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Tasmanian East Coast
  • Jacqueline Wills
  • Bart Wills

Tasmanian East Coast

Looking forward to exploring the East Coast of Tasmania on this short trip 🤗 Read more
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  • Trip start
    June 9, 2024
    Tasmanian East Coast
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    Heading off

    June 9, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Poor Indy wasn't very happy when we left this morning, fortunately Sean is heading over to pick her up later. On the way to the airport we found out we had been upgraded to business 🤗 which was very nice. Hopefully we have enough warm stuff packed! 😬Read more

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    Triabunna to Freycinet National Park

    June 10, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 5 °C

    After a very cold start to the day we headed north towards Freycinet National Park, stopping at Swansea and the spikey bridge then got to Devils corner at lunch time which worked out well 🤗 Bart enjoyed some oysters and we shared a pizza and did a sneaky wine tasting before heading to Freycinet National Park for the night.Read more

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    Freycinet National Park

    June 11, 2024 in Australia ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    It was much warmer this morning when we woke as it was very overcast and threatening to rain. By the time we'd had breakfast and packed up the motorhome it was starting to sprinkle so we decided to head to the lighthouse first. By the time we're got there it was a fine misty rain and I was the only one with a rain jacket 🙄 so left Bart in the warmth of the motorhome and headed up to get some photos. It was actually beautiful out and the colours were fantastic. I only saw one whale, on the short walk to the lighthouse. We then headed down to Sleepy Bay, the rain had started in earnest then so we waited till it eased a little before I headed down to the cove to check it out. We decided to just poke around the area and leave The Wineglass Bay walk till tomorrow because it's supposed to be clearing, though it did stop raining after lunch. So we headed to Honeymoon Bay and back up to the lighthouse so Bart could have a look as well.
    Lovely relaxing day 🥰    Read more

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    Wineglass Bay & Bicheno

    June 12, 2024 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 8 °C

    This morning we still had a gale blowing, it started late last night and had the motorhome rocking 🙄. We packed up and headed out to the start of the Wineglass Bay track. It was well worth doing, though I can feel my knees now. The section between the lookout and the beach is basically stairs, it says up the top that there are 1,000 stairs so don't start if your not up for it 😄 though I did count them on the way back up and only got to 911!

    We then headed to Bicheno to check out the blowhole - which was going off, but it was freezing in the wind! So we made our way to the Lobster Shack for lunch. Bart got half a garlic lobster and I had the lobster burger which was an experience for me, but I got through it.

    We stopped for the night at Lagoon Beach campgrounds, a freecamp about half an hour from Bicheno. It's a great spot near an inlet and next to no one here! 🤗    Read more

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    Bay of Fires

    Jun 13–14, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    After a very quiet night we left the chain of Lagoons campsite and headed north, stopping at Scamander for coffee to find a skate park with a bench next to it with Travis cut out in the back of it! 🥰

    We then headed to St Helens point and went on a short walk around from Beerbarrel beach.

    We continued onto St Helens township and picked up some supplies from the local IGA and fresh bread for lunch at the bakery. After fueling up we drove to Binalong and stopped on the side of the road to make some sandwiches, then drove out to The Skeleton track. It was very overgrown and you had to push through some sections but once we got to the point the rock formations were excellent.

    We then headed to 'The Garden' I had expected a lot more rich formations but found when we got there the area had been named for the wild flowers that were found in the area. We stopped for the night at another freecamp Cosy Corner South.

    Went for a lovely walk along the white sand beach before retreating into the motorhome when it got too cold outside 🤗    Read more

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    Bay of Fires to Launceston

    June 14, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Today was a bit annoying 🙄 We started by heading to Ansons Bay because we'd heard so much about it but the road ended up being dirt most of the way there and it was easier to keep going than turn around. Then when we got there we wondered why anyone would want to go there?! Totally not worth going to, the only interesting thing we saw was a 'Banksia' street sign 😂.

    The next stop I'd had on my list was Eddystone Lighthouse, well that was going to be another 20km of gravel road and we weren't supposed to be on any gravel with the Motorhome! So we headed towards Gladstone instead. It still took another 40 minutes of driving slowly before we found bitumen again!

    Ended up being nothing worth note at Gladstone so continued down to Little Blue Lake which redeemed the day by being beautiful! We stopped there for lunch and thought we'd walk to cube rock, not realising it was 5km one way and by the second stream that we couldn't get around and would have had to walk though it decided it just wasn't worth it, so headed back to the van.

    We then re looked at where to head next because we were planning on doing a loop back to St Helens today and stopping at a couple of waterfalls on the way back, but it was getting too late in the day to do that and there wasn't much point in going back to St Helens otherwise. So we decided to head towards Launceston and travel back to Hobart down another path to the one we took last time.

