Day 30: Wynyard to Stanley to Montagu

The famous Stanley Nut

The downside of living in your vehicle is that you have to pack up entirely to drive anywhere. So we’re trying to do our shopping and other things that need wheels on our travel days. This day David discovered as he went to make breakfast that  one of our gas bottles was empty (mysteriously, at the same time the gas lighter also stopped working), so before we left town we bought another, and did grocery shopping. Shopping took longer than we'd expected. The shop was packed, we think, with people shopping on the day that their pension was paid (someone noted that Thursdays were always busy!). Also, every time we do groceries we're dealing with different shop layouts, which takes longer. Not to mention that we're looking to buy different things to what we usually buy: including smaller quantities for just the two of us, but also smaller sized packaging to fit into our tiny kitchen and fridge/freezer. But, it really is a bit of a novel adventure, and that's the best way to look at it, rather than be frustrated by these small things.

East from the Nut

Then we headed west, almost to the north-westernmost corner of the state, but just off our route was the famous Stanley Nut. So we stopped there for lunch and then climbed up the steep path and around the track on top. Then did a little bit of a historical walking in the town, finding a church that was completely imported from Britain! The first one in Australia, I think, the sign claimed. 

We moved on to our campsite and discovered a gem at the end of a dirt road. This is a popular campsite that only has toilets, but no showers, electricity, or water. It’s popular for fishing, and we saw quite a few boats in the campsite. It is more popular during the summer holidays and at Easter, so it was far from full with us travelling in this "shoulder" season. Apparently when things are buzzing, there can be over 70 kids running around (bike riding is popular too).

We were surprised by an offer for free pizza when we checked in with the site managers. Apparently it is their tradition in the quieter weeks, to provide pizza for anyone onsite who would like to join. We gathered around a fire in an old oil drum (fire pot or brazier?) with our chairs and drinks. This was a novel experience. We enjoyed chatting as the sun disappeared, meeting people from Western Australia and Victorians as well as Taswegians (Aussie for "Tasmanian"). We discovered that the island we could see from our parking spot is privately owned by farmers near the campsite and that they run cattle on it, cattle destined to be turned into Wagyu beef! It was really lovely to be included in this impromptu gathering, we felt included and somehow that we were "insiders" in this whole life-on-the-road thing.

Campsite at Montagu, right on the edge of the mainland.

It started to get quite cold, though, when the sun completely disappeared and we retreated to our little home-on-wheels. With no electricity, this campsite was completely dark, something we rarely see in Japan! Plenty of serenity indeed.