.

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Photos

Orford
The tide is out but the view is still good.

White Sands
Prosser Bay

Mayfield Conservation Area
Looking over Great Oyster Bay

Dinner Time
This chap was also busy keeping his fellow seagulls away, this catch was his.

Freycinet National Park
from Coles Bay

Freycinet National Park
from Coles Bay

White Sands of Prosser Bay
Just North of Orford

Camp
River and Rocks Campground