Caroline and I woke to the sound of Ava reading another story to Audrey. Sitting on Audrey’s top bunk, Ava read while Audrey sat in awe – presumably mouth wide open like she does when transfixed. So lovely when the girls are getting on well together. Whilst being away I have noticed a remarkable improvement in Audrey’s reading ability tutored by Ava. She now is able to identify most letters and has on occasion determined the word through reading the individual letters. It is incredible how fast the girls are growing up. I love watching them grow and witnessing their development milestones.

We left Swansea, the place that gave me a chance to recharge my batteries and explore the beauty of the Freycinet Peninsula, to explore the wonders of the North Eastern coastline of Tasmania.

By 9am we stopped at our first destination, The Pondering Frog for a spot of ice cream – a special treat for the girls being so good on Boxing Day! Audrey ate most of her vanilla ice cream with sprinkles the rest eaten by Ava, along with her Cherry bliss ice cream while I had a Berry bliss cone. Yum, what a great start to the day. We continued North along the East coast hugging the coastline headed for Binalong Bay and a sneak preview of the Cosy Corner North free campsite in the Bay of Fires Conservation Area. The coastline was spectacular.

Boulders at the shoreline painted orange from rust, similar to the Remarkable Rocks we saw on Kangaroo Island a few years back. The campsite, was extremely pretty but crowded as predicted. Every man and their dog, yes many dogs roamed free, set up camp in every nook and cranny they could find – a little bit of organised chaos. We parked the van to check out the beach and dip our toes in the last sea – our last chance to be close to the ocean before catching the ferry home. The sand was white and almost pristine, stained by a large dog turd that blocked us from returning to the caravan. We negotiated the ‘landmine’ returned to the car and I swapped driving duties with Caroline to take us on our next leg of the journey.

From Bay of Fires Conservation Area we wiggled, yes a very wiggly road, North West heading for the Bridestowe Lavender Estate and a few vineyards before arriving at our campsite. Bridestowe Lavender Estate is Australia’s largest and oldest lavender farm – a haven for tourists, that was charging an entry fee of $10 per adult – more than most vineyards charge for wine tasting in Tasmania! No free samples here, just fields and fields of purple as far as the eye could see. There were long lines of people waiting for lavender ice cream and a purple infused gift shop, with you guessed it, lavender. Lavender is beautiful and the Estate is vast. We were lavendered out and decided to see a few vineyards instead.

On route to the first vineyard we were to visit, we stopped off at a park for a quick picnic. We opened the van to prep our meal. Caroline and Ava had cheese and biscuits while Audrey and I had vegemite sandwiches. After a quick refuel we continued our journey to Pipers Brook to visit Sinapius Vineyard.

A tip for young players – visiting unknown vineyards with a caravan attached could be a recipe for disaster. Fortunately Caroline and I have frequented a few vineyards and done a spot of towing, so we managed to reverse, 90 degree turn and manoeuvre windy driveways and still get to the vineyards. We arrived at Sinapius – a beautiful vineyard where I had to reverse and dog-leg to park. We approached the cellar door and Caroline immediately jumped out of the car with walkie-talkie in hand. She ran up the top of the hill towards the cellar door to determine whether we could turn around and advised it was a no-go. I reversed the van 50 metres down the drive and manoeuvred it into a side path. The Beattie family walked back up the hill and were greeted by a lovely gent, whom helps tend the vines in-between cellar door visits. He was extremely knowledgeable about the way the wines were grown, their aspect, rainfall delivered in the bottling year along with the impact of the terroir on the wine and was particularly impressed by our parking skills. He mentioned that aboriginal folk law said that if black cockatoos arrive it means rain is coming, the number of cockatoos are also determinant of the amount of rain. 5 cockatoos = 5mm of rain. When the cockatoos depart, that’s when the rain is going to stop. Caroline and I tried an extremely interesting white blend, the 2017 Sinapius Clem Blanc, of which we purchased half a dozen, the 2017 Home Vineyard Chardonnay and the 2018 Esme Rouge – A Gamay made in a traditional Beaujolais style. A fantastic cellar door and wine experience!

Next stop was 100 metres up the road to Delamere Vineyard. Another challenging entrance and driveway to the vineyard, when towing, I had to complete a ten point turn to park the van. Mission accomplished, with help from my beautiful assistant! I read reviews their 2015 Pinot Noir was worth a visit, unfortunately none was available. We tried the 2016 and 2017 Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, a Blanc de Blanc and Rose but nothing quite hit the mark. Fortunately we have another full day of exploring tomorrow!

Our campsite for the next two nights was found by Caroline on a website called YouCamp. Situated a few kms from the wine region, we have enjoyed the afternoon exploring ‘the yard’ of a persons property.  We literally have a paddock to ourselves with en-suite! Stunning views to adjacent properties. Rolling green hills, luscious green trees and a skyline of mixed colour palate blending through white, blue and grey.

We are all fed, the girls are all asleep and Caroline is enjoying a hot shower alone while I finish off the blog. We covered significant ground today. Over 300kms in 4.5 hours with an average speed of 38km/hr. I think the travel speed puts into perspective how windy our trip was today!

More escapades tomorrow without caravan on-tow!