Return to the Mainland

11 -12 February 2023

We booked to return to the mainland from Tasmania on the late sailing – 11:30pm. Not an ideal time, but it allowed us to spend our last day in Hobart with the girls, and get packed up at a fairly leisurely pace. We calculated our travel times and set off after 4:00pm. We decided that dinner in Deloraine would work out well time wise, so we headed to the pub where we have eaten several times before. After a nice meal, we continued on to Devonport, arriving at 9:00pm, which was when check-in was due to start.

Waiting to board in Devonport

We joined the queue and were through check-in and quarantine fairly smoothly, but then we had a very long wait to board. We sat in the queue watching almost every other vehicle drive line off before it was finally our turn. Once onboard, we went straight to our cabin as it was well after 10:00pm by then.

The Bass Strait forecast suggested we may have a bit of a rough night, but it wasn’t as bad as we expected. The late sailing time means arriving late too – which makes for a nice slow start to the morning. We had a light breakfast and waited to disembark. The reward for the long wait to get on was that we were on the first deck to be called to get off.

Getting out of Geelong was painless compared to the nightmare that was Melbourne and we were soon on our way to Bendigo to collect the camper trailer from storage.