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Jet, Prince and Wine

Our original loose plan was to spend the final 10-ish days in Tassie exploring the West coast and the North West regions. However, Mother Nature had a different plan. Weather forecast: rain, rain, rain!

So we opted for an emergency last minute Airbnb to stay dry and cosy, and what a blessing the rain ended up being! It meant we had to do a fairly big day of driving from Strahan back up to the Tamar Valley Wine region, but the drive was worth it! We stayed with a beautiful family for 3 nights in a cosy apartment up-cycled from old shipping containers. We had a hot shower, a ‘real’ toilet, a comfy couch and a kitchen. It’s amazing the things we take for granted everyday.

The dogs absolutely loved it here, and they made friends with Jet (the short haired border collie) and Prince (the toy poodle) and had the best time running around the paddocks with them! The rain was on and off over these days, but it didn’t deter us from making the most of our situation.

We visited the Brook Eden vineyard, only 500m walk down the road. The wine tasting was delicious, and speaking with the man who owns it was fascinating. Their vintage sparking wine was particularly blissful! Dan opted out of visiting the Lavender farm a short drive away, but I was so glad I went. Lavender ice cream is a very unique and delicious experience, as were the Lavender teas. The lavender farm was very pretty even after the flowers had been cut for processing. The agricultural lavender oil distillery satisfied the engineer in me, and I went home with a few lavender treats (lavender and tomato chutney).

Strahan

You would be forgiven for thinking Strahan was somewhere further north up the east coast of Australia, compared to Bothwell a few nights earlier, it was practically tropical! The sun was shining and we were back in double digit temperatures, all be it 11 degrees. We met up with our friends again here (once again, the dogs were super stoked to see them!!). We had coffee at a cute little cafe by the water and went to set up camp nearby.

Strahan has a really cool vibe. We liked it here! There was a beach for the dogs to play on and a little shop that made amazing pizza just across the road! We even did a mini hike up to Hogarth Falls. We stayed up late sitting in our friends van with the dogs, drinking horrible red wine from a box, and singing songs from the 90s….great night!

Kingston, Bothwell & Queenstown

I’m now about 2 months behind in my blog posting, it’s amazing how quickly the time passes.

After our 2 night adventure at Trout Creek we opted for a warm bed and hot shower at an Airbnb. We stayed in Kingston, about 15 minutes out of Hobart. Our host, Sandy and her 15 year old Spaniel were absolutely amazing. We had the most wonderful few nights, cooking up feasts in the kitchen, taking the dogs for huge runs in the paddocks and relaxing by the fire with a glass of wine at night.

We also went hiking up to Pelverata Falls with the dogs. It’s so interesting, it was as if Olive and Lucy already knew the way even though they’ve never been there before. I am in constant awe of their intelligence and unconditional love!

We regretfully said goodbye to Sandy and Ollie, and continued on further inland to Bothwell. Bothwell was FREEZING!! But was also a great little village even though the camp site was literally right next to the village cemetery which was a little spooky at night when I needed to use the bathroom…The local scotch distillery was a highlight and they even let us do the scotch tasting with the doggos, so bonus points for them!! When we woke in our tent the following morning it was negative 3 degrees and there was a layer of white frost covering the tent and car. This was a new record temperature for our camping adventure….the novelty didn’t last when it took half an hour to boil the kettle in the morning on the camping stove because the gas kept basically freezing!

From the freezing morning, a beautiful day was born and we continued on to Queenstown. Such a weirdly interesting place. We got there quite late but the local caravan park were very obliging and we’re super pro-pets! They had a lovely communal kitchen to cook in and the best hot shower and bathrooms we’ve seen on this trip so far!

Hot showers and real toilets are something I will never take for granted again! After camping for days on end in the middle of the bush during winter (wearing lots of layers of clothing), there are some nights where you think maybe you can just hold off having to empty your bladder until the morning… but usually this ends up in another hour of uncomfortable tossing and turning in the tent which then leads to an urgent rush to get out of the tent, a balancing act to try and peel off the layers of clothing, a cold wake up call on your skin when you finally get the layers off before you can even ‘go’. Then you have to balance while putting all the layers back on, while trying not to jump in the wee on the ground, before you can crawl back into the tent and go back to sleep! Obviously this is only a real issue for the ladies, Dan didn’t really understand…

Ross & Trout Creek

We decided to take the inland route towards Ross and on the way we stopped at the most glorious white sandy beach so the dogs could have a run and explore. Then with priorities in order, we did some cellar door wine tasting and Devils corner…or at least I did some wine tasting and Dan waited patiently with the dogs! Then we drove on and set up camp at Ross and checked out the old bridge built by convicts, had a coffee at the bakery then cooked some delicious Mexican fare for dinner.

