Tassie Bound….

Well we made it!

After a 5am start we managed to get everything packed and get on the road fairly quickly…pulling out of Port Arlington by 6am! Now, that’s a record! We had to be at Port Melbourne, in the queue to board the boat by 8am! Which thankfully we managed.

It was so cool driving our car and trailer into the bowels of the ship, getting out and going up to the upper decks to find our seats. It seemed we had seats at the stern with amazing ocean views and recliners to lounge in. But we had a bit of a dilemma in that Mum and Sir were not allocated seats in this room…so they headed up to find some seating in a public area. That was awkward and unexpected, and later in the day we managed to get around it… Mum and I had opportunity to sit in the recliners and read our books whilst the kids played games with Daniel and Poppy!!! We did join Mum and Sir for most of the day playing Cribbage & Rummikub and eating lunch together. The kids thought the boat was pretty cool, and enjoyed trying to walk whilst the ship was rocking and watching 2 movies in the onboard cinema. Daniel took them to the 2nd one after Lunch allowing me to finish my novel!!! I love my Husband!!!

Coming in to Devonport		Driving off the boat…

Amazingly enough we had phone signal for a lot of the trip…that was very unexpected!!! I tell you what next time we take “The Spirit Of Tasmania” I am going to be a lot better prepared. If you are planning a day long trip, take food (there is food available onboard but it’s expensive) and there are power points so you can plug a lap-top in….and take things for the kids to do. Wish I’d know these things beforehand…would have helped.

We came into Devonport at about 6pm. The kids, Daniel and I watching from the upper decks. Rosa got a huge fright when they blasted the ship’s horn announcing our arrival in Port! Poor thing…..it was loud! It was kind of cool having perfect strangers happily waving to us from all sides as we came into the river and found our moorings. We made our way back to our vehicles and drove off the boat relatively quickly with a minimum of fuss. It was a very calm crossing, and a lovely day at sea!

We found our camping permit bearer Great Aunty Cheryl (Daniel’s Aunty whom he hasn’t seen since he was 11) and headed for our campsite for the night… Choosing to stay in Devonport rather than push on to another town. It was pretty basic camping that night, I hardly slept a wink…with constant traffic driving down the street and I felt so exposed camping in such a public spot. Oh well “it was what it was” and I’m over it now….

I’m still pinching myself that we’re in Tassie!!!

How cool is that!!!!

It seems so surreal to actually be in Tassie…. Very Cool!