Year 8 Tasmania

The trip to Tasmania is a 5-day camp taking in all that Tassie has to offer. Below is a sample of what is experienced.

Our camp journey started at 4.00 p.m. where everyone boarded the bus and headed to the ferry docks in Melbourne. We caught the ‘Spirit of Tasmania’ at 7:30 pm and took the overnight boat ride to Tassie. After a pretty rough crossing of Bass Strait we got off the boat, collected our bags, and packed back onto the bus that was going to take us everywhere for the week. We had an early breakfast and then headed off to Cradle Mountain. On the way we stopped in Sheffield to look at the gorgeous murals. At Cradle Mountain, we took the shuttle buses to Dove Lake. The walk around Dove Lake was around 6kms, but it was worth it to see all the beautiful sights. We even had a glimpse of some snow. We returned to the coast, where spent the night at Camp Banksia at Port Sorell. That night after a delicious dinner we went for a walk on the beach. Another early morning start and we made our way to the north-west coast towards the Freycinet Peninsular. We arrived at Coles Bay and took the tiring but scenic trek to the Wine Glass Bay lookout. That night we had dinner at the Port Arthur Historical Complex; this was followed by the ghost tour. There were lots of screams, a few tears and even a couple of ghost sightings. We stayed the night at Port Arthur Caravan Park. Another early morning, and some not-quite-so happy campers! We returned to the Port Arthur Historical Complex for a further tour of the sight and a cruise of the around the Isle of the Dead, where many hundreds of convicts are buried in un-marked graves. We learnt about the history of the convicts and what they experienced during their “secondary punishment”. After lunch, we visited the Tasmanian Devil Park where we got to see a range of Australian animals, feed some cute kangaroos and saw Tasmania’s icons being fed. Hobart was our next stop, where we spent two nights at the Riverfront Motel. On our second last day (and another early start) we headed to the south of the state where we had a fun treetop walk through the Tahune Forests. In the afternoon, we went to the Hastings Caves for a tour of the amazing limestone caves before returning to Hobart. Finally, we got a sleep in. We got up at 7:30 a.m. to have breakfast and make our way into the centre of Hobart to explore the popular Salamanca Markets. On our way to the airport we stopped off in Richmond to have lunch and see the oldest bridge in Australia. As we caught our flight back to Melbourne, we said a final goodbye to Tasmania, which had been our home for the week.

Kendra Schmid