Heading Home

Tonight we are at a free camp just North of Dubbo, after getting off the ferry last night at 7.20pm.
We drove through until after midnight to get into NSW in case they decided to close the Vic or NSW borders. Today we have continued on to near Dubbo, we should get over the QLD border tomorrow. It really has not made any difference to us that the caravan parks & camp grounds are shut as we never use them anyway when we travel on our own. It is a pity though that we can not stop & enjoy some of the places we are passing through.
We quite enjoyed the ferry crossing as we had a great window seat with a table & power points, which gave me a chance to edit a couple more drone videos, which will appear in this post. I have more to do but they will have to wait until we get home.

                    Drone Video of Tasman Arch. I almost lost the drone her to some turbulent winds.

                                        Drone video of Sleepy Bay, Freycinet Peninsula.

     Some of the oysters Kilpatrick I prepared from the creek in front of our camp (living off the land)

                Last afternoon drinks in Tasmania, it turned on a glorious day for our last day.

                                                         Our final Tasmanian sunset.

                                                                     Pano, final sunset.

                     On board the ferry heading for Melbourne, the time seemed to go very quickly.

     Enjoying a windy & violent electrical storm raging outside from the comfort of our lounge chairs.

                                                    Short video of the storm raging outside.

A giant cruise ship tied up next to the ferry in Melbourne, we passed more anchored in Port Phillip Bay on our way in, all these passengers trapped aboard on these & other cruise ships around the world. Nobody wants them on their shores, so here they sit .

                                                               Dubbo camp.

Escape to the mainland

Well, we are still in Devonport & have been for 4 days. It has been very relaxing & we have enjoyed the last 4 days quite a lot.We have a booked spot on the ferry in the morning & barring any rule changes or cancellations, we will be on it. W are in a very pretty spot on the waters edge, walking distance from the city centre. We have been doing long walks & catching up on housekeeping & maintenance & the odd afternoon sleep. The Tasmanian premiere has been on the radio & said "tourists go home, we don't want you here" & has given everyone until the 1st of April to get out, except for most people there is no way of doing that. They then proceeded to close caravan parks & camping areas, so people have nowhere to go. For years they have been pushing to get tourists here & now we are treated like leppers. It could have been handled much better & I think many people will remember this & tourism, which is a major industry in this state, will suffer badly in the future.

On a brighter note, the food is GREAT, on our morning walk we picked black berries,& apples growing on the footpath, had slices for morning tea & I have a bucket full of giant oysters, from the water in front of our caravan, which I am going to Kirkpatrick tonight. I guess we all have to make sacrifices.

      Drone video of our current camp where we are filling in time to weather the stormy tempest of                                                                             the  Corona virus disaster.

                                           Low tide, many oysters in front of the camp.

                                                       This guy only deals in PT cruisers

                                                                     Morning  walk..

                                                    Black berries on the morning walk.

                                                 Wild bakery slices on the morning walk.

                                     Rotating all 4 wheels diagonally prior to the trip home.

         Our neighbours last night, it cleared out a lot this morning when quite a few got on the ferry.

                                               Tonights entree will be oysters kilpatrick.

                                                            Near our caravan.

 The shops in Devonport have reopened so we spent some time in the Emporium. We were the only                                                                               people there.

                                                                        In the emporium.

Another day at Horse Head creek

Things are changing hour by hour on the radio news. Camping areas are being locked down & people are being prevented from entering. We are in a very nice free camp that is gradually filling up with lost souls. We did a nice walk into Devonport this morning & were amazed how close we were to the ferry terminal, it was only a 3klm walk each way. We will not leave this good spot until we can get on the ship on Sunday. This has given us a chance to catch up on house keeping. We have washed all our clothes, I have done some minor maintenance & edited some of the back logged drone shots, a couple of which I will attach to this blog entry. Tonight we will stock up with groceries, enough to get home and top up our diesel supplies. We will then hunker down & relax until Sunday. It is extremely nice here where we are.

                                             Drone video of convict ruins, near Port Arthur.

                                               Drone video of the Tessellated pavement.

                                                       Drone video of Maignon Bay.

                                                         Our current camp from above.

                                            There are millions of the giant oysters here

                                      Oysters all around the bridge pillars.

                                                                 On the walk.

                                                                       Our current home.

Horse Head Creek & Lake Barrington

We have been abandoned by our travelling companions, cast aside like a snotty Corona infested tissue.
They have been able to secure an earlier trip back to Australia on the ferry, unfortunately we were unable to do so. If we are lucky & no more borders close, we will be on the ferry on Sunday morning.

If we can not get out we will stay here & head South to team up with Gail & Graham. Not too bad this is probably one of the nicest places to get stuck in & we are quite comfortable in our little mobile house.

                                                               Lake Barrington.

                                                       Video, Lake Barrington

                                                         Morning walk, Sheffield.

                                                This is what abandonment looks like.

                                                            Horse Head Creek.

                                                             Pano, morning walk, Sheffield.

Scamander-Bay of Fire-Bridport-Low Head-Sheffieeld

Quite a few days past, so many pictographs today. This crazy pandemic is ruining the trip, everything is closing up & our travelling companions have secured an early ferry home, leaving tomorrow. We however, have been unable to get on the ferry earlier as our caravan is too big, so we have to wait untill Sunday. In the meantime Queensland has closed its borders as have South Australia, Northern territory & WA. We are hoping ferry services will not be suspended before Sunday, or we will be here for a Tasmanian winter. I think the trip home will be slow & difficult with closed borders to cross. As yet the Victorian border is still open.

Scamander

Shelly Point.

                                                               Video Shelly Point.

                                                       Shelly Point relaxation video.

                                                             Bay of Fires.

                                                             Pano, Bay of Fires.

                                                     Pano, Bay of Fires.

                               Derby Tunnel, 600 metres long part of the mountain bike trails.

                                                            Camp Derby.

                                                                    Bridport.

                                                                      Video, Bridport.

                                                                Low Head.

                                                    Low Head Semaphore.

                                                                  Deloraine.

                                                          Sheffield

                                                Pano, Sheffield.