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!