We left for Tasmania today. We needed to be at Station Pier at Port Melbourne an hour and a half before departure time of 8.00pm. Dad cooked us an early meal so that we wouldn’t have to spend money on the boat for a meal.

We left Broadmeadows at 5.00pm because we weren’t sure of the way to Station Pier, we didn’t want to take any chances of getting lost, being late and missing the boat.

After a detour through the Burnley Tunnel, oops, we got back on track and found our way to Port Melbourne. The instructions I downloaded from Whereis on the net weren’t much help.

There were quite a lot of bikes lined up to board the ship. The Ulysses AGM isn’t on until 6 March but a lot of people are doing like us and going over to Tasmania early and having a look around before the AGM. It cost quite a bit to travel over on the Spirit of Tasmania so it’s good to get our moneys worth and spend extra time there.

The bikes were all together on deck 5, strapped down by the handlebars to the floor; the trailer was strapped from the axle to the floor. Our seats were on deck 8, the cheapest way to travel is to just have a business seat.

We tried to sleep in our seats, not very successfully, they are quite narrow, and the footrest only comes up a short way. We finished up going for a wander around the boat at about 3am. We went and got some chips from the snack machine and chatted with a man who also was having trouble sleeping. After eating we tried laying on one of the bench seats in the bar, there were people everywhere trying to sleep like this, that was unsuccessful also, so we went back to our seats.

Finally we got some sleep, waking at about 6.15am; the boat was due to dock at 7am.

There was a fair bit of traffic on the road; we probably should have got going straight away off the boat instead of eating. The road from Devonport to Launceston is only single lane each way with overtaking lanes every now and again, it took us an hour.

From Launceston we could take the scenic route or the quick route, which is actually a greater distance. Because of our lack of sleep last night we decided to take the quickest way which was heading towards Hobart and then turning off at Conara towards St Helens.

We arrived at St Helens about lunch time. After setting up I went for a walk to town to get some bread and cheese for lunch. Tony tried to catch a nap.

After lunch we got a bit of sleep then watched a DVD.

This caravan park has a very well equipped camp kitchen, they even supply pots and pans and dishes.

We got talking to people in the kitchen and finished up spending the evening around a table talking with Bob & Mary from Townsville, George & Ricky, also here for the Ulysses AGM, from Toowoomba and Helen and Mike It was a great evening!

On our way to the waterfall we called in at the Pub in the Paddock. It’s a pub in what was once a farmhouse. It has a good atmosphere, a bit of paraphernalia to look at the outside lives Princess Priscilla the pig.

There were other bike riders from the mainland at the waterfall, they are touring about but don’t intend going to the Ulysses AGM.

There’s a scenic walk to the waterfall from the carpark, probably 10-15 minutes each way, past tall tree ferns and mossy rocks with a small river running beside the track, very lush, green country.

We went back to the caravan park and had some lunch before heading out to St Helen’s Point, where we had a bit of a climb about the rocks at the point before riding back along the road to town and stopping at the Peron sand dunes for a look.

Next we went for a ride to Binalong Bay which is a short trip from St Helens. There’s a nice little beach with white sand but it’s far too cold here for us to swim.

Once again we spent the evening with Mary and Bob in the camp kitchen.