Leaving Brisbane
Getting to the ferry in Melbourne, from Brisbane, eight days up the spout, a ute full of kids, dog and essential stuff, and a 14 year old camper trailer.
After a couple of years of planning and preparation and a few hectic months extracting ourselves from the house, work and school commitments we were finally ready to hit the road to start our fifteen-month adventure.
The night before we left, Sarah had played in her soccer team’s effort to win the grand final after a very successful season (her team won every match for the year – except the grand final). Sarah injured herself early in the game, which was disappointing for her and for her fans, but the team fought well against the old nemesis, Park Ridge and provided an entertaining evening. It rained throughout the game, which had me thinking a bit about driving in the rain for the first leg of our trip.
It rained solidly while we drove from Brisbane to Crescent Head on our first day. It is about a five-and-a-half-hour drive, but it took longer despite our minimal stopping on the way. The waterproof roof-rack packing was put to the test, and it seemed a pretty miserable start to the trip. We stopped briefly for lunch at a rest stop where we quickly cobbled together a sandwich while trying to keep off the horizontal rain.
We arrived at our destination in Crescent Head, which is my friend, Dennis’s house at the top of the hill, with views out to the ocean, and surrounded by bushland. It was a great place to have our first night on the road, and we were fed and watered by our host.
The next day we checked out Crescent Head town and Kempsey, both of which seemed quite interesting. Crescent Head seemed to be dominated by the Country Club, which offered lawn bowls, a six-hole golf course and seaside views from the clubhouse.
After a second night, we repacked and set off early on our longest drive of the trip to get us to Parkes in NSW.
The weather in Parkes was fine and the town was lovely and green. Jett and I restarted our morning walks and found a path that led out of the town and suddenly into the countryside – it was, as Sarah pointed out, much like an English country path when you suddenly find yourself walking among the sheep (or cows in this case).
Sarah and the kids went off to The Dish while I looked after Jett and did some overdue work/study. In the afternoon the kids badgered me into playing some cricket with them on the big AFL field next door. We played for an hour or so and it was fun to watch them improve their batting skills during that time.
From Parkes we went on to Wodonga, which reminded me a bit of a caravan park we stayed at in NZ, which was on the outskirts, near the highway and mostly surrounded by industry. It was very wet and miserable while we were there and the kids got in a bit of bike riding. Hamish joined me and Jett for our morning walk and we had a bit of a look around Albury and Wodonga – mostly from the dry of the car.
We packed up wet and headed for Melbourne on our last big day of road travel. We normally pack pretty light for camping, but we have had, somewhat, to plan for a lot of different scenarios that might happen over 15 months – weather, proximity to civilisation, variety of extra-curricular activities – and as a consequence we are travelling pretty heavy. Therefore, the moving every second day was a bit of a mission – packing up, unpacking and setting up on the same day as a long drive was pretty tiring.
Luckily in Melbourne and in Crescent Head, our hosts had us staying in their houses (or in Dennis’s case, his pool house) which made our lives significantly easier.
Melbourne turned on some sunshine and we were able to get everything in order again before moving on. We were also able to leave some gear with our hosts Jane and Ramsey (stuff not needed for Tassie) so lightened the load a bit. Packing has certainly become more straight forward, and our longer stays are already making the prospect of moving far less daunting.
The early start to get on the ferry went smoothly, all boxes were ticked in terms of Tassie customs, and the trip over Bass Straight went to plan. Arriving in Devonport after dark and then setting up camp was a bit of a mission, but we were well prepared for it, and well rested after the boat ride.
Now to have a really good look around Tassie.
