And now the trip planning starts

[surferboy]

Decisions .. decisions .. decisions ...

Which way do we go to get to the Tassie Nats 

We've booked our 4 weeks annual leave at work. And booked our accommodation for the Nats.
 
Our plan so far  .....
Leave work 3.00pm Friday 4th April
Arrive Hobart 2.00pm Thurs 17th April
PARTY  PARTY  PARTY   
Depart Hobart 10.00am Tues 22nd April
Go back to work 5.00am Mon 5th May

Now we just need to figure out the bits inbetween.

    &  Mrs

[freddyc]

come via north queensland, its always beautiful up here.

[NES304]

bring a boat 

[surferboy]

We thought about going via the Northern Territory and visiting Uluru on the way south 
Well I did,  not Cathy

But we will leave that for the Townsville 8100Km trip (one way) for 2016 and book a couple of extra weeks leave

Our plan(?) for Tassie is to freight the wagon to Melbourne, Fly over, Jump on the boat, cruise Tassie for a week or so (to add some new lines to my map) Party , jump on the boat, freight wagon home and fly home

Or
truck and fly to Adelaide, and drive to Melbourne along Great Ocean Road again (but west to east for a different view of the scenery). Do the Tassie cruise, Nats, Drive from Melbourne to Adelaide through the middle bit (Another new line on my map) and truck and fly home

But some of the West Aussies are thinking about driving across the Nullabor.
So do we join them for trip number 6 across the Nullabor (and 7 if we drive home)

What early plans does anybody else have ?

 

[surferboy]

Question time 

Cruising from Adelaide to Melbourne
A 2 day trip starting in Adelaide then stopping at Port Fairy at start of GOR, and Torquay at end of GOR  ( then into Melbourne and straight onto the boat on the 3rd day )
does this sound OK ?

cruising Melbourne to Adelaide
Western Fwy/Hwy-Dukes Hwy
is this a 1 day drive or do we break it into 2 (with a detour to Naracoote ?) ?

Would appreciate advice of locals who know the roads/area.
We don't want to spend a lot of time on mainland roads as we are cruising around Tassie
But I don't want to be racing and be buggered at the end of the trip

and what do we do in Devonport at 6.00AM     in the morning
when the boat docks

 

[surferboy]

Advice from the locals please...

We have 6 nights in Tassie before the Nats

Thinking of 4 nights in Deloraine as it doesn't look far to anywhere for day tripping. Most of the North coast and East coast looks like a leisurely 2 hour cruise away
and it saves packing/unpacking every night if we did a lap of the island staying in different places each night.
or is there a better location ? Have been to Launceston before and we are not fussed about missing it on this trip. ( I will pop in just so I can buy another hat badge  )

and 2 nights in Strahan

before spending one day driving slowly to Hobart

Should fill in some lines on my map nicely 

Ta
 

PS is Melbourne to Adelaide 1 day drive or 2 ?

[freddyc]

I am disappointed surferboy and Kathy, 2016 before you visit my beautiful city. You will be welcomed here.
fred and candy

[surferboy]

Sitting at home bored (that's dangerous  ) after surgery.
Can't drive, can't do gardening
So I've been sitting on the computer planning and booking 
So far our trip plan is....

End of March.. Truck car to Adelaide
Mon 7th April.. Fly into Adelaide and pick up car
Tues 8th.. Drive  to Port Fairy, at start of GOR 
Wed 9th.. Drive    to Torquay, end of GOR trip 
Thurs 10th... Drive  to Melbourne and board boat 
Fri 11th.. Depart boat at 6.00am  and drive  slowly to Deloraine (can't check in before 2.00pm) Stay 4 days cruising  around the top 1/2 of Tassie
Go shopping for more hat badges and spend a couple of hours drawing NEW lines on my map 
Tues 15th.. Drive  to Strahan stay 2 nights (we've done the boat, is the train still running?)
Thurs 17th.. Drive    to Hobart  RELAX at the Nats 
Tues 22nd... Depart Hobart, Drive  slowly northward and board boat
Wed 23rd... Drive    to Horsham
Thurs 24th.. Drive    to Hahndorf. I had planned on driving to Adelaide and dropping the car off the next day... Until Cathy pointed out it's Anzac Day. So we're staying in the hills and cruising for the long weekend
Mon 28th... Drive  To Adelaide, drop of wagon and fly home 

RED is what is booked and fixed
Blue is still flexible (at least until I get bored tomorrow  )

Cathy's worried because I've been slack this year.. less than 12 months to go and I haven't got everything organized
and I've had a week of work with no overtime to pay for all this 


 

[fe350chev]

Well your in luck cos I live out past Horsham, I grew up in Adelaide and was born in Tassie 

