Kelso to Waratah

After spending a fortune on our accommodation in Kelso, we thought it was time for another free-camp. We headed along the North coast past Devonport and Burnie to a lovely little campground called ‘Black River’, which was apparently Big Rig compatible. It was a very hairy drive at the start. The GPS took us through the forests on some very minor roads. We have since learnt to cross reference the GPS with good old Google maps on the iPhone. Poor Dunc is wearing out his knees switching gears and gears 1 and 2 are getting quite a work-out here in the mountains of Tassie!

When we got to Black River we discovered half the sites were closed due to flooding. The sites were individually numbered and a few were drive-through which is what we needed. But apparently, even though there were up to 4 fire pits in each site, once one group is in there it is considered ‘taken’. WTH?! No sharing up here apparently. Thankfully “Mr Bus Driver” impressed a little 4yo so much his mother kindly offered to share their site with us for the night – phew! I really wasn’t sure what our other options were.

 Black River was just beautiful and gave the children their first chance to swim in the ocean this trip. We really do have 2 little water babies so it was worth the horrendous drive just to give them a swim! As an added bonus, we got to have our first campfire and see some wildlife. There were pademelons everywhere. Pademelons are a smaller version of a wallaby with fatter bodies and shorter legs and tails. We also saw our first potaroo. At first we thought it was a bilby. It looked just like the chocolate ones and certainly wasn’t a quoll, as we had just seen those at the wildlife parks – we know what quolls look like. At a later museum we saw some sketches of wildlife and identified it as a potaroo. It was remarkably comfortable around us and spent a fair while nibbling on an almond that someone had left behind at the campsite.

After Black River we intended to go to Waratah. We stopped at Burnie to empty the black water tank (the poop tank) and the view was amazing. It was lunch time and the kids wanted a play so we decided to pull up for a bit and then decided to stay the night! Our first spontaneous change-of-plans. The free camp at Burnie was actually free – we just needed a permit from the Information Centre. 

I am so glad we stayed, as it gave us the chance to drive to Penguin and have a bit more of a look around the North Coast. The Burnie Information Centre has a big Makers Market and Arts space, resulting in 2 separate visits and about 3 hours spent there! It was a wonderful place. I spoke to a number of the artists, the children did a quiz, we took the paper-making tour and made our own wombat-poo paper and Dunc was able to shop elsewhere in peace.

Staying at Burnie also gave him the chance to chase the wire which was causing issues with our leveling system. He successfully found and repaired said wire and we are all happy chappies on board. Our only issue now is the hot water service. We hate it. The pilot keeps going out and when its not going out, its burning gas. Dunc has his eye on a replacement one with auto electronic ignition… Considering he had to pay almost $50 for a tank of gas, its possibly worth it.

We walked the boardwalk in Burnie looking at the Little Penguins that night and had our niggly awful day the next day.

And then we got to Waratah.