The rain continued on and off over night. Our decision to book a cabin ensured we had a dry start. We packed the Pajero and were on our way by 8.30am.
We had to make a slight detour to Wynyard to fill up with unleaded and LPG. The price of LPG is 30c/ltr more in Tasmania than what we paid in Melbourne!
Once topped up we travelled on towards Cradle Mountain. The road was very hilly and windy, the view at Hellyer's Gorge was magnificent.
We arrived at Cradle Mountain around 1.00pm and were pleasantly surprised with the way in which the accommodation at the Discovery Caravan & Cabin Park was laid out. All sites were set in bush surroundings.
We had some lunch and then walked down to the Visitor Centre and purchased our National Parks pass which also provided access to the shuttle bus. Once on the shuttle bus we were driven the 8kms or so to Dove Lake, which is at the base of Cradle Mountain. The bus ride is something that must be experienced, how they can make a one vehicle wide track/road accomodate two vehicles was quite scary.
Having arrived at Dove Lake we took numerous photos and video of Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake. The mountain still had reminants of snow.
We also booked a night tour to view the native animals. This was rather disappointing as there were not that many animals to see.
We returned to our cabin and retired at around 10.00pm.
We awoke to a very brisk morning, there was a coating of ice on the camper trailer's cover.
We were now in a good routine so far as packing up and were on the road again by 8.30am.
We again drive through hilly and windy roads before getting to Chudleigh were we stopped and visited the Honey Shop. We were just in time as it was closing the following day for renovations.
The weather was quite overcast and it was threatening to rain all day. We arrived at Hapsden around 1.00pm and booked into our accommodation. Having had lunch, we drove to Launceston to fill up with fuel. We were annoyed when we filled up with LPG for 79.9c/ltr at BP and a 150 metres down the road (out of initial sight), Shell was selling LPG for 65.9c/ltr. At least we knew were to fill up next time!
We the had a lieusrely drive up the East Tamar Highway to Beaconsfield, before traversing the Bateman Brideg and returning to Launceston via the West Tamar Highway.
Just as we returned to Hapsden, the rain started and continued well into the night.
We received our wake up call courtesy of the crew of the
Spirit of Tasmania at a quarter to six in the morning. We quickly showered and packed our overnight bag so that we were ready to disembark.
Getting of the ship seemed to take forever (well it seemed that way, even though it was around an hour). We ended up in the lane in which every vehicle was inspected by the sniffer dog, so we had to open the rear of the Pajero, open the toolbox and rear gate on the camper trailer. We were then allowed on our way. We picked up our gas bottle which had been removed from the camper trailer when we boarded.
We found the local McDonalds and had a egg and bacon meal deal. Whilst at McDonalds we noticed Roothy's 4WD, Milo, parked nearby with the other 4 4WD Action crew 4WD's. We were fortunate to talk with Roothy for 5 minutes or so before we excused ourselves and set off for Stanley.
We enjoyed the drive across the top of Tasmania and arrived at Stanley after an hour and a half of driving.
We were able to book-in to our cabin early and then drove the scenic route and took some magnificent video and photos of The Nut.
We had lunch in the Stanley Hotel. The prices were moderately high for the standard of food provided. The food also seemed to go cold very quickly and was not as enjoyable as it ought to have been.
Fortunately we had booked into a cabin, rather than set up the camper trailer, as around 2.30pm the heavens opened up and it poured with rain for an hour and a half before clearing up a little.
Having watch the Grand Final and witnessing a very comprehensive victory by Collingwood, we retired quite early. With daylight saving commencing today, we were all awake and ready to move on by 8.30am.
We decided a visit to the Queen Victoria Markets were in order. Having last visited the markets approximately 10 years ago, we were a little dissapointed with the wares being sold. We were at the markets for an hour and a half before deciding to find a spot to park whilst waiting to board
The Spirit of Tasmania.
We found a nice spot a few kilometres down the road from Station Pier and waited four or so hours before we could commence boarding. The time to board finally arrived and we drove onto the ship. Whilst boarding we noticed Roothy and his crew from 4WD Action were also travelling to Tasmania.
By 6.00pm we were on board and settled into our cabin for the journey over. We had a meal at the "Captain's Table" restaurant on board and were very surprised with the quality of the food on offer.
After a drink or two we retired to our cabin. We woke a few times during the night and felt the ship rocking and swaying as we crossed Bass Straight.
The day finally arrived - we're going to Tasmania!
Last week's drawn AFL Grand Final meant we had to come to some concensus as to what time we left Adelaide for the drive over to Melbourne. Do we leave late Friday night and get to Melbourne in plenty of time to book-in and then watch the Grand Final, or do we leave early Saturday morning and get to Melbourne in time to watch the second half of the Grand Final.
After a vote 3-1 in favour of leaving late Friday night, SWMBO had the deciding vote and it was agreed that we would leave on Saturday morning. We left Adelaide around 5.15am for Melbourne.
We filled up with LPG at Tailem Bend (74.9c/ltr), Bordertown (69.9c/ltr), Horsham (59.9c/ltr), Ballarat (46.9c/ltr) and North Melbourne (43.7c/ltr).
I used the GPS Motion iPhone app to monitor our travel to Melbourne. The trip took 10 hours and 11 minutes, and we travelled 777kms at an average speed of 76.3klm/hr.
