Tasmania: Northern Central - Day 1

This entry covers our first 5 days in Tasmania's north from Devonport to Arthur River via Cradle Valley, King Solomon Cave, Devils Gullet, Borradaile Plains, Lemonthyme, Lorrinna Track, Leven Canyon, and then a through route from Wynyard to the West Coast without travelling on main roads. Use the links above to read on for the West Coast and East Coast parts of our trip as we circumnavigated the island for 20 days in an anticlockwise direction.

Having just spent a whirlwind 9 days in Sydney celebrating Christmas with our families and sleeping in houses we had quite a task of repacking again for the next stage of our camping trip. Most of this day was spent finding room in the vehicle to pack all the gifts we'd accumulated! Today we started the 2nd leg of our camping trip by travelling from Sydney to Tasmania with the Jacka's (Michelle's parents, Colin and Sandy) onboard the largest of the passenger and vehicle ferries to Tasmania - the Spirit 111. Our departure from the Sydney terminal was due at 5pm with check in from 3pm.

We arrived just before 3pm but in hindsight we should have arrived at 4.30pm as we spent over an hour waiting to even see the boat, and then another hour waiting to board.

Unbeknown to us, a harbour regulation meant The Spirit 111 could not enter the harbour until after the last yachts starting the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race had passed through Sydney Heads. We didn't even see the boat until after 4pm, and boarded a little after 5pm which made it a bit uncomfortable for the kids who were waiting in the hot sun all that time.