Towards Launceston,

With the school holidays starting on April 12, followed closely by Easter and Anzac Day, we have postponed our visit to the coastal fringe above St Helens until after the holidays. This means we will only have three weeks left before boarding the boat for our return journey to the mainland.

So, with that in mind, for this period, we will now head towards Launceston and include the Midlands with the towns of Ross, Oatlands, Campbell Town, Jerico and Bagdad.

On Monday morning, April 7th, we headed to the Iron House Brewery, which offers accommodations at White Sands Estate and allows camping up to two days. Mr. Goggle mentioned that the restaurant was open seven days a week, so we drove 54 km to find a camping spot. Luckily, we didn’t disconnect the van as usual because upon walking over to the brewery, we found a sign indicating that it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Bugger, so off we went to the recreation grounds in St. Marys instead.

On Tuesday, April 8th, we experienced the coldest night in Tasmania. We didn’t run our diesel heater in the evening, and when we checked the van’s interior temperature at 6 a.m., it was only 3.8 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, the outside temperature had dropped to  -1.5 degrees. We turned on the diesel heater, which remained on until we left St. Mary's. This brought back memories of the years I spent living in Canberra, where I would use a credit card to scrape ice off the windscreen, just like I did that morning.

We traveled through Fingal and Avoca on the A4 Esk Main Road for 119 km before joining the Midland Highway on our way to Evandale. It felt great to be back on the highway after a week of navigating narrow roads with steep drop-offs at the edges. After that, we took a minor road to our next campsite at Old Macs Farm. The fees are $20 per night for an unpowered site, and amenities include access to water, rubbish bins, and a dump point. We initially booked for seven nights, and depending on how much we get to explore, we’ll decide whether to extend our stay.