    On the way we stopped at Derby Tunnel (it remains from a tin mine). I think all the workers must have been my height because I could walk though without ducking once, poor Bart had to duck straight away and still walked into the roof (lucky he had a beanie on!) so he stopped and I continued the length of the tunnel and back, it only went about 200m. We then tried to find the monument, there's a sign and then nothing! After consulting wikicamps found where you had to get off the track and go bush uphill and we found it.

    Derby is actually a really cool little town, if you're into mountain biking it would be the place to come. It was the nicest town we'd driven though.

    The road between here and Launceston is extremely windy but fortunately there weren't many cars around and we could take our time without worrying about holding people up.

    Stopped for the night at a Big 4 caravan park to charge everything up and being able to put the heater on tonight was lovely. Walked up the road to a food van eatery for tea which was so lovely.    Read more

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    Launceston to Honeycomb Caves

    June 15, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    We booked a tour of the James Boag Brewery this morning so we headed into the CBD early to find parking. We ended up parking at Bunnings and walking across the bridge back to town, so much better than trying to find parking on the streets with a motorhome!

    The tour was great, we had a young girl leading it who did a great job, so much to remember. I was really surprised at the end that the tastings weren't just a little taste, each beer was a middy size glass! So we went downstairs afterwards and had a pizza for lunch before heading back to the van. We are heading to Honeycomb Caves campground tonight so we grabbed some head torches from Anaconda so we could explore the caves 😄

    The drive to Honeycomb Caves was beautiful, when we arrived at the campsite, the sun was just starting to go behind the mountains even though it was only 3pm! But the colours were amazing. We donned our head torches (after rugging up a bit more 😄) and headed down into the caves. Bart easily got over the stream but by the time I got down there he was gone and I was a bit nervous jumping over it. So headed up and went down another entrance but still couldn't see him. By the time I came back to the start I could see his torch and he was wondering where I was. He came back and helped me over the rocks which enabled me to follow him around through the caves. It was amazing, it brought us to another opening and there were lots of smaller cave entrances that we didn't try and when we turned our torches off to check for glowworms (we didn't see any) it was pitch black in there, so very glad we stopped to get them. The phone torch would not have cut it!

    Came out to a very crisp evening and headed into the van to preserve as much heat as possible, I think we'll be keeping our beanies and long johns on inside tonight 😂    Read more

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    Cradle Mountain

    June 16, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    Headed to Cradle Mountain this morning stopping at Phillips falls on the way. Google took us way past it, lucky wiki camps was more accurate, though we still drove right past the start of the track and I'm just thankful Bart was doing the reversing to get us turned around on the dirt road to come back again! We finally found the entrance and made it to the bottom of the falls. It was super steep getting down to it but worth the walk.

    Continued along the windy roads to Cradle Mountain enjoying the amazing scenery on the way. Stopped at the visitor information center and picked up our bus tickets to get into the park before heading off to grab some lunch.

    After lunch we headed back to the bus and into the park (getting in at 3pm which only gave us an hour, the last bus leaves the park at 4pm) so we decided to do the short 45 minute walk to Pencil Pine Falls and Knyvet Falls which actually ended up only taking 20 minutes! But it was pretty cool to see a wombat just mozying along eating.

    After getting back to the motorhome we headed to Cradle Mountain Caravan Park where we're booked for the next two nights. Looking forward to a bigger walk tomorrow 🤗.    Read more

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    Cradle Mountain Walks

    June 17, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 4 °C

    We woke to a freezing morning, I was expecting my watch to say 5am but it was 7! I'd bought oats yesterday so at least we could have a hot breakfast before starting out.

    By the time we got to Ronny Creek on the shuttle it was 10am and we headed up the track for Marions Lookout 1223m. There was quite a bit of ice around so you really had to watch your step, it took us about an hour to get up there, even with the stops for photos. We met a young girl who was doing a circuit track around to Kitchens hut along and back down to Dove lake via Lake Wilks, so we figured we'd give that a go seeing that the day was clear and we had brought sandwiches with us.

    The going was a little harder from this point with quite a bit of snow and ice along the track, thick in places and you really had to watch your step, with legs as short as mine it was impossible to keep up with Bart! He was gone!

    We stopped at Kitchens hut for some lunch and then continued on around the face of Cradle Mountain and Smithies Peak. It was so beautiful walking right next to these amazing rock formations, though you had to stop if you wanted to look at them, otherwise you'd end up on your butt!

    We continued on till we got to the link track down to Lake Wilks. This was super steep and sketchy. Very interesting when you had your jacket tied around your waist and you didn't want to get it wet in the water or snow! But you had to almost sit down to reach down to the next foothold!

    Once you get down to Dove lake you've got boardwalk the rest of the way which was so nice. We stopped and I asked a couple to take a photo of us in front of the boat house, seeing we'd had one taken there back in 2005. Before heading back up to get the shuttle back to the information centre.

