Too much civilization, not enough wilderness Par Avion graciously fulfill our craving – and squeeze our family into their tiniest plane with a days notice – off to Melaleuca we fly, and you couldn’t wipe the smiles off all our faces!!

We flew South, down the coast, passing over our favourite campsite – Jetty Beach on Bruny Island. Then a right hand turn at Cockle Creek to follow some amazing Dolarite cliffs along the South Coast to Melaleuca.

The area is so unique and something which has to be felt as well as seen.

Excited to be back to the hut where Gary, Curl & Rooster stayed in March 2012 – We look back through the visitors book to find their entry.

The only access is by boat plane or walking for a week. It’s very isolated and the few individuals who chose to live here must of led a lonely life. The boat ‘cruise’ to Bathurst Harbour was such a great way to see the surrounds, even better when captained by a pilot – weeeeeeeee.

A familiar point for Gary’s walk- Joan Point at the Bathurst Narrows boat crossing.

We pull up to a small beach for our amazing lunch with views to the ‘quartzite’ Breaksea Islands at the Southern entrance to Bathurst Harbour.

We were suprised by our next stop. Claytons Corner jetty to disembark and explore an amazing shack, once owned by a lovely couple Clive & Win Clayton. It had amazing history and is now managed by a volenteer group and Parks & Wildlife.

What an amazing day!!!

Hobart has been beckoning us. This time we decide a visit through the week, thus avoiding the hustle and bustle that Summer Salamanca markets bring – just what we need. We check in to familiar apartments in New Town for 3 nights.

We enjoy plenty of retail, pub lunches, cafes, movies, and a fun visit to the Tasmania Museum & Art Gallery (fantastic hands on school holiday program). We are starting to feel like we know our way around this sleepy city.

The drive south to Cockle Creek meanders its way past the Huon River through farmland and the working forests to the end of the road. The most Southern place you can drive.

A pretty place with a great forecast for the next few days, we find a top little spot on the beach near a dunny – 3 days down here will be easy to take.

Monday 18^th Jan– The 8km (one way) walk to South Cape Bay is the commencement / conclusion to the 84km South Coast trek. Through button grass, tea tree plains, light forests and coastal scrub the view from Coal Bluff was all to the south, with large waves rolling in, the air so refreshing from the bottom of the world – a contrast from the stuffy track heat.

After a couple of hours walking, we make it to the bottom of Australia…

A rocky decent to the beach, which surprisingly had quite a few people on it.

After cooking lunch of noodles and salmon in a shady campsite at South Cape – where we were driven crazy by March Fly’s, shame they couldn’t carry us back to our camp! It was a long hot walk back – finally there – a refreshing swim fixed everything…

Next morning we pack up camp with looming grey clouds, typical South Coast weather, first stop – just in time for lunch was The Southport Hotel – Australia’s most southern hotel. tick!!

After leaving Bruny we tuck up in Snug, below Hobart for a couple of days in a cabin, we dry our washing between intermittent showers, as well as taking advantage of an oven.

Smelling reasonably clean, we decide to head south and take a punt on a campsite at the Tahune Airwalk which is run by forestry Tasmania, should have good firewood supply at least! Perfect for our reverse fire.

The campsite was great and was inclusive with the airwalk admission fee. We chose to do the walk late in the evening – well after the kiosk was closed and the day visitors had left.

A short walk through the forest floor to a sky walk, within the canopy. Pretty cool! Even better to have all this to ourselves with a tinnie!

The next morning we do a couple of walks here at The Tahune. A favourite was the ‘Swing Bridges’. Crossing over 2 rivers.

Driving further south to Cockle Creek, we discover a fabulous old hall in a quaint bay at Police Point, perfect for our lunch stop.

A trip to Tassie is incomplete without a stay or at least a visit to Bruny Island. Cloudy Corner Campsite is an ideal setting for another encounter with friends ‘The Nederlofs’ and their camper. We were hesitant to drive on the sand, but a quick recce ensured we had nothing to worry about. The tide was low and the sand firm. A lovely shady elevated campsite welcomed us at the other end of Cloudy Bay.

Doubling our numbers calls for beach cricket & cocktails…

Too much cricket breaks the bat! Trust 2 joiners to be carrying enough tools and fixings to make running repairs, after a short delay the game is back on!

The mercury rises and the ranger posts a ‘total fire ban’ that means one thing – hit the beach!

The families have a super time in the idyllic surrounds, but its time to leave via Bruny Island Cheese for fresh sour dough, artesian cheese, cider, beer & wine. Then a sneaky whisky sampling – too much perhaps – as the Neds get pulled up behind us, as we’re the last to fit on the ferry… til the next one at least! Doh!!!

Bye Bye Ned’s its been fun

It’s been 16years since we have visited the Tasman Peninsula, during this super busy period we have managed to secure a site in an overflow area in a campground at Stewart’s Bay, 3 minutes from Port Arthur, with nice amenities and great camp kitchen – only problem it’s a bit of a hike from our overflow site.

1st outing we visit Eaglehawk neck, with its Tessellated Pavement as well as the bronze sculpture representing the colonial dog line, which stopped convicts escaping northward. Leni tries to restrain the hound!

Lunch beckons, and we venture to Lime Bay and nearby the world heritage listed Coal Mines. Absolutely fascinating!

Monday at Port Arthur brings a reunion for our family, ‘Thelma & Louise’ aka Nan and Jane meet us and we have a lovely BLT lunch in the gardens.

Port Arthur is a fascinating place with an extraordinary history, it was great to see the projects Rohan worked on during his tenure, something that will be forever etched in the Port’s future.

