Having Another Break

[Old.Tony]

Thought I'd jump in and announce this one. I had a break earlier this year for numerous reasons, but I'm about to have another for 2 months.

For those that know me, our little guy is now 15 and has a goal of visiting every state and territory in Australia. We've taken him to all but Tasmania and WA.

So starting this coming Tuesday we're travelling. First stop is at Challenge Bathurst where I'll be working in pit lane again. Then we're heading across to the Apple Isle until late January. That ticks another box for him and next Christmas we'll cross the Nullabor and tick the last box for him.

I'm also trying to sell my Navara - she has served me faithfully, and has almost 400,000km on the clock. I've had everything repaired (including the light in the canopy) - it's not selling very quickly, and I'm considering using CarWow but expect I'll get nothing near what she's worth there. I'll still have all of my recovery gear and spare parts in there, I'll never be using them again - my body won't take it, my days of 4WDing are well and truly behind me. I'm going to park her up with the battery disconnected while we're away and put the advert back up when we return.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and New Year. Stay safe on the roads!

See you all in February!

 

[KevinE]

Sincerely sorry to see you go Tony, but totally understand. You'll be missed here, probably a lot more than you realise.

Enjoy your travels mate

 

[joe2006]

Thought I'd jump in and announce this one. I had a break earlier this year for numerous reasons, but I'm about to have another for 2 months.

For those that know me, our little guy is now 15 and has a goal of visiting every state and territory in Australia. We've taken him to all but Tasmania and WA.

So starting this coming Tuesday we're travelling. First stop is at Challenge Bathurst where I'll be working in pit lane again. Then we're heading across to the Apple Isle until late January. That ticks another box for him and next Christmas we'll cross the Nullabor and tick the last box for him.

I'm also trying to sell my Navara - she has served me faithfully, and has almost 400,000km on the clock. I've had everything repaired (including the light in the canopy) - it's not selling very quickly, and I'm considering using CarWow but expect I'll get nothing near what she's worth there. I'll still have all of my recovery gear and spare parts in there, I'll never be using them again - my body won't take it, my days of 4WDing are well and truly behind me. I'm going to park her up with the battery disconnected while we're away and put the advert back up when we return.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and New Year. Stay safe on the roads!

See you all in February!

I did see that you had been MIA for a while. Enjoy the trip and the break. Caravaning without Veronica but a new steed or perhaps a motorhome?
I hope that the young bloke has a wow of a time.
Catch ya

 

[Old.Tony]

I did see that you had been MIA for a while. Enjoy the trip and the break. Caravaning without Veronica but a new steed or perhaps a motorhome?
I hope that the young bloke has a wow of a time.
Catch ya

We sold the caravan and have indeed bought a motorhome, I can't do the hitch-unhitch too much now.

The entire year has been focussing on junior. He's been diagnosed with more severe issues than previously thought and we were advised to show him the world. So far this year, we've been to Melbourne/GOR/Mt Gambier/Adelaide/Coober Pedy/Roxby Downs, then Longreach/Barcaldine/Emerald/Warwick, then Bermagui/ACT/Swan Hill/Mildura/Pooncarie/Menindee.

He's happy enough, and we're enjoying the travels too.

 

[joe2006]

We sold the caravan and have indeed bought a motorhome, I can't do the hitch-unhitch too much now.

The entire year has been focussing on junior. He's been diagnosed with more severe issues than previously thought and we were advised to show him the world. So far this year, we've been to Melbourne/GOR/Mt Gambier/Adelaide/Coober Pedy/Roxby Downs, then Longreach/Barcaldine/Emerald/Warwick, then Bermagui/ACT/Swan Hill/Mildura/Pooncarie/Menindee.

He's happy enough, and we're enjoying the travels too.

You guys should certainly be commended!
Time moves on, things change and sometimes not as we expect. I joined up about 13 years ago with a new car, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Still have the old girl but she no longer takes pride of place. Your's soon to be gone.
Anyhow, it's great that you have the opportunity to travel and nice to hear that the young fella is happy enough.
Now I will need to turn a side eye to the motorhomes at any of the caravan parks we are staying. Won't be as easy as spotting a Manta Ray and Veronica.

 

[Old.Tony]

You guys should certainly be commended!
Time moves on, things change and sometimes not as we expect. I joined up about 13 years ago with a new car, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Still have the old girl but she no longer takes pride of place. Your's soon to be gone.
Anyhow, it's great that you have the opportunity to travel and nice to hear that the young fella is happy enough.
Now I will need to turn a side eye to the motorhomes at any of the caravan parks we are staying. Won't be as easy as spotting a Manta Ray and Veronica.

