Southport

 28 February – 2 March 2022

The trip from Adventure Bay on Bruny Island to Southport only takes a couple of hours, even allowing for the ferry, so we arrived at Huonville well before lunchtime. Huonville is a fairly large centre so we took the time to do some grocery shopping as well as browse the nearby shops. From there we drove down to a picnic spot on the river for lunch. There is a nice shelter, as well as toilets and playground, along with ample parking. This has become one of our regular stops along this way.

We continued on to Southport and checked into the caravan park attached to the hotel. This is the southern-most hotel in Australia (although the Bruny Island pub claims this title also). We spent the afternoon wandering around the grounds checking out the pond and nearby scrub for birds.

It had always been our plan to have dinner at the pub, so we wandered up and enjoyed dinner and drinks – generous serves and good service as always. Mask wearing was still mandatory in Tasmania so we didn’t linger once we’d finished our meals and drinks. There had been rain about so we weren’t surprised to hear rain on the canvas roof during the night.

Despite the cloudy skies and drizzle we decided to head down to Cockle Creek (the end of the road). We wanted to have a good look at the numerous campgrounds on the way with a view to camping in a few days’ time, if the weather improved. We found there are lots of campgrounds that would have suited us very well, but the weather forecast indicated more rain.

While we were at Cockle Creek – in the Southwest National Park – we walked down to have a look at the Whale Sculpture, and then walked along the beach, passing a number of national park campsites. Many of these are only suitable for self-contained vehicles. By the time we walked back to the road to return to the car, the rain had started again.

Driving back towards Southport we took a detour to have a look at Southport Lagoon. Unfortunately the road we took travelled along beside the Southport Lagoon Conservation Area, but terminated before we were able to see the lagoon. We decided not to take the other road a bit further along, even though it promised the campground and most likely the lagoon. It was lunch time so we just headed back to camp.

There is a walking path that goes from the Southport Hotel to the jetty so we followed it all the way, and went for a walk on the jetty. The rain persisted, on and off, throughout the evening and through the night but we were hopeful that the sky would be clear in the morning. No such luck. We did some packing up and requested a late check out in the hope that we could dry things out a little. We were able to stay long enough for the sky to clear and the breeze to assist. Everything was damp, but not wet when we finally folded up the trailer.

Back on the road and we were hopeful we could get a spot at Riversedge Camping at Lonnavale. We took a scenic drive along the coast from Dover – another road we had never travelled on before – and rejoined the highway at Franklin. We stopped at the Franklin Regatta Grounds for lunch. Another beautiful spot on the Huon River – with a picnic shelter and toilets. BBQs and even a sink were also provided.

We called ahead to Riversedge and set off towards Huonville again.