The Seperate Prison was a place of complete silence – hooded prisoners were allowed in the small open air exercise cells for only 1 hour per day, the chapel below had solitary booths for prisoners – all facing forward – no eye contact with anyone else.

Our boat ride around the harbour took us to Isle of the Dead for a guided walking tour with interesting stories of convicts, grave diggers, and guards.

The girls chicken out on the Ghost tour (wisely) – opting to sleep! As the boys in the family have supernatural experiences.

Our ferry was at 1:30pm to Maria Island, which gave us ample time to pack up, organize ourselves and prepare our pushies with even a little time to visit a small community workshop of retired men who restore old boats and a beautiful stage coach from the area, Very Cool.

The trolleys provided are big enough for all our stuff, and even our bikes, just not enough handles for everyone.

First adventure – fossil cliffs – uphill, into the wind, sun on our backs.

Nearby rocky outcrops Clerk and Bishop were ever visible on the island, we won’t be tackling this one!

Our trip back to camp was almost comical, with a stop every 50metres or so to observe wombats, Echidnas, Forester Kangaroos, Pademelons, Cape Barron Geese and in the creek a shoal of large Galaxians. It had the feeling of an exhibition of Tassie animals.

Then the Devil show started, even before the sun went down a small devil bolted through camp, and found refuge under the picnic table Leni was sitting on. She was SO Excited to have had such a close encounter with her fave Tassie Animal!!

Later that evening a group of teenage boys that were camping next to us, had typical teenage boy hygiene and had left their food waste out – the 2 devil siblings got stuck into their rubbish bag and then each other. It was a vicious display for our own private viewing, they certainly live up to their ‘devil’ name.

The Maria Island township is named Darlington, it has a collection of colonial era buildings, some restored, some used, and some abandoned. I love all they have to offer – colours, textures, untold stories.

Our 2nd day here, we ride south, past the Painted Cliffs for a lunch stop at Four Mile Beach. It’s slow going, up and down hills and getting hot. But we have plenty of water and lolly stops along the way. Then enjoy our private beach views for lunch of Salmon Noodles & collected native Sampfire.

Back to camp for a rest, then an afternoon of exploring the Silo ruins – with resident wombats.

Saturday – early morning pack up allows us to enjoy the last of this piece of paradise before our 10am ferry back to Triabunna.

Our pack up and walk out from Douglas Apsley NP was hastened with the onset of rain, which is much needed around here. It was just lovely watching a (very short) downpour whilst chowing down on toasties and bacon & egg rolls at our favorite take-away “Porky’s” in Bicheno.

Our 2^nd stop at Devils Corner Winery for oysters and wine overlooking the beautiful Hazards at Coles Bay, this re-furbed winery had only been re-open for 3 weeks, with tasting rooms, food bars and a new tower with viewing cage’s taking in the view to the Freycinet Peninsula, all made from Royal Wolf Shipping Containers. Love it!!

A short drive to Triabunna to have a surprise catch up with our friends the Breglec’s from back home, 2 great nights together of fun and games, with much chat about our fab journeys so far. Gary & Troy really enjoy the Ironhouse Porter – which didn’t last the night.

A day of rest after bush camping, we wash – clean – and stock up, whilst seeing off the Breglec’s for their day of exploration on Maria Island.

We arrive in the busy coastal town of St Helens, a small town bursting with tourists. We are lucky to find a self-contained apartment for the night, to catch up on washing, get more supplies and organise our backpacks for a walk-in campsite at Douglas Apsley National Park. The 2 T20 matches back to back tonight were an added bonus!

A scenic drive south, with sweeping coastal views and a few funny road signs to boot.

Our first stop was the Iron House brewery, for a tasting paddle – the Porter was surprisingly refreshing at 11am… so we hit the road with a 6pack. (at time of publication Porters have gone! more about that in next entry)

Nearby Douglas Apsley National Park it’s a 10min walk from the car-park to the camp site, this was a good opportunity to test our light weight camping gear, and see what we really need to carry in for a 2 night stay, when we visit Maria Island(later this week) we won’t have the luxury of returning to the truck to retrieve something we have forgotten! We find an empty campsite, and set up near the convenient table.. There’s a fire ban here so no getting warm tonight.

The NP is stunning, clear water (which is very rare in Tassie – due to tea tree staining) We settle in for some swimming and tic tac toe

We are all inspired by Jane, who cycled into camp on a pushy, towing a trailer, she is from Melbourne and cycling around Tassie for 2 months, she was so happy, her ukulele was a nice addition to camp quiet times. But upon chatting, we found this trip is tiny compared to the 2 years she cycled from Beijing to Melbourne!! She is loving life!

There was a tiger snake living under a big rock near the waterhole, he’d come out and sun himself then disappear as soon as people came too close to his rock, even the Wrens came and chorused to raise awareness.

The kids thoroughly enjoyed warning other visitors about the snake, some had very extreme reactions – leaping in the air, or stopping completely and not bothering to come down to the water. We enjoyed this little campsite, and early morning coffe by the water, and UNO on the rocks at sunset. Even the bugs matched my nail polish!

Time to pack up from our lake after 3 nights, with a short 1 hour drive to the Weldborough Hotel, we arrive just in time for lunch. They have closed til 2:30pm so we set up camp out the back, prepare some lunch then wait for them to arrive to open up with a game of cricket. How fantastic, a pub in the middle of nowhere with every Tassie craft beer and cider available AND you can camp out the back : ) HAPPY DAYS……

The nearby Weldborough Pass Forest Walk had the most amazing Myrtle Trees and enormous Tree ferns.