NSW – Tasmania trip 2021: 27 – 29 January

Wednesday/Thursday – Albury
Checked out of Narrandera, and set off to Albury (situated on the NSW side of the border to Victoria). We had pre-booked a site just outside Albury for 2 nights, planning on leaving sometime during Thursday night to drive straight to Melbourne to board the ferry to Tasmania which departs on Friday morning early.  This in accordance with our (24 hours) Victorian transit permit (no stopping, shopping, dining out etc in Victoria).

We arrived in Albury and headed to the tourist information which was near the historic railway station. Apart from being a beautifully maintained and painted building, this station also has the longest platform in the southern hemisphere (ie 455m). Reason: differing rail gauges between Victoria and NSW, and passengers had to change trains here as they crossed the border (we also came across this at Broken Hill’s railway system history). A bit of history of this station here.

Jen got talking to a ‘local’ couple from Wangaratta, Victoria (70km from the border), and they explained they were in a ‘border bubble’ and could cross the border as they pleased. Jen explained that she had friends in Wadonga (attached to Albury, but then on the Victoria side) and was disappointed that we couldn’t stop in Victoria with our pass and visit (we have been planning this for so long!)…

They said to ‘get on the blower’ (aussie slang for ‘give them a call’) and ‘tell them to come and over here instead’!

Done!! Mel & Craig’s property happens to be 10 minutes away from where we were staying, and actually just on the other side of the lake that our campsite was on (and in Victoria while we were still in NSW)! We booked dinner in the onsite restaurant, and we had a great time – hadn’t seen each other for 10 years! Great fun, and hopefully we will see them again sooner rather than later.

Albury is a lovely town, it has a ‘Melburnian’ vibe. We had been there before for a stopover but hadn’t had the time to explore and get the feeling of the place.

We walked around the Botanic Gardens, which were great.  The town itself was lovely and certainly worth another stop in the future some time.

As Arno was still fixing the water intake (a replacement pressure reducer was needed as there was some dripping), Jen did a bit more of the town, admiring some of the architecture, and some shopping.

Thursday – Albury/Port Melbourne (Spirit of Tasmania)
Leaving the Albury campsite at around 8pm, we crossed the NSW/Victoria border with our special passes – an interesting experience, questioned where we had been, the colour zone we had been over the past 14 days (which had changed from orange to green during that period) etc etc. Anyway, we crossed, and stopped around 11.15pm at a truck/caravan rest stop, and we climbed into bed and slept for 4 hours. Had a coffee and continued our drive to Port Melbourne around 3.30am, and arrived there close to the Spirit’s boarding time.

Friday – Spirit of Tasmania/Devonport (Tasmania)
The Spirit of Tasmania ferry can hold around 1400 passengers and many many vehicles, vans, trucks, containers and whatnot.  However, it was clear that (certainly due to Coronavirus) it was not filled to capacity (people wise) like we have seen on our crossing before.  There were many chairs available, and our reserved recliners were occupied alternately. So lots of space – and everyone had to wear masks at all times on board.

We left Port Melbourne at 8.30am. It was a bit of a rough crossing according, but Arno managed to hold on, and Jen didn’t notice a thing and slept a lot. We arrived in Devonport around 6.10pm but it took a bit longer to dock due to the wind conditions.  It was blowing a gale, and raining.

We had booked a site in a caravan park in Devonport itself so we wouldn’t have far to go, and we arrived around 7 pm. Our friends Pat & Laurie (Kendy’s parents whom we also met up with within Lightning Ridge on our previous trip last August) were here already, as they had just spent 2 months in Tasmania and returning to the mainland on the Spirit tomorrow.  So we quickly leveled our van and joined them in their van for drinks and prepared nibbles. Was so nice to see them, and exchange camping adventure and grandparents stories (they saw their grandkids over the past 2 months, and we still see ours only via facetime!!).