11 Mar 10 – Launceston to Port Sorrell

By Lou: Had an overnight freebie stay under the Batman bridge about 35km north of Launceston, quite the popular spot. Camped next to a family from Qld who have sold up their home and are just wandering around Australia, finding a bit of work here and there (he’s a builder) and looking for the next place to settle. All well and good but with 4 kids ranging in age from 8 years to 14 years old!!! They’ve been on the move for 7 months and seem to be managing home schooling well. They are in a camper trailer setup like ours but understandably the 14 year old girl is hanging for her own bedroom and the kids are starting to ask to just plonk somewhere. Quite the dilemma as the parents feel there’s still half of Australia to see before they decide where they want to settle but the kids are saying, ‘stop’.

Had a great day for our last in Tasmania. I was keen to drive the Tamar Valley, renowned most recently for the controversy over the proposal by Gunn’s to build a paper mill there. Not only is it a pristine location supporting small family business’ but the government created a special bill with very few checks and balances to allow it to get to development phase.
We didn’t get to see the proposed site (I didn’t know which town) but we did drive past the Beaconsfield mine so Sam could reconcile the reality with the TV footage of Todd Russell and Brant Webb emerging from the mine after spending 14? days trapped underground. He remembers it as the “TV show that made mummy cry”. Couldn’t really see a lot from the road but the 4 buses of tourists queued up outside deterred us from a tour.

From there we toured a seahorse facility at Beauty Point and marvelled at these strange creatures. It’s a privately funded breeding program that services national and international clients and I’m sure our entry fee kept the program running for 2 more years.

Then we went for a drive as far north as possible to Green’s Beach just to see the end of the highway and wave at Narawintapu National Park. We had paid for a 2 months visitor’s pass to national parks and were keen to get a stamp in our “parks passport” for every one we went to. Craig drove the car and trailer into the park, we all said, “Hello Park” and then we drove out smug in the knowledge we could legitimately say we’d been to that park. The reason for the quick stop was that we were on a timeline to get to a tour of Boag’s brewery in Launceston and raced back to start the tour with a minute spare. Was interesting to see the place but let’s face it, the tasting session was what we were all there for.


After that we enjoyed a short walk through beautiful Cataract Gorge and then made a bee line to our last night’s stay in Tasmania via very beautiful countryside.
Given we had to be on our way to the ferry by 6:30am we decided to lash out on a cabin. All motels and cabins in Devonport were booked so we found a cabin 20 minutes down the road at Port Sorrell. When we arrived the cabin hadn’t been cleaned due to a small oversight but the cleaner immediately launched into action while we chatted with the colourful owner. She drove Craig and Sam to the local bottle shop to save us lugging the trailer around and we each scored a souvenir pen. All of that made up for the fact that to bend over the bathroom basin to clean your teeth you had to have your backside poking through the doorway, which rendered the broken sliding door a moot point. Would love to have stayed a few days but as is the case nearly everywhere, there is just not enough time to do everything.

By Craig: North Tassie was a quick trip from Bay of Fires to Port Sorrell via an overnight stop at Batman Bridge. The highlight for me was a visit to Launceston and the Boags Brewery. The tour of the brewery was interesting, the taste testing great and the reviewing of old advertising campaigns priceless. One of the past year's campaign posters caught my eye and now I'm a Boags convert.
However due to another similar advertising campaign I still enjoy a bourbon (4 Cougars thanks!).


Another delight was to see the smile on Sam's face when he got the opportunity to dress up like a brewery workman, complete with vest, glasses and earplugs.