Well people we took the plunge and headed back across Bass Strait to Tasmania for another adventure in the FATLDY, our 3rd time in 2 years. Hoping to not mirror last year where we lost the transmission half way round and had to be towed home. Our annual pilgrimage was to attend the Turners Beach Berry Patch VW show. (See my report in VW shows and runs) We also use these visits to catch up with our many friends’ old and new.
Tasmania is a fabulous place to visit. The boat is the biggest cost but with careful planning in can be cost effective, one needs to book in advance, keep an eye out for advertised specials. The cost for this trip was $550 return, no cabins or fancy stuff just day sails, our only luxury was to get reclining seats on our return, these have USB ports and 240-volt power.
My theory is that for the boat cost you need to be travelling for a minimum of 2 to 3 weeks to get value from the fare. 3 weeks is ideal, you wont see everything but you will get a good feel about the place.
Some tips for travelling to Tassie. Customs come into play. There are things you can’t take into Tassie, check website for info, also don’t take Jerry cans of fuel or loose gas canisters. But coming back it’s easier so load up with salmon and veggies etc.
On the boat purchase a parks pass I think $60 for 3 months this will get your vehicle and up to 8 occupants into state parks.
Take laptop and iPods’ to keep the boredom at bay. Everything on the boat has a cost so food, movies and anything you need, will cost so take food ,snacks and bottles of drink.
As for travelling around, yes Tasmania is hilly but so is the Blue Mountains, Canberra and the Adelaide hills. Time does go slower down here and is not as rushed. Camping is the usual Caravan parks, state parks or free parks at many locations, best to get Wiki-Camps on your smart phone, this will give you the best options and costs. Some smaller towns offer campsites for free; they just ask that you spend some money in their town. With the parks pass you can camp in many state parks for between $10.00 to $16.00 a night per vehicle, depending on facilities, not all venues have showers so caravan parks are good every 2 to 3 days to clean up. Best thing about most state parks is you can have an open fire, so our Jaffle iron had a workout.
Food in Tassie is just like the mainland but there are more farm gates, so you can get easily fresh fruit and veggies, most towns have an IGA, most seaside towns have a fish supply where fresh fish can be bought. Fuel is readily available but some places only 91.
Tassie is not that big about 400 klm north to south and 420 klm east to west but it is a land of contrasts, rain forest to sand dunes. Road conditions vary from nice bitumen to rutted gravel but usually the shit road leads to a great place. Weather this time of the year is mostly sunny. Take a jumper/jacket if you go walking as weather can change quickly.
So on to our journey we covered the furthest southern point, Cockle Creek, with its bronze whale sculpture (While there visit the Ida Bay Railway and experienced what square wheels on a train are like), the most eastern point Point Eddystone at the northern end of the Bay of Fires (with its beautiful stone lighthouse) and the most Western point ,”End of the World” at Arthurs Creek (For those willing to walk there are aboriginal petro glyphs which are thousands of years old), these 3 places alone were so varied.
So for a small place we did just over 2500klm in 3 weeks. We also had 2 days on a yacht in the south around Bruny Island.
Only mechanical problem was oil consumption, about 4 litres in total, my guess is thrust bearing is on way out causing rear main seal leak. But if that is the worst then so be it.
Thanks for reading, I will keep DSK posted on the dates for next year and we may be able to get a few mainlanders there.
Cheers Paul
