Day 23: Devonport to Lake St Clair

Beautiful Tasmania

We landed before dawn in Devonport, awoken early in our beds by an announcement, much like a plane. Although, it was luxurious travel compared to planes, with the freedom to move around, but we also had a private room with an ensuite, which would be amazing on an overnight flight! Getting to sleep was interesting with the various noises of the boat and subtle movements, but at no time did I feel motion sickness.

We drove off the boat in pre-dawn darkness and then made our way to the local grocery store car park. We had breakfast there in our home-on-wheels—an excellent perk that comes with travelling in a motorhome! It saves a lot of money! Then we did grocery shopping for the next few days, especially for fresh fruit and vegetables, none of which were allowed across the border. It was cold, so I also bought some cheap slippers and warmer socks.

Our cabin on the ferry

On a medical front, I was frustrated at missing the doctor's call the night before, but I didn't realise the online medical service I'd spoken to on Monday was a strictly after hours service and that they closed at 8 am, so, despite being up at 5.30 in order to get off the boat, I missed talking to someone the next morning also. It was frustrating, especially because I wanted to know if I should get another round of antibiotics going before we left for a remote part of Tasmania. But we decided to embrace the journey and continued on our way, hoping to catch a doctor that night.

Mt Roland (1,231 m) and Lake Barrington

So we headed out of town and pretty quickly encountered the narrow windy roads that are typical of Tasmania. We've discovered that it's rare to be able to travel the maximum speed limit because of these factors, so distance isn't a great barometer for how long it will take you to get somewhere! 

Our camping spot at Lake St Clair

Because we'd started the day so early and with so much of the day still ahead of us, we spontaneously decided to drive via Cradle Mountain visitor centre. It added about two hours to our journey, and was a bit fruitless in the end, as they were charging for the shuttle bus into the National Park (on top of the National Park pass that we'd already bought on the ferry). There was no other way to get closer to the mountain, so we decided not to pay and just to head onwards to the other end of the National Park where we had booked a place to park for three nights.

And what a spectacular first camping spot. There were few others there and we were among gorgeous tall trees. Just down the hill was Lake St Clair, the deepest lake in Australia. But we stayed there three nights, so I'll leave off writing more about it for today.