I'll make it easier for you!

 

[joe2006]

I'll make it easier for you!

View attachment 38722

Wow
That is very nice. Yes that will narrow it down

 

[iank84]

enjoy the change. Thankyou so much for your wealth of knowledge and contributions!

 

[Gavand]

Thought I'd jump in and announce this one. I had a break earlier this year for numerous reasons, but I'm about to have another for 2 months.

For those that know me, our little guy is now 15 and has a goal of visiting every state and territory in Australia. We've taken him to all but Tasmania and WA.

So starting this coming Tuesday we're travelling. First stop is at Challenge Bathurst where I'll be working in pit lane again. Then we're heading across to the Apple Isle until late January. That ticks another box for him and next Christmas we'll cross the Nullabor and tick the last box for him.

I'm also trying to sell my Navara - she has served me faithfully, and has almost 400,000km on the clock. I've had everything repaired (including the light in the canopy) - it's not selling very quickly, and I'm considering using CarWow but expect I'll get nothing near what she's worth there. I'll still have all of my recovery gear and spare parts in there, I'll never be using them again - my body won't take it, my days of 4WDing are well and truly behind me. I'm going to park her up with the battery disconnected while we're away and put the advert back up when we return.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and New Year. Stay safe on the roads!

See you all in February!

Thought I'd jump in and announce this one. I had a break earlier this year for numerous reasons, but I'm about to have another for 2 months.

For those that know me, our little guy is now 15 and has a goal of visiting every state and territory in Australia. We've taken him to all but Tasmania and WA.

So starting this coming Tuesday we're travelling. First stop is at Challenge Bathurst where I'll be working in pit lane again. Then we're heading across to the Apple Isle until late January. That ticks another box for him and next Christmas we'll cross the Nullabor and tick the last box for him.

I'm also trying to sell my Navara - she has served me faithfully, and has almost 400,000km on the clock. I've had everything repaired (including the light in the canopy) - it's not selling very quickly, and I'm considering using CarWow but expect I'll get nothing near what she's worth there. I'll still have all of my recovery gear and spare parts in there, I'll never be using them again - my body won't take it, my days of 4WDing are well and truly behind me. I'm going to park her up with the battery disconnected while we're away and put the advert back up when we return.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and New Year. Stay safe on the roads!

See you all in February!

Hi Tony,

Wishing you a fantastic trip mate, good luck selling the Nav and hope your sticking around you are a dictionary on these things and really appreciate your help

Gav

 

[Old.Tony]

As usual, plans have changed again.

We're now leaving tonight, and I've got about an hour left, because the little guy has one last therapy session this afternoon and then he - and we - are done for the year.

Thankfully I've done pretty much all of the packing already. I've even installed the new coulomb meter (using a 400A shunt, not the hall effect one that wasn't very accurate).

Bathurst beckons.

Have a fantastic Christmas and New Year, everyone! We won't be back until late January.

Stay safe and remember, if you can't be good, at least be good at it!

 

[Gavand]

Have a great trip

 

[rsgooch]

Safe Travels, mate!

 

[Old.Tony]

We're back, already back into things here, I'll slowly work my way through 4 pages of new posts.

It's good to be back but I tell you what, Tasmania is bloody wonderful. Really. Middle of summer and the hottest day was like 31C, and in mid-December at 11:00am one day we were driving along in just 5 degrees celcius! The place is really incredible.

There are free or low-cost camps everywhere. I highly recommend getting a National Parks Pass for your vehicle on the boat - you'll need one if you're going to enter many of the parks there (like Mt Field, Lake St Clair etc). Seniors (like me) get a significant discount - they said "$99 for a month" and as I pulled my wallet they spotted my seniors card - the price dropped to $40 for a whole year.

Still unpacking though, so things aren't done yet, and I've just been asked if I'd help out at One Raceway (Wakefield Park) in 3 weeks' time, so it looks like we're going to prep for another trip sooner than we thought!

Onwards we go.

 

[MANNING]

We're back, already back into things here, I'll slowly work my way through 4 pages of new posts.

It's good to be back but I tell you what, Tasmania is bloody wonderful. Really. Middle of summer and the hottest day was like 31C, and in mid-December at 11:00am one day we were driving along in just 5 degrees celcius! The place is really incredible.

There are free or low-cost camps everywhere. I highly recommend getting a National Parks Pass for your vehicle on the boat - you'll need one if you're going to enter many of the parks there (like Mt Field, Lake St Clair etc). Seniors (like me) get a significant discount - they said "$99 for a month" and as I pulled my wallet they spotted my seniors card - the price dropped to $40 for a whole year.

Still unpacking though, so things aren't done yet, and I've just been asked if I'd help out at One Raceway (Wakefield Park) in 3 weeks' time, so it looks like we're going to prep for another trip sooner than we thought!

Onwards we go.

Glad to hear you've had a great time.
Welcome Back
We looked at Tas but were thrown by the price to get everything over

 

[Old.Tony]

Glad to hear you've had a great time.
Welcome Back
We looked at Tas but were thrown by the price to get everything over

Oh it's expensive, but it truly is worth it.

* Motorhome hire over there is EXPENSIVE. As in "sell your kidneys".
* Taking a caravan over costs more than taking a motorhome, but there are a few places that you simply cannot go with a motorhome (Corinna being a good example).
* The cost is directly related to the length of the vehicle+trailer.

Then there's the balancing act of how long you're going to be there and how that relates to taking your own accommodation.

* Cabins cost around $200-260 per night, so 10 nights could be (average) $2300 but my Navara+Manta Ray at 14.5m was $2500, so the 11th night was "break even" and 12th night onwards was a bonus. Motorhome was $1700 (including cabin on the Spirit).

* There are numerous free camps (which started filling around 2:30pm and were sometimes full by 4pm). This was worse after Christmas - we had a pretty good run before then.

* Some places charge a small fee to stay there, like Stanley Golf Course, but you have a dump point, garbage disposal and good drinking water available here. Fees usually $10-15 a night.

* TasParks require a "Parks Pass" displayed to enter, and some charge to stay (Bruny Island, Lake St Clair, Mt Field) although there were the occasional free ones (Teds Beach).

* There are dump points everywhere, drinking water is good in most places (not Marrawah Beach, or Pondering Frog). Take a cup that's very white on the inside and taste the water before you fill. The water at Pondering Frog was brownish.

* Our biggest problem was rubbish disposal. We quickly learned to empty the garbage early so it would fit in the bins on the footpath. Some places had skips (Stanley, St Helens) and some places had nothing (Dunalley, Queenstown, Smithton, Coee Point, Sheffield). Forth Rec Ground say you can use their skip bin but they kept it padlocked.

We really enjoyed the cruises. We did the one at Port Arthur (about 20 minutes, cost is included in your entry to the area). While you're in Port Arthur make sure you do the Cape Raoul cruise, it's awesome! A catamaran ith FOUR Yamaha V8 outboards really gets up and boogies. This cruise goes out into the ocean.

The same company runs a "Tasman Island" cruise, using a Naiad powered by three Yamaha V6 outboards. This is also an ocean cruise and I'd argue that it was far better than the Cape Raoul cruise.

We did the Wineglass Bay cruise (goes from Coles Bay through Schouten Passage into the ocean and up to Wineglass Bay) but it wasn't as spectacular as the others. Nice to see dolphins swimming with the boat, but the water in the bay was really choppy and it lost its magical appearance.

My favourite cruise was the Arthur River cruise. If you go, say "Hi" to Boris and Emma, who were fantastic hosts. Even though this was just an up-river cruise (about 5.5 hours in total) it was bloody marvellous.

Watch out for Cradle Mtn. They SAY it's a "short walk" from Ronny Creek up to Crater Lake and then across to Dove Lake, but with my wife's reduced mobility the 1.5 hour walk turned into a 7.5 hour ordeal. If you have mobility problems, stay on the bus until you reach Dove Lake and walk down to the boatshed from there (really easy), don't bother with Crater Lake, Wombat Pool or Lake Lilla.

There are several places with working steam machines.

* Wilderness Railway at Queenstown. I do recommend the top tier carriage, the food was excellent

* Wee Georgie Wood Steam Railway at Tullah. It's on the road from Burnie to Queenstown anyway. Not expensive, and not very long, but it's very cute.

* Sheffield Railway, on the main street of Sheffield. It's a similarly short ride to Tullah and the train is similar, but it's cheap and enjoyable. On weekends they also have model trains you can ride on (stand at the end of the platform and look up the line, you'll see it).

* Westbury has a museum called "Pearns Steam World" which has a great collection of steam and diesel powered machinery, plus a small steam loco that runs around the entire lot and a small steam-powered tractor that pulls a cart around the inner part of the lot. This is a must-see, they're actively restoring some of the older equipment which is great to see!

Anyway, Tasmania is worth doing. We spent 2 months there, probably could have left it at 6 weeks at a casual slow pace or 4 weeks if we wanted to cram things in as fast as possible.

Wow, that's an essay, but it covers most of it. Great food at some places - Dunalley Hotel do a great Oyster Kilpatrick, Mountain Momma (Sheffield) do an okay pizza but Stanley Golf Course (Graze) was only just edible and we'd never do it again. Most of the Tas Parks cafes did a fair job, but by far the best food was at Tracks Cafe in Queenstown.

 

[joe2006]

Oh it's expensive, but it truly is worth it.

* Motorhome hire over there is EXPENSIVE. As in "sell your kidneys".
* Taking a caravan over costs more than taking a motorhome, but there are a few places that you simply cannot go with a motorhome (Corinna being a good example).
* The cost is directly related to the length of the vehicle+trailer.

Then there's the balancing act of how long you're going to be there and how that relates to taking your own accommodation.

* Cabins cost around $200-260 per night, so 10 nights could be (average) $2300 but my Navara+Manta Ray at 14.5m was $2500, so the 11th night was "break even" and 12th night onwards was a bonus. Motorhome was $1700 (including cabin on the Spirit).

* There are numerous free camps (which started filling around 2:30pm and were sometimes full by 4pm). This was worse after Christmas - we had a pretty good run before then.

* Some places charge a small fee to stay there, like Stanley Golf Course, but you have a dump point, garbage disposal and good drinking water available here. Fees usually $10-15 a night.

* TasParks require a "Parks Pass" displayed to enter, and some charge to stay (Bruny Island, Lake St Clair, Mt Field) although there were the occasional free ones (Teds Beach).

* There are dump points everywhere, drinking water is good in most places (not Marrawah Beach, or Pondering Frog). Take a cup that's very white on the inside and taste the water before you fill. The water at Pondering Frog was brownish.

* Our biggest problem was rubbish disposal. We quickly learned to empty the garbage early so it would fit in the bins on the footpath. Some places had skips (Stanley, St Helens) and some places had nothing (Dunalley, Queenstown, Smithton, Coee Point, Sheffield). Forth Rec Ground say you can use their skip bin but they kept it padlocked.

We really enjoyed the cruises. We did the one at Port Arthur (about 20 minutes, cost is included in your entry to the area). While you're in Port Arthur make sure you do the Cape Raoul cruise, it's awesome! A catamaran ith FOUR Yamaha V8 outboards really gets up and boogies. This cruise goes out into the ocean.

The same company runs a "Tasman Island" cruise, using a Naiad powered by three Yamaha V6 outboards. This is also an ocean cruise and I'd argue that it was far better than the Cape Raoul cruise.

We did the Wineglass Bay cruise (goes from Coles Bay through Schouten Passage into the ocean and up to Wineglass Bay) but it wasn't as spectacular as the others. Nice to see dolphins swimming with the boat, but the water in the bay was really choppy and it lost its magical appearance.

My favourite cruise was the Arthur River cruise. If you go, say "Hi" to Boris and Emma, who were fantastic hosts. Even though this was just an up-river cruise (about 5.5 hours in total) it was bloody marvellous.

Watch out for Cradle Mtn. They SAY it's a "short walk" from Ronny Creek up to Crater Lake and then across to Dove Lake, but with my wife's reduced mobility the 1.5 hour walk turned into a 7.5 hour ordeal. If you have mobility problems, stay on the bus until you reach Dove Lake and walk down to the boatshed from there (really easy), don't bother with Crater Lake, Wombat Pool or Lake Lilla.

There are several places with working steam machines.

* Wilderness Railway at Queenstown. I do recommend the top tier carriage, the food was excellent

* Wee Georgie Wood Steam Railway at Tullah. It's on the road from Burnie to Queenstown anyway. Not expensive, and not very long, but it's very cute.

* Sheffield Railway, on the main street of Sheffield. It's a similarly short ride to Tullah and the train is similar, but it's cheap and enjoyable. On weekends they also have model trains you can ride on (stand at the end of the platform and look up the line, you'll see it).

* Westbury has a museum called "Pearns Steam World" which has a great collection of steam and diesel powered machinery, plus a small steam loco that runs around the entire lot and a small steam-powered tractor that pulls a cart around the inner part of the lot. This is a must-see, they're actively restoring some of the older equipment which is great to see!

Anyway, Tasmania is worth doing. We spent 2 months there, probably could have left it at 6 weeks at a casual slow pace or 4 weeks if we wanted to cram things in as fast as possible.

Wow, that's an essay, but it covers most of it. Great food at some places - Dunalley Hotel do a great Oyster Kilpatrick, Mountain Momma (Sheffield) do an okay pizza but Stanley Golf Course (Graze) was only just edible and we'd never do it again. Most of the Tas Parks cafes did a fair job, but by far the best food was at Tracks Cafe in Queenstown.

That is comprehensive and good information for those of us thinking of going. I'm glad that you enjoyed it.