Trout Creek was an interesting expedition. We got lost a few times trying to find it, but we got there eventually and set up our tent at the prettiest and most tranquil creek we’ve seen this trip. No noise but the birds and the bubbling of the water. We ate oysters and Devils point Chardonnay for an entree and trout fillets with salad for a main. Listening to music with the dogs by our feet (and a pretty dismal fire), we waited for our friends to arrive in their magical van.

They arrived at around 8 o’clock, and the dogs were super excited to see them again!

We woke the next morning to the sound of Tasmanian Golden Wattle Birds and with coffee cups warming our hands cooked up a hot breakfast of mushrooms, tomatoes, local eggs and cheese!

The boys tried their hand at fishing in the creek, and us girls and the dogs made scones on the campfire and went looking for more wattle birds. There is something so special about having nothing particular to do and to being able to spend time outside with friends exploring the natural world and enjoying the simplicity of being.

Big Lagoon

Still technically within the Bay of Fires region, the Big Lagoon camping area was our second very isolated camping spot on this trip. We followed one of the many sandy tracks into and around the lagoon until we found ‘our spot’. We set up right next to the lagoon and the dogs were able to run wild and free for a few days. They loved swimming in the lagoon and exploring the bushland. I loved the absolute peacefulness of this location and watching the black swans and ducks on the water while sitting by the fire. We made a beer bread on the fire in the old camp oven we’ve carted all this way (recipe from the River Cottage Australia Cookbook) and it was seriously delicious! It went down a treat with our pumpkin soup that night.

Bay of Fires

We spent last weekend in Launceston with some friends who were lovely enough to let the doggos run wild in the house (luckily we didn’t have to camp during the crazy weather that flooded Hobart and ripped roofs of buildings!)

Then we drove to the Bay of Fires conservation area and set up camp at Policeman’s Point (the northern most free campsite of the BOF area). This had a gorgeous beach, heaps of native birdlife and heaps of other animals….which we cannot name because we have no idea what they were….in the warm safety of our tent house we heard all sorts of weird things….was it a Tassie Devil? Maybe! But there were other strange bird noises and things that kept waking us up. I have to say, this place had a weird vibe but the beach and sunshine (when it was out) was glorious!

Helllloooo Tasmania! & the Waterhouse Conservation Area

After the 10-ish hour boat ride across from Melbourne to Tasmania we camped in Devonport for the night and the doggos were definitely relieved to be off the boat and back in the tent! We stocked up on supplies the next morning and headed to Bridport, then on to the Waterhouse Conservation Area.

Waterhouse Conservaion Area – if you love camping, then I highly recommend checking out the free camping spots within the Waterhouse conservaion area. We made a decision early in our trip to put up with colder and more variable weather to have some of these amazing places (hopefully) too ourselves. And we got lucky! We camped for 4 nights at the Casurina Hill camping area and the photos speak for themselves. The most amazing sunrises I have ever seen, pristine beaches (with no plastic trash!) and pretty much the whole area all for us, which made the dogs happy as they could run free for the whole 5 days! This place is a definite highlight so far…

See ya later Melbourne

Our beachfront Campsite

See ya later Melbourne

Our beachfront Campsite

Wangaratta and Strathewen

Had an awesome time in Wangaratta at the Caravan park there which had a fenced off-leash doggy play area (first caravan park we’ve seen with this, so extra points to these guys). Then onward to our first Airbnb of the trip in Strathewen, about an hour outside Melbourne. These guys were absolutely lovely and there house rocked! Big warm fireplace, amazing big kitchen with windows looking out to the bushland out the back. We had a 2 nights here to recoup and get final preps done for the trip across the Bass Strait to Tassie. 

Dubbo, Boorowa and Wagga Wagga

Ok, it’s starting to get seriously cold for people from North Queensland. Dubbo was 7 degrees, Boorowa was ZERO!! and Wagga Wagga was just cold! We have officially got the thermals and beanies out! The other exciting thing about this part of the journey is we have seasons now. Autumn leaves are falling and the colours are gorgeous! We Took the doggos for a run around on the ‘beach’ at Wagga, and we met some other crazy people camping round Australia (in a tent) with their dogs.

Gold Coast, Toowoomba and Goondiwindi

From one set of family to the next, we bee-lined back up and inland from the Gold Coast to Toowoomba. Full of beautiful old timber and brick houses, flowery parks and big leafy trees, we came to visit my cousin Caitlin and partner Harry. Thanks for feeding us a delicious roast meal we couldn’t ever imagine attempting on a gas burner on the back of the ute! It was so nice to catch up with them and hear some interesting travel stories from Harry…..involving way too much trust in dodgy strangers and policeman who happened to be in the right place at the right time!!!

We left Caitlin and Harry (and their other guests Katherine, Lachlan and Zoe) after breaky and decided to call it a day of driving when we reached Goondiwindi. What a little gem of a camp site! We were right next to “The Billabong” with heaps of native birds in the trees right next to us! We were so excited to be here we held a bushdance (see photo).