McPherson's Blog: First post of the trip ....

We have finally hit the track and started our big adventure. We left Sydney on the 8th December heading straight for Melbourne to jump on board the Spirit of Tasmania on the 10th. Looking back it was such a mammoth, whirlwind effort with one of the few things we never organised before departure was our mobile internet. All is connected now, hence I can do a blog post :-).

Heading to Port Melbourne had its challenges - a snapped alternator belt along the way. Thankfully we were on track to arrive 2 1/2 hours early for the boat and with our set back we arrived with 15 minutes to spare - STRESSFUL! It was such a relief to be on the boat, not only due to the immediate hold up but also the last seven months of saying "we're leaving in roughly 3 weeks time". It finally has happened, we have finally begun ... seems a little like a dream.

Devonport - first pic of Tasmania!

The wake up call at 6am was so exciting. I very rarely bounce out of bed ... but this day I did as did everyone else. Stepped outside and saw Devonport - it smelt so fresh and the air so crisp. I think I spent about 3 days pinching myself that we really were in Tasmania and we really were on our year trip.

Waterhouse Conservation Area

After planning for a while that we would head to Bay of Fires area first, Stephen says let's check out the top - so up near Bridport to Waterhouse Conservation Area we went. We were welcomed with a beautiful, private beach camp area, with fire pit and our own walkway to the beach. The beach - footprintless sand and aqua water with little rock islands - WOW plus the camp fees .... Nil!

After looking at weather reports we decided to head over to the east coast after three nights. As everyone says, distances are short in Tasmania but travel time long. We rolled into St Helens in the very late afternoon, checked in at Information and decided on Dianas Basin for our next camp of two or so weeks. Again we got a great spot, deserted beach, lagoon, great bird life and camp fees of .... Nil!

Highlights of St Helens - the fishing (we had many a meal from our catches), Christmas (that might warrant a separate blog post), Lil's birthday (berry crumble), sampling and cooking local produce.

During our time there it got busier and busier. The newer group being not quite the type of people we want to be around on New Years Eve as many a night previous they were carrying on as if it was midday well past 2am ... even with the police giving them warnings we decided it was time to make tracks and head to Myrtle Park about 30km out of Launceston.

The platypus!

What a great decision that was - Myrtle Park is a large council run camp ground on a beautiful river with trout and platypus - we've heard of the latter being at many a place, but could we ever spot one ... NO. We were hoping this would not be the case again ... and to our great delight it wasn't. Both nights we sat by the river at a spot a previous camper had told us of in St Helens we spotted the cute little fury creature!

That's all for now ... hope you enjoy some of the photos below.