    Such a lovely day, so glad we changed our direction of travel and headed across to Cradle Mountain, the coast is lovely but I'm an alpine mountains girl at heart ❤️    Read more

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    Miena

    June 18, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ -2 °C

    After a freezing night, it was still bitingly cold inside and out with water even freezing in the tap in the motorhome! I felt sorry for Bart while he tried to wind up the power cable and grey water hose to stow it again. It was covered in frost and freezing!

    We then headed off on the last leg of our trip towards Hobart. We are going to take the road around the great lakes, one we've not done before. Our first stop was at Sheffield a super quaint little town with murals painted everywhere. We got out for a walk around to find an older man taking his alpaca for a walk down the main street 😄 he apparently did this every day.

    We then continued on to Deloraine another lovely old town where we had lunch in an old pub before heading out around the lakes to Miena. Apparently you don't want to stop for the night between Deloraine and Miena because it's so cold! If we are being told by Tasmanians that you don't want to stop due to the cold there was no way we were!

    On the way we stopped at Pine Lake walk which was lovely though freezing. Within 20m I was sorry I hadn't brought my gloves with me and something to breathe through. The air was almost too cold to breathe in directly. Then stopped again at the lookout over the big lake before continuing down the other side past Linawenee (the lady at the information centre in Deloraine said this was the coldest place in Tasmania!) to Miena where we parked up outside a hotel for the night 🤗 it may be a night for wearing a beanie to bed 😄🥶.    Read more

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    Mt Field National Park

    June 19, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C

    This morning we headed off from Miena towards Bothwell a very Scottish town with even the street signs being tartan! It has the oldest continuously run golf course there and where Angus beef were originally brought in from Scotland.

    We continued on to Hamilton which is a smaller town (I was expecting something bigger) but again very old and quaint, we stopped beside the river to make lunch and decide where to head next! We were planning on staying in Hamilton for the night but we were there so early and there wasn't much to see so we decided to continue on.

    Instead of heading to New Norfolk as we originally intended, we decided to detour slightly west up Mt Field instead. Mt Field is one of my favourite places so I was very excited, even though it means Bart will be in the cold for at least another day 😬.

    We arrived just after 2 and parked up before doing the Russell and Horseshoe Falls walk and then meandering along the river. Once it was dark, I headed back out with my head torch to Russell Falls to try and see glow worms. Saw lots of animals running away from me, but not too many glow worms, I don't think it was quite dark enough 🤷🏻‍♀️ but what made it all worthwhile was it started to snow lightly as I headed out, it was so beautiful being in the slowly falling flakes and the complete stillness around you. Though I did walk back very quickly after seeing the glowworms 😄    Read more

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    Final day in Hobart

    June 21, 2024 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 6 °C

    Yesterday we travelled from Mt Field to Hobart stopping at New Norfolk for most of the morning. As we were driving through Bart spotted a large number of old trucks, so we immediately pulled over to check them out. They ended up being part of an antique shop that is huge! The building is an old Asylum and it just goes on and on. We probably spent nearly 3 hours looking around. I totally expected Bart to find something that he wanted to get (and yes he did but it was just a $26,000 motorbike - so that's still there, for now anyway 🙄) I did walk away with a 1970's dominos set. Which I was very happy with.

    We got to the caravan park where we are going to spend our last 2 nights and I got some much needed washing done.

    Today, we headed out early to get a bus into the city (fortunately it comes right past the caravan park) we spent the morning walking around the city, stopping at Mures Seafood for lunch. Then headed off for the afternoon on a Pennicott Cruise down the Derwent River to Stormy bay, past Iron Pot Lighthouse and around Betsy Island.

    Pennicott do the best cruises if you are ever in Tasmania they are well worth doing (last trip we did the Wilderness Cruise out from Port Arthur - a very different cruise to this one, but spectacular) this cruise was more sedate and you didn't get wet which we appreciated seeing how cold it was.

    Because it was the Winter Solstice the sun set at 4:40pm so the lighting when we got out there at around 3:30pm and on our way back in was just beautiful. There were so many rain bands around us we had a rainbow somewhere pretty much most of the trip.

    It was a fantastic way to end our holiday. Now to pack up the van, try and get everything back in our suitcases tomorrow morning and off to the airport again. I know my darling husband is really looking forward to the warmer weather again!    Read more

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    Home again

    June 22, 2024 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    This morning we managed to get everything back into our bags and headed off to give the motorhome a quick gurney down at the local carwash (if you don't you have to pay a cleaning fee!) then headed towards the airport, we were early so found a spot where you could watch the planes come in. Though they are few and far between, I was expecting a plane every 10 minutes or so but there were about an hour between, but it was worth the wait.

    After an uneventful flight home we arrived to a very happy Indy (Sean and Chloe had dropped her home again for us in the afternoon).

    We had a wonderful two weeks away but it's so nice to be home again, really looking forward to our own bed tonight and seeing Banksia tomorrow! ❤️    Read more

    Trip end
    June 22, 2024
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