NSW – Tasmania trip: 14-16 January

Thursday – Little Hartley
Today we packed up the van and the car and started what we hope (ie Covid permitting) will be our trip to Tasmania.

We booked our ferry trip on the Spirit of Tasmania for 29 January but we will need to be in Covid low risk zones for 2 weeks prior to arrival in Tasmania to avoid 2 weeks enforced (and expensive) hotel quarantine, as there have been some cases in the greater Sydney area. As the current situation can change on a dime, we are just taking it day by day and aim to just enjoy more of our own state again while we slowly make our way to the ferry.

We started this trip camping for 2 days at our friends Phil & Debbie in Little Hartley (which is not classified as ‘Greater Sydney’ and hence outside the risk zone).

The drive took around 3 hours via the Bells Line of Road, such lovely scenery through Kurrajong and the Bilpin area of the Blue Mountains.

We enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by Deb, and played Carcasonne, which we taught the grandchildren Elijah and Lil; they caught on pretty quickly.

Friday – Little Hartley
Today our friend Lyndon drove up from his home, and joined us for an overnighter in his van, as we hadn’t caught up in ages.

We took Lyndon’s 4×4 to the local swimming hole (Hyde Park) as ours would not have cleared the deep holes in the track there. Lil and I had a nice dip – the fairly fast streaming River Lett made for lovely clean and fresh water. Arno & Lyndon had a good old chinwag on the sunny rocks. Top spot!

Deb & Phil’s veranda with its perfect view of Mount York provided the best place for a fun evening after the roast dinner – with Lyndon supplying the most beautiful honeyed whiskey from Young (noted, so we can make a stop there!).

Saturday – Lake Wallace
Said goodbye to our friends and headed for our next free camp (less than an hour’s drive!) at Lake Wallace. Lyndon checked the place out too for a potential future camp, and then headed home again.  Lake Wallace is attached to the Wang Dam, and a beautiful spot for day trippers and campers alike.  It’s quite a large area with plenty of cycling opportunities and non-motorised water sports, and various people were kayaking and supping on the lake.

A lovely sunny, though windy day, we took the bikes to get to know the tiny town of Wallerawang, which has a population of just over 2000, and an altitude of 898m above sea level. It has a cute historic railway station and we stopped at the pub for lunch.

Arno has planned a barbecue for tonight.

Here is a link to google maps of our trip so far (also pasted below).