Wednesday the 10th of January
Bacon egg toasties
Bike riding
Cheese factory
More oysters
Then huge fishing session.
I go to the 2nd jetty with the young lads camping across from us.
It’s windy and starts raining. Were catching nothing switching from squid jigs to soft plastics. Then the wind dies down and rain stops and were on. A squid festival. We bag 15 then start giving them to other fisherman. I start cleaning the calamari and through guts in as Berly. Then there is a fish frenzy. Mackerel galore.
What a great night.
Drive Through Fresh un-shucked oysters. FLASH FORWARD – They last us 3 weeks in the fridge. Very Nice
If you want to free camp on Bruny island this is the place below. Neck Game reserve camping area.
Time to go fishing…….
Thursday the 11th of January
Sun out all day so I don’t need to run the generator. From 63% to 93% charged by sun down.
1st we have a swim at the beach. It’s wind and wow the ocean is cold.
Hugo naps and I take the boys fishing in the river next to the cleaning station while I fishing the calamari. Leo catches a 40cm brim. We keep him and through the next one back. Jett misses out sadly. I cook calamari rings for lunch and we potter around camp. Jett plays basketball. Then we head to the pub for dinner. Hotel bruny has great food.
Kids go a bit mental so back to camp for a fire and a movie. A lovely last day on Bruny Island.
Friday the 12th of January
Hugos body clock is set to 5.20am. Were up so I get to work packing up. The van is so dirty and trashed I just through everything in. Peet and Rach help watch Hugo. They wish they had had a 3rd. I thank them for all the fishing tips and we hit the road for Port Arthur. Supply run and we arrive at the NRMA CV park at 2.30. This place is perfect. All drive through sites with fire pits.
Free WOOD!
I’ve cracked it at the mess and said everything out! Then I dettol boiling water scrub everything. It takes 2 hours. Now im happy and we go for a walk down to a small protected cove with a beach. The water is calm and warm. Calamari and rice for dinner. It starts rain so we’re stuck inside a spot less van for another movie night. Thank God i cleaned it.
Saturday the 13th Of January
Hugo alarm goes of as usual. Were up at 5.30am.
Coffee and cereal for breakfast with the reverse cycle heating on. It steams up the van. Then I take Hugo for a play then a walk to the beach and some more play time. We meet Tan and Leo in the camp kitchen for a kids cooking activity. Butterfly cookies. Then i take Leo and jett on a Hike to garden point to try some lure fishing. The track doesn’t relay exist and we have to use gps to make our way to the point which ends at a cliff. No fishing after all.
We head back to the van and tippy toe around Hugos sleep. I cook chicken skewers for lunch. Then we hit the road (1.2kms) around the corner to the Port Arthur Historic site. We book a 45min convict tour and harbour cruise. Our tour guide talks about the night time ghost tours and Leo (the ghost buster) is hooked.
Back to the van for another calamari and fresh fish dinner then straight back for a ghost tour. Leo is at the front carry the candle lantern. We approach the house where there was a ghost siting capture on camera 2 weeks earlier. Leo enters 1st. I scare him and he backs out so I have to go in 1st and check all the corners of the room. Were told about the reverend and the nurse who haunt the house and a story about tradesmen in the 1980s that decided to sleep there during repairs. Bad idea!
The history of Port Arthur is well worth a visit. What the transported convicts went through was real more of a death sentence. Lashings, solitary confinement then released half broken into a foreign country with nothing. No family, home or money. Good Luck!
We get back to the van. I tell Tan some ghost stories and she can’t sleep.
Leo and I enjoy the last embers of the fire.
Great day but very long.
Ni night.
Now For the GHOSTS
Ghost sighting photo below.
Sunday 14th of January
Hugo!!! 5.20am stoppppp.
Up we get. Cheese toasties and Hugo is going nuts. Tan gets him down for an early nap at 9am. I take jett and leo for a drive. The general store has shut down. No one has milk anywhere as It’s to hard to handle at Port arthur apparently. We stop at the boat ramp for a quick flick with soft plastics. I’m in 1st cast!. It’s a big Wrass so I throw it back. Then we get back for 10am pancakes. We really like the managers here. It Turns out Dan was accepted into the aboriginal community in NT by Cassidy Ulara in Ulara so we share stories of the NT.
Then we’re off to Port arthur historic site again. This time I have a baby Hugo on my back when we enter the haunted house. We enter a darkroom and one of the spot lights goes off and I feel cold and get goose bumps. We leave immediately! We mention the anomaly to a worker at the isolation ward and she’s says that’s not right and tells us about another mum who’s baby was getting lighter and lighter in the same room like it was floating away. Blue Lady ghost ? I think so.
Blue lady had to give up her baby to continue her duties at Port Arthur which is why she reacts to baby’s in her house!
Then lunch with some antics and off to the cave and light house. A step decent and wow. Another Tasmania beauty.
We stop for a swing from the tyer hanging from a tree. Another beautify beach
Back to the park to finish sorting our mess i dumped out the front when i clean up the other day. Then dinner and wine with a fire. I shuck fresh oysters. There still alive from Bruny Island.
Lovely day.
Above is the fire place that lit itself one lonely winters morning. Told by one of the tour guides at Port Arthur. He heard voices down the hall, got scared and left and returned to a fire at the end of the hall.
Sunday the 15th of January
Hugo sleeps to 6.30am. Probably because I’ve retreated to the bottom bunk. Scrabbled eggs inside and a slow start to the pack down. Were only travelling 1.5hours back to Hobart big4 next to the airport. Tan fits in another BIG4 activity while i do the pack up solo which i quiet enjoy. No rush.
We stop at the tessellated tiles then at a lookout. Tassie just never stops giving. There is raw beauty everywhere where you look. Jett was really amazing this morning helping pack with no arguments at all. Well done son.
We arrive and set up. There is a basketball court so jett is super happy.
Tan books dinner at the drunken admiral and we make it to the foot locker for a $20 cap Jett has been obsessing about 10mins before it shuts.
Dinner is great but the waitress orders our entrees and mains at the same time. We can’t fit it all on the table and we’re full before we start.
Back to the CV park for some sport. I open up my big toe playing ball with Jett, blood every where.
Tan and i watch TIAV and reminisce all our previous van trips while planes fly in over head.
Photo opportunity!
Dinner time
Tuesday the 16th of January
Oh No my Blog notes for DAY 20 are gone! Let me use my elephant memory …….
No wait there in the address bar not the notes area.
Today Tanya and Jett fly back to Melbourne to see Tammie (emergency brain tumor operation) and for Jett to have a school interview at Alphington grammar. It’s always sad when we have to separate.
I do some shopping. Leo needs new shoes and I need some parts for the van. We wash the car while Hugo sleeps in it. The blue soap is like food die. When Hugo wakes I pack the car and take the boys to a beautiful beach 30mins away called opossum Bay. Leo and Hugo build sand castles while I talk shop with Paul for an hour. I cook chicken skewers for the boys and we hit the sack early but manage to stay up late.
Bye Bye… well miss you guys……
Hey Jett,you better sleep with one eye open…..
