Sunday 15th February 2004

We finally made it to Tasmania, arriving at 07:15am this morning after departing Melbourne at 9:05pm last night.

The trip up to Melbourne from Mornington started at 5:26pm last night and our timing was pretty good as we arrived about 15 minutes after they opened up the gates onto the pier where the Spirit of Tasmania-1 berths. We were able to drive straight into the cue of vehicles to board, however the ferry wasn't in at that time and we did have to sit around with everyone else and watched the Spirit of Tasmania-1 pull into the dock. This in itself was a very interesting spectacle as it does not use any assistance at all from any other vessel, it just drives straight in beside the dock, then maneuvers itself sideways right up against the dock, then gets tied up and ready to discharge it's load of people and vehicles. Then the outward bound vehicles and people get on board and the whole cycle starts all over again. From arrival to departure was only about one hour forty five minutes, this is pretty amazing as there appeared to be several hundreds of vehicles.

We were checked for any fuel containers that could have contained any kind of fuel so it was a good thing I gave my unleaded petrol away and filled the container with water as it would have caused us a problem, or more likely, the loss of the container as well as the fuel. We eventually drove on board at about 8:40pm, just 20 minutes before the ferry was destined to depart and were able to go straight up to our cabin which was on the seventh level of the ship. The cabin was a twin berth with a bathroom and a large (square) porthole. When we eventually went to bed it felt pretty comfortable to us.

We decided to dine in the A La Carte restaurant and after a drink at the bar, sat down at the dinner table at about 9:35pm. We eventually left the restaurant at about 12:15pm after having dined very well and also sampled a good tasting of wine. It was not really cheap, at $122.00 for the two of us ($34.00 wine included), but the atmosphere and occasion made it well worth while.

After sleeping soundly for as long as we could, we were woken by the Pursers voice over the speaker system telling us it was 6.am and that we were docking by 7am and would be driving our vehicles off the ferry by 7:15am, and he was right. We just had time for a quick shower and morning cup of tea before having to get into our vehicle to drive off the ferry. We did have one small difficulty leaving the ferry when the rear stabilizing legs of the caravan caught on the ferry ramp, but we dragged them off and only caused a very minor dent in one leg. They all still work just like they should do.

Once off the ferry we were checked by security for any fresh fruit and vegetables (we had made use of all we hade before boarding) then we were on the road to somewhere - we hadn't made up our mind at that time. As we were leaving the dock area we (and all other arrivals) were handed a welcome Pack and 'one of us became quite excited about that. We eventually decided on heading west to Burnie and after passing through the town/city centre, we pulled into the Burnie Motel and Caravan Park on the Bass Highway. Currently we are set up well and booked in for two nights but believe we will stay longer because we quite like the spot and there is bound to be plenty to see within easy driving from this location.

Monday 16th February 2004

Today we took a short drive from Burnie and headed east through Sulpher Creek and stopped at Penguin where we had a walk down the main street and onto the beach. It seems they have really taken on the name 'Penguin' because just about every shop had a statue of a penguin standing in the street outside. Then there is the one in the park area at the foreshore, which happens to be somewhere over three metres tall.

From Penguin we kept on traveling east until we came to Ulverstone. We drove around this fairly large town once or twice, then parked in the street and walked down the block to buy lunch at a bakery. After getting out lunch, we drove down to the river near the centre of Ulverstone and sat in the car watching the world go by while we ate it. However one fellow didn't go by, he stopped and had a long chat with us and even offered us the use of his beach house south of Melbourne, somewhere near Phillip Island I believe. He was an extremely nice fellow and very friendly. He had come to Tasmania with his wife and daughter for his son's wedding and they were taking a holiday whilst here. It was quite a coincidence that his son's name is Travis and he married a girl named Lisa (Not quite a Lana like our Travis is marrying, but close!)

From Ulverstone we went inland towards Gunns Plain, but on the way stopped to take some photographs from a hillside and also had a feast of wild blackberries that were growing on the side of the road. It is a long time since we had sampled blackberries like this and they were delicious.

From the blackberry patch through to Gunns Plain, we drove through some very hilly (or maybe mountains) forest country that was a delight to see and we stopped at a creek that was running quite fast. At the creek we took some photographs and then 'one of us' started to chat with some elderly people who were having lunch there. They were a pair of amazing couples who were each soon to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. They invited us to call in on them when we were going past their place near Launceston. The people in Tasmania seem to go right out of their way to be friendly to tourists like us.

From there we continued on to Gunns Plain, then came back to Burnie via Riana, Nantone and Stowport. It was a great drive and if it is a sample of what we can expect in the future through Tasmania, it is going to be a great couple of months here.

Unfortunately the photographs we show in the website just do not do the actual places justice, you have to see it to get the real picture, so come on over...