When I think back to late 2013, we knew we were heading off on our big lap of Australia, but we didn’t really have any idea where that journey would take us, or just where we’d aim for first. So it goes without saying that when we had the chance to head off with the kids on Spirit of Tasmania, along with the dog, and the caravan we figured why not!

Waaaayyyyyy back in February we blogged about our excitement of the journey over there, and how much we were looking forward to a month in Tassie, but it didn’t take long, perhaps maybe three days, for us to fall in love and extend our trip out to a whole three month experience.

There’s so much to catch up on! I’ll put my hand up now and admit that we were so busy getting out and exploring Tasmania with the kids, that blogging had to take a back seat. It wasn’t helpful that overcast days challenged our solar and the ability to charge the laptops, or that Tassie doesn’t always have the best mobile internet reception, but if you’ve been there, or if you’re planning to go, you’ll understand why, and you really won’t mind one bit, because the internet and phone mean so little when you get views like this!

Alas, here we are spending our final night in a free camp at Forth. It’s only about 15kms from the Spirit of Tasmania terminal in Devonport, so it was a super convenient camp for the night.

Our Return Journey on Spirit of Tasmania.

Something a little exciting was the fact that our depart date fell on Mother’s Day. So it started with me getting to open my swag of goodies that Matt and the kids had collected right under my nose without me realising! (It can get tricky to buy gifts when we’re all together every day), before we caught up with other travellers we’d met at another camp, who dropped in to say goodbye.

I was sad to be waving goodbye to our home state of three months, but between you and me, having someone else cook dinner for me, a bed that wasn’t in the van, and catching a movie with the kids on board Spirit of Tasmania was exciting me!

So, here we are, we couldn’t leave without a group photo right in front of Spirit of Tasmania, well, two actually because I didn’t have a tripod and nobody wanted to miss out on a photo 🙂

We checked our gas bottles into the holding area, and before long, it was time time to board, there’s always excitement as we head up the ramp….

Then it was time for Yoshi to go into his kennel. Bedding and blanket to keep him comfy and we waved our buddy goodbye so we could grab some dinner before the movie started! (The photo is a bit blurry, a lovely lady offered to take a family one for us), thanks to her we got all of us in 🙂

We had dinner at The Captain’s Table, which is a buffet style eatery, which the kid’s loved because they got to choose what they had to eat for dinner. A nice mix of roast, fish, butter chicken was a favourite, and the big winner of the night was the dessert and soft drink. Here’s to not having to cook on Mother’s Day and having a beautiful meal with the family!

We were pretty lucky that Muppets Most Wanted was playing for the 8pm viewing and we hadn’t seen that before, so the kids were really excited, had full bellies and we enjoyed kicking back and enjoying the Muppet antics together.

We also managed to track down the games room which will keep the kids occupied if they are into video games.

So now we’ve been to Tassie, would we recommend it?

I just can’t tell you how much you SHOULD GO TO TASMANIA!!!

Just book your spot on the Spirit of Tasmania and go folks! If you even remotely like nature, then Tassie will thrill you with things to see and places to explore. The people are friendly, and the entire State feels like one comfy country town where Mates help each other out and people care about their neighbour. It’s no surprise that lots of people visit on holidays and end up back there to live.

Go, Go, Go! If you have a caravan, take it with you. It’s really easy driving on, and straight off again, and Tassie is jam packed with free camp and low cost camping options. If you want to take the dog, then do that too! You’ll just need to make sure their vaccinations are up to date, most importantly they must have had their hydatid tape work tablets within 14 days of departure so keep your receipt and your worming box or get your vet to do it and fill out a vaccination card.

If Tassie greeted us with an amazing sunrise as we departed into Devonport on the way over, then Melbourne sure did a great job of giving us a beautiful welcome too….

Just do it, you’ll never regret it!

How long should you spend there? Definitely no less than 4 weeks if you can, and we think 3 months was a really nice amount of time, so immerse yourself and enjoy.

 Stories or questions about Tasmania? We’d love to hear in the comments below 🙂