After a stressful couple of months not knowing if the holiday was going ahead we were very excited to be saying, we are heading off to Tasmania. As we started the drive to Tailem Bend to meet Ma & Pa Bear, we reminded ourselves how lucky we are to be able to get away on our holiday, as many families during the past 9 months had to cancel plans, were not able to see loved ones and or the worse could not say good bye to loved ones, our thoughts were with everyone during our road trip.

The drive to Melbourne saw us stop over at the Nhil airbase, to our surprise we were the only vans there and this meant we got to choose our prime positions, the night sky was so clear that night, we even managed to see a satellite or two passing by. With plenty of time on our side we looked forward to cruising into Port Melbourne around 600pm (departing 900pm), we found ourselves parked up along the edge of Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree to feast on some lunch. Arriving at Port Melbourne a little early we were surprised to learn that we could drive straight in, for those that have never done the trip before – you have quarantine, ticketing and then onto the Spirit of Tasmania to park the car and caravan. We booked a 4 birth inside cabin, dropped the overnight bags off and went for a walk around the huge ship, not long till we headed to the open bar area and ordered our dinner, compromising of pizza ($12 each), it was enough to satisfy our needs for the night.

Good Morning, this is your wake up alarm — as we were advised what order the departure would take place and other details, the night sailing was relatively calm but when you woke up you could feel the boat rocking a little and taking a pillow with you is a must, unless you can sleep with a rag under your head. Departing the Spirit of Tasmania was approx 40 minutes as all passengers had to comply with a temperature check – COVID but soon enough we were driving around looking for our first stop – Breakfast at House of Anvers Chocolate Factory.

We had planned on heading into Ashgrove Cheese factory also but due to renovations this is closed until March 21, a quick phone call into the BIG4 Launceston Holiday Park to see if we could drop the vans off early, this allowed us to setup around 1100am to venture out for the remaining of the day.