Bound for Sydney

Hobart to Melbourne

8 March 2019

After eleven wonderful weeks in Hobart, it was finally time to return home. Leaving Tassie is always bittersweet, glad to be heading home but sad to be leaving family behind. This time was especially so as we were leaving both daughters and their partners after being with then just about every day. After cramming all our gear into the car we set off for a leisurely drive to Devonport to catch the Spirit of Tasmania for a night sail to Melbourne. We stopped for a picnic lunch by the lake in Oatlands, and for a look in the antique shops in Campbell Town before arriving in Devonport a little earlier than we had planned. As we drove over the bridge we noticed that cars seemed to be boarding somewhat earlier than anticipated so we drove down and boarded with very little waiting. It’s so much easier in Devonport than Melbourne, not least because you don’t have the traffic and motorways to negotiate.

A favourite TV show of ours, Rosehaven, is filmed in this office in Oatlands.

Bruthen

9 March 2019

The night crossing was calm enough to allow a reasonable night’s sleep but we had to be up early for disembarkation. Once again we had ended up parked on the lowest vehicle deck, right in the corner so we were almost the last vehicle off. There is nothing you can do about that except exercise patience. The staff directing you how to get in and out of these tight spaces are marvellous. Eventually we were on the motorway bound for the storage yard to pick up the camper trailer, with a detour to Sunbury for breakfast. We had planned to head straight for Sydney up the Hume Motorway, but made a very last-minute decision (minutes before picking up the camper) to instead go towards the lower Snowy Mountains. We realised it was the start of a long weekend in Victoria, ACT and Tasmania, so tried calling a couple of caravan parks looking for a powered site. We were out of luck at a few places we tried, but finally received a positive response at Bruthen. This small community caravan park is just out of town, and on the river (although there wasn’t much water when we stayed). It was a friendly place and perfect for an overnighter.

Juvenile Crimson Rosella moulting into adult plumage.

Crimson Rosella

While talking to my sister on the phone we made another spur-of-the-moment decision to have a very long day so we could join Bronwyn and John on the NSW south coast where they had been camped for a couple of days. The following morning we stopped at Orbost to do some grocery shopping, then at Cann River for coffee. It’s a nice drive through to New South Wales towards the coast.

Merry Beach

10 March 2019

After a couple of stops for lunch and some more groceries, we arrived at Merry Beach, a little way from Bateman’s Bay, to find a caravan park chock-a-block full for the long weekend. It seems that this is a regular spot for families and groups from Canberra on this particular long weekend. Bronwyn and John had a lovely spot right on the beach but we were not so lucky. We spent most of our time enjoying the view from their campsite. The beach was beautiful but there were far too many people for my liking. We had a couple of nights before we had to be in Sydney but decided that this was not the place to spend them. After a few phone calls we secured a spot for the next two nights at Kiama – close enough to Sydney for the final leg of this part of our trip home.

I spied this Grey Goshawk on the way back to the highway.

Kiama

11 – 12 March 2019

We set off for Kiama and stopped at the markets at Ulladulla. We didn’t buy anything at the markets but we did buy some fish for dinner at the local fish shop nearby. We arrived at Kiama fairly early and were pleasantly surprised to see that the caravan park was nowhere near full. The caravan park we chose was a little way out of town, right on the beach and huge. The areas closest to the beach were taken up with a variety of cabins but we didn’t mind the short walk to the water from our site as the park was very spacious with lots of trees and great facilities. We ventured into town for some shopping and also to have a look at the famous Kiama Blowhole. As expected there were heaps of tourists doing the same.

Our stay in Kiama was really just to kill some time until our scheduled visit to Sydney to have some work done on the camper trailer. We had booked it in at the Cub factory to have a faulty zipper replaced and also to have an external 240v power point installed near the kitchen. Cub had estimated they might need the camper trailer for up to two weeks so we spent some time while in Kiama, considering our options and booking some accommodation out of the city. We planned to spend a couple of nights with family and friends in the city and the rest of our time as far away as possible. We decided the Blue Mountains would be a good starting point.

We tackled the drive into Sydney and dropped the camper trailer off at Cub in North Rocks before making our way to Lake Parramatta for lunch. It was a really hot day so we retreated to an air conditioned cinema and shopping centre before making our way to a friend’s place for an overnight stay.