We finally struck out on our own. With Easter over, but 2 more days of Holiday left, we though we might finally find some camping spots available! We are starting our tour by driving north, up the east coast. Our first stop was in Buckland when we saw this old church along the road.

The stone church dates from the 1830’s I think based on the tombstones around it!

The otherwise small, dark interior was lighted by these beautiful stained glass windows!

We eventually made our way to a free campsite at a boat ramp on the Swan River just outside of the small town of Swansea. It seems more used by locals than tourists as there are no hiking trails or amenities, but it serves our purpose for the night!

Robert ventured a little way onto this old rotting dock. Clouds are forming, it’s supposed to rain tonight.

There’s not much to setting up in this rig. So we took a walk along the road, seeing sheep out in the bone dry paddocks.

It’s such a drought here that the roads are littered with roadkill, animals that graze along the road where whatever water there is supports a little greenery.

The closest we have gotten to cockatoos! We heard them and saw them flying over at Connie’s.

The Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo!

Easter Sunday! We were invited to Connie & Brendan’s for morning tea with hot-cross buns!

Yummy toasted hot-cross bun slices with homemade rhubarb-apple jam, 50 year aged honey, and homemade quince jam!

The rest of the morning was spent cleaning the motorhome and preparing the vegetable lasagna I made with the help of Connie’s pan, utensils and oven! We had time for wildlife observation too!We’ve been watching, and hearing the squawking of, this trio of native hens in the yard since we got here. They hardly stay put long enough to take a picture tho! They are Tasmanian Native-hen, flightless and found only on Tasmania. Connie then pointed out a little fella in the front yard, snuffling along the fence line.

It took a few minutes to get a picture of his head and nose because it was usually stuck in the ground!

The Short-beaked Echidna, or spiny ant-eater, is a monotreme, like a platypus, in that it lays an egg in an abdominal pouch that hatches in only 10 days, and the jellybean sized young stays in the pouch for three months lapping up a milk-like substance from specialized pores. The young is eventually weaned at about 12 months old. The strong snout is used to push into the soil or rotten stumps so the sticky tongue can slurp up termites and ants. It has large strong front claws to dig and backward facing claws on the back feet to aid in burrowing during hot, dry times. I thought this guy was burrowing his nose into the dirt to avoid confrontation with me trying to get a picture, but he was searching for ants!

We finished up the day with a great meal and more stories and an early bedtime!

Today Robert and I took the Motorhome back into town to do some shopping and figure out the dump station, water filling and other maintenance chores. I also discovered that I need more cell service in order to work on these posts, so they will be sporadic as I find the spots that have the best cell service! We returned to Connie’s for dinner and a wonderful evening sitting in the garden and hearing each other’s stories.

The garden is filled with bursts of color and whimsical art works.

This morning Connie and Brendan invited us down to the beach for a mid morning swim. We quickly grabbed a few things and jumped in the cars and went down to the sea!

Marion Bay Beach from the wooden lookout deck. Bream Creek flows into the bay here.

We kicked off our shoes and walked barefoot in the warm buff sand and the cool seawater.

Eventually we found the spot to enjoy a swim. Connie and Brendan went in first and Robert followed.

The exuberance and joy of a dip in the clear cool ocean!

I got enough courage up and joined them, just as Connie and Brendan were heading back to the beach. It has been a long time since I’ve been in the ocean far enough to taste the salt water on my lips! It was cool, and it was great to lay back and float!

Scenes from the seaside. A Mom and her 2 young daughters left their gumboots at the dunes to walk barefoot on the beach!

Today we took off to explore the Tasman Peninsula and to find a camping spot for a few days.

A simple map of the Tasman Peninsula.

We drove down through Eaglehawk Neck and up past Saltwater River to Lime Bay campground at the tip of the northwest point of the peninsula. The campground was full, and we had failed to get Australian money to pay for a site anyway, so we returned to the main road and drove the loop to Port Arthur, site of the most notorious of the Australian Penal Colonies of the colonial era. It being late afternoon by now, we didn’t stop to tour the facility, but you can read some history of the site HERE. We continued around the loop and enquired at the 2 campgrounds on the peninsula to discover there are virtually no sites available because it’s Easter weekend, the “end of the summer” for Australians and the biggest camping weekend of the year! We texted Connie and she kindly invited us back to her place! On our way back we took a side road and finally got a beautiful view of Pirates Bay near the narrow neck of land (the aforementioned Eaglehawk Neck) at the Tasman National Park Lookout.

Looking out at Pirates Bay and the Tasman Sea from the Tasman NP Lookout.

Back at Connie & Brendans we admired the bounty of pumpkins they grew despite the severe drought they are in right now.