NSW – Tasmania trip 2021: 22-24 February

Tuesday- Wednesday – Orford/Oatlands
We spent 3 nights at Marg & Andrew’s incredible place at Orford. Our van got the best site on the property – a level place beside the house with the same views on the sea and the rolling hill down to the beach. A lovely piece of heaven – and we couldn’t have wished for anything else.

Arno took footage and shots with the drone (some below) at their property, as it was not too windy and also Jen finally had a go.

M&A took us for a drive around the area, and we also went for a walk along Rheban Beach a few kilometres down the road from their home. The views from this beach are of Maria Island. (We visited this island on our last trip; some photos from that trip are on Arno’s website – click here).
We found some huge abalone and other enormous shells. One still had its owner, who was trying to drag himself and big heavy home across the sand.. we returned him to sea. There was not another person on this 2 km stretch of white beach.

We did a bit of support work to ensure their pictures from the various devices and sources are all backed up into one place so they know where they can find them again.
On Tuesday night we went out for dinner to a place on the water, again with postcard views. Great food too! Arno had mussels, the size of which we have never seen before – shame we forgot to take a picture!
We enjoyed our time together tremendously, and hopefully post-Covid, Marg and Andrew will come and visit us too.  They left to go back to their other home in Sorell on Tuesday afternoon, and we stayed another night at our magnificent campsite.
We had superb weather over these few days, though sometimes in a jacket with jeans, and within 10 minutes t-shirt and shorts again.

Arno played a game of golf at Orford on Wednesday morning, Jen went for a nice bike ride. Took a picture of M&A’s home along the way….

And continued into Orford 6km) and then another 3km on the pretty foreshore track along the mouth of the Prosser River to the sea – where there is also a bird sanctuary.

We packed up after lunch and headed off towards Oatlands along a beautiful hilly and windy road, where we arrived at a nice quiet free camp spot beside Dulverton Lake (although it looks empty). We rode our bikes into this historic town and did some sightseeing. The history museum closed just as we arrived, so perhaps we may see it before we move on tomorrow morning. There is a nice-looking windmill, called the Callington Mill. It seems to be undergoing renovations (and surrounded by scaffolding) so we couldn’t go inside, which is normally allowed as quite a nice tourist attraction providing a good view of the area. The flour mill is quite significant in that it is the only working one in the southern hemisphere (after being restored to its original purpose of 120 years ago).

The town has some attractive old buildings, and instead of the usual pub, we were directed to a fantastic, cozy wine and cheese bar, where we each had a ‘flight’ (similar to a slider so small portions!) of 4 local (ie Tasmanian) wines, with accompanying (also Tasmanian) cheeses.

Our campsite is beside a ‘lake’ with very little water, but plenty of black swans. They have red beaks and white-tipped wings. It is very quiet and peaceful here.

Today’s trip on Tasmanian map: