Day 4 – Launceston to Anson’s Bay

Well I’m not sure you could get two different nights.  It was so warm overnight I though we might have somehow turned the heater on.  When we wake up it’s close to 20°

Up just after 7, and while we’re in no rush, it does take us ages to get ready.   We take the opportunity to fill the tanks up and we’re not out of the campground till after 10.

At this stage we only know we’re heading east.   I plot a route towards Anson’s Bay at the top end of the Bay of Fires, there are a few campsites along this coast, but only a few really have direct ocean views from the camps themselves.  It’s not really 100% clear which are the best.

As we head east from Launceston, the default route takes us back up the east of the Tamar, so I override this and head to Scottdale.  As we’re heading out of town, I realise I only have about ¼ a tank of fuel and I haven’t filled the jerry yet.  We don’t pass any fuel on the way out of town, and the next fuel is in Scottsdale, about 50km away, we should be fine I tell myself.

As we drive on, we start hitting hilly mountain roads, and the economy starts taking a dive.  I think we’re averaging close to 30l/100 in this terrain, Mmm 50km might be a repeat of Mt Molloy….. We’re all a bit nervous.

The road is really narrow, step and windy, but eventually we’re coming down the other side so I can coast a bit and the economy start getting better.

Finally, we drive into Scottsdale, and we wind the windows down, only to hear this god awful scraping noise that seems to be coming from the caravan.  Kinda like the breaks stuck on or something.  The noise keeps happening till we pull up in the main street.   Being Sunday if anything broken, we’ll be unlikely to get it fixed till morning.

Justine goes to do a bit of shopping, I take a look around, and can’t see anything.  I then reverse a bit and drive forward a couple of time, and fortunately it seems like the sound has gone.  I had backed off the trailer brakes a bit, I had dialed them up coming down the mountain so we didn’t have a repeat of the Snowy Mountains adventure.

It’s a relief when we fill up with diesel at a station just out of town, it was the cheapest we’ve seen in ages, so I fill one of the jerrys as well.

We drive through Derby, hoping to find somewhere for lunch, but there was not too much food options available.  I had read Derby was a bit of a mountain bike place.  That’s a bit of an understatement.  The place was packed with riders, there would have been hundreds of them.

We end up pulling into a park in the tiny hamlet of Pioneer for a quick lunchstop in the van, there was meant to be a lake near here, but the road looks to be a bit too narrow.  

Lunch done and we’re off, and it seems we have about 50mins left to go to the first camp option, called Policeman’s Point near Anson’s Bay.   I’ve read there are a few coast side camp spots here.  Only trouble if they are crap or full, then the next option is probably 30 or 40km south and they are likely to be full too at this time of the day.

Without warning the road turns to dirt, this is the main east coast road and the damn thing is dirt!  As It turns out, it’s good dirt and we can maintain 80km or so.  In some respect it better than the crap going over the mountains this morning.

We pull off this main road and onto the narrow road down to the point.   All of a sudden we come across another van driving out, shit, there is only just enough space to pass.  Justine sees him jump on the CB, and sure enough over the next bend there is a second, and then a third van.   Either they’ve just freed up three spots, or the place is full and they’re looking for somewhere else?

We pull into the campground, pick the coast sites, most of the sites are empty, but would require backing into, but the last site is U shaped and we can drive right in.  How lucky is that!!!!   Extra lucky, as it turns out, an older couple walked by a little later to tell us three large vans had all the good spots, but they had just left.   Sometimes things can fall your way.

The spot is right on the entrance to the bay, with a great view out to the ocean.  Protected enough by some bushes from the wind.

We take a walk up the inlet, and onto the beach proper.  The kids and I pike out after maybe 1km, but Justine continued onto the next headland.  The beach is covered in seaweed and there are a lot of bluebottles caught in the weed.

A really pleasant afternoon.  The kids read and the like, I do a bit of blogging.

We’re protected enough from the wind that I think a fire might be a good option, I’m out of wood, but on the way in, a few k’s back a local farmer had wood for sale, so with Caitlin riding shotgun we take a drive and collect this wood.  It ends up being this bone dry driftwood, absolute garbage in a slow burning fireplace, but fantastic for a raging beachside fire.  Even Liam who is starting to turn into a teenager and doesn’t really want to “do anything” enjoys the flames.

A great dinner, the kids have a shower and I sit by the fire listening to the sounds of the surf.  I’m not sure it gets better than this.