When you go to Adelaide, the best way to go is to Horsham up the normal highway, then when you get to Horsham (3.5 hours from Melbourne), turn left and follow the signs to Edenhope and go the back way, it's much nicer. It's called the "Wimmera Highway". There is a lovely mountain called "Mt Arapiles" in Natimuk. You just follow the "Natimuk Road/Wimmera Highway" out, past safeway and the new Target. Edenhope is just over an hour from Horsham via Natimuk. The way to Adelaide the back way, is through Francis then Boredome town (Bordertown) but if you wanna go to Naracoorte just keep going past Edenhope to Naracoorte. That's a fair drive in itself. Don't bother staying overnight anywhere else but Naracoorte as they aren't geared for tourism. You would be looking at about 7 hours if you have half hour in Horsham for Lunch and another hour looking at other things along the way, like the lookout at Mt Arapiles, Natimuk lake (was dry 10 years so worth seeing) and around Naracoorte. It would be a further 4 hours to Adelaide so I would suggest if you must got to Naracoorte you stay there a night cos the trip from there to Adelaide is dead set boring especially when tired. It's basically 5 hours from Horsham to Adelaide (main highway) or about same time other way via Goroke, Francis, Bordertown.

Going the other way to Port fairy sounds about right. I have also lived in Mt Gambier so know what its like driving these areas. Warrnambool is worth a look and Portland.

My original family were pioneers of Deloraine in the 1840's and they owned a brickfield there then they opened up the North West through to Ulverstone using plank roads.

You go where everyone else will when you get to Tassie, to the other side of the port to Maccas and get a coffee!

Don't bother driving the western highway to Adelaide, very boring. It's still over 8 hours without hardly any stops from Melb to Radelaide cos they are duplicating the highway so go to Naracoorte.

When in Tassie make sure you visit Latrobe and go to "Relicare". Its a cool shop full of weird stuff and antiques. make sure you visit sheffield and go around the tasmazia and then go back way to ulverstone, through sprent and there are great walking trails near castra etc. I would strongly recommend you go from sheffield, past mount Roland, then head around to Wilmot road, spellmans road, then castra road to ulvy then back to latrobe and railton for one drive, as there is some great places along that route and its a forgotten area but very nice.

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Thurs 24th.. Drive    to Hahndorf. [/color]

Make sure you get there with an empty stomach 

[surferboy]

Thanks guys
It's good to get local knowledge rather than relying on google



Glad I booked early.

Just looked at school holidays for 2014

5th   - 21st April       Qld  & Vic
12th - 27th April       SA, ACT, NSW
18th April - 4th May  Tas

If the mainlanders head south it could be getting very busy around Easter 

Started adding info to our travel plans. Tasmazia is a definite ( we got there late in the afternoon last time we visited) .added Relicare (weird stuff sounds good)  and Cathy is hoping the puppet shop is still in Hahndorf (that's at least 2 hours filled  )



 

[fe350chev]

Yes a good place for the ladies.

http://reliquaire.com/

You can also visit Foster's axeman's hall of fame where my great great great uncle Jim, the lightning axeman's world championship from the late 1800's features ha ha.

http://www.axemanscomplex.com.au/

Another placer worth going for a drive is a little town called Wilmot with the original Myer/Coles store which is interesting. Great scenery too.

Gunns Plains caves, at Burnie visit the new creative paper mill on beachfront and a nice bushwalk to the Leven canyon lookout, upper Castra.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leven_Canyon
http://www.kentish.tas.gov.au/page.aspx?u=294

[surferboy]

Help ! How do I edit my post ?

Tues 8th is now red.  Booked the train carriage again at Pelican Waters in Port Fairy.
Hope it doesn't rain this time and we get to look around town 
Wed 9th is now red. Changed to Lorne, seemed a nicer place, gives us more time on the GOR and plenty of time to get to the boat.

 

[surferboy]

YAHOOOOOOOOOO


Cathy said we can DRIVE to the Nats
AND home again
                              

and I can have the longboard strapped to the roofracks while it's on the boat
          

The adventure begins  Wednesday 2nd April 2014
          


 

[surferboy]

Went to the vintage/retro markets last weekend and spent $8 on some old books including....
 
A guide to Tasmania we can use next Easter 






Here's the boat we're cruising over on





Drive down to Hobart for the Nats




and check out some of the tourist attractions on the way






It doesn't have a date on it.
I'm hoping the backpage map is up to date,  wouldn't want to get lost 

 

[surferboy]

and this one
No FEs or FCs
just an old Ladybird book from 1958 about Australia



and I wouldn't normally buy a boring book about roads from 1967..


but this one had spaces on the pages where you put stickers that are in the centre pages


like this one




 

[ridgey_didge]

Great finds - I wonder how much or little has changed in Tassie?

Cheers
David

[surferboy]

THE GRAND PLAN

If you're on the road in the same place at the same time

give us a wave

 

& Cathy

.

[surferboy]

Well, I'm ready to go 

Got the stereo fixed today so I can crank up Jerry Lee Lewis to 100decibels and crooooooze   

Is there any other important stuff I should do before driving the wagon on another 10,000km adventure ?

 

[FC_Driver]

Hi SB
If you are in Strawn on 15th and 16th (going be your intinary) look out for FE wagon & FC sedan.....Staying at Queenstown but will be in Strawan.......on one of these days.
Bruce & Jan