Advertisement
Published: January 31st 2015
Edit Blog Post
Glenda and I are in a caravan park in St. Helens on the north east coast of Tasmania. We arrived here yesterday and will stay here for another day or so. Here we can plug into 240 volt power and attend to some domestics, like washing, (ourselves and the laundry,) shopping for provisions and catching up on some admin whilst we have decent telephone/internet service.
Prior to arriving in St Helens, we had spent the last 10 days off the grid, running quite comfortably on our solar panels, batteries and gas bottles and as Tasmania is very RV friendly, we were able to fill our water tanks from time to time and empty our toilet cassette at “dump points” along the way. Some of the smaller towns also have a free camp area for overnighting.
There are about 14 National Parks throughout Tasmania and all have camping facilities, including fire pits, (bring your own wood,) picnic tables and at some sites, compost or drop toilets. We have just left the Mt Williams National Park, spending 4 days at a beautiful place called Stumpys Bay.
The spot we managed to get into, after dodging trees, backing up and finally negotiating a 7 point turn was about 20 meters to the high tide watermark, and we were gently sent off to sleep every night with the sound of waves breaking on the beach. Stumpys Bay, with a current population of about 10 scattered around in tents, pop tops or camper trailers, (we were the only large van) is 24k along a small dirt road from the nearest town, Gladstone (complete with a shop, pub and petrol pump) which is a further 28k away from the bitumen road connecting
St Helens to Launceston.
Somewhat remote we may be, however roughing it we ain’t, after all
we are towing around our own home, notwithstanding it being somewhat smaller then the one we moved out of last July. For instance, last night’s dinner was a roast rack of lamb, with organic roasted potatoes, pumpkin and carrots cooked on the Baby Weber barbeque, complete with a side of steamed organic veggies.
To accompany, a 2013 Moores Creek Pinot Noir, from the nearby Tamar Valley. We dined at a wooden picnic
table next to our van, with a romantic fire crackling next to us, all about 15 meters from the surf.
In the mornings, I sometimes/often will fire up the generator and crank out a couple of espresso flat white coffees, one with soy for Glenda and one with full cream milk, for me….well maybe two for me! (Keeping fresh milk or anything fresh for that matter is no problems in our refrigerator/freezer; it runs extremely efficiently on gas, batteries or 240 volt.
A coffee was just what we needed when we headed off on one of our many long walks, on this occasion to Cobler Rocks (only accessible by foot). This is the most northern point of the beautiful Bay of Fires. Our footprints being the only prints on the beach apart from the traces of prints from a small group who were taking the guided 4 day Bay of Fires Walk earlier that day.
We arrived in Tasmania almost 3 weeks ago via the Spirit of Tasmania, sailing from Melbourne to Devonport.
The Spirit of Tasmania experience went really well. Basically, after clearing security and
quarantine control, you drive straight on and luckily for me, you drive straight off at the other end. Arriving at Devonport it’s another run through Tasmanian quarantine (no bringing in any fruit or vegetables,) however unlike some of the stories I have herd, you’re allowed to keep your leather shoes!
On the road, all is going well. I am getting more confident and comfortable about where I can and can’t tow the van and with the southern part of the Bay of Fires as our next destination, several remote and beautiful beachside campsites become a reality.
Getting to Tasmania for this summer was always one of our options, and we are both glad we did. However, we didn’t really have a plan on how to get there and in some cases, the road we took was decided by the toss of a coin. One coin toss took us down the Snowy Mountains Highway though Mt. Kosciuszko National Park and it was there where we first really tested out the van and our ability to survive without being plugged into 240 volts, mains water or an amenities block of a caravan park.
Since departing in July, we have been as far north as Gladstone in Queensland visiting friends and family along the way. We have “lived” on Cooper Shoot Road in Byron Bay for 3 weeks courtesy of Roger and Kim Mussett, celebrated Kirsten’s uni graduation and 34
th birthday on the Gold Coast, and spent Xmas in Sydney with Anastasia, Ben and Jacob.
We had already snuck off to Sydney during October, as we were able to “ageist” the van in a hay shed at Peter and Karen Crommelin’s “Elite Warmblood” horse breeding and training property in Ramsay, near Toowoomba for a few weeks.
I wanted to compete in a swimming carnival in Sydney, before my swim fitness totally deserted me and Glenda had booked a Yoga retreat in Thailand, flying out of Sydney. I even got to live with my mum back in Buderim for a couple of weeks before picking up the van and rejoining Glenda on the Gold Coast, just in time to compete at the Pan Pacific Masters Games being held on the Coast.
We have already found many beautiful places and had many
interesting experiences, include New Years eve at Jounama Creek, a rather remote spot in the Mt. Kosciuszko National Park, swimming at a beach in Eden in absolutely pristine water, using a particular super long, long drop toilet in the Barrington Tops National Park, zipping down a 400 meter long flying fox in Hollybank Forrest in Tasmania and certainly learning how to negotiate two way traffic along a narrow track inside our caravan!
So, would I do it all again? So far YES…it’s a hoot!! Rain, hail or shine but wait for the next installment in another few months time to see, among other things, what summer is really like in Tasmania, and things to watch out for on the road!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.075s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 13; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0242s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb