Much to his annoyance, we woke Steve up at just after 7am this morning. He has a real problem with waking up in the morning, so it was good fun telling him to get up so early (he he). We all got ready and then loaded the car before driving on to Devonport. Despite getting up so early - we still didn't leave until nearly 9am! It didn't matter though - Devonport was only about half an hour away.
We had a quick drive around town to see if there was anything nice about, and then Nikki popped into Tourist Information. They told us about a lighthouse on the edge of town so we parked the car and went for a nice stroll along the edge of the water in the morning sunshine. When we got to the lighthouse we sat around chatting for a while and then headed back to the car. By now it was just after 11am and we had to have the car back in Launceston (which was over 100km away), by 1pm... no sweat!
As we were bombing along the roads, through the beautiful green countryside, we saw a sign for a chocolate factory and thought we just had to stop. We spent a couple of minutes looking around the factory, but the real reason we were there was because the on-site shop did free tastings... we spent about three times as long in there, and despite filling up on free fudge and truffles - still came out with bags we'd bought!
Back on the road we saw another sign, this time for a raspberry farm - so Nikki had me swerving off the road again and into the car park. This time I stayed in the car while Nikki and Steve did a quick 'smash & grab' on the place - running in and then back out again with a huge punnett before I could turn the car around. They jumped in and we were headed for Launceston once again. We had about 25 minutes to go... but over half the journey left!
We safely pulled into the Treasure Island Campsite at just before 1pm (yippee) and I rang the car hire company to say we were in town, while Nikki and Steve checked us in. Boy, if we thought last nights caravan was old - then we were in for a shock! Tonight's was an even older model - from some time in the 50s... the 1850s! We threw the bags through the door and then went to drop off the car.
When we got to the car hire company, we were expecting to pay a charge of about $70 for going over our millage allowance (we were allowed to do 200km a day, 200km x 6 days = 1200km, Our total... 1477km) - but once the guy had checked over the car for dents and scratches, he said we were free to go - we couldn't get out of there quick enough! We ran over the road into a huge park and I only turned round to take a picture of the car (as proof that we had returned it!). Bargain... $70 in our pockets!
This afternoon we had a picnic in the park and then went for a walk around town. We had a look in some of the shops and then went into Tourist Information, who told us about some things we could do for free. We started by going to the museum which, even though quite small, was actually pretty good. They had all sorts of Tasmanian wildlife there - including Tasmanian Devils and Tigers(!). Afterwards we took a slow walk back to our caravan, stopping in the supermarket on the way. We then spent this evening just chilling out.
Only one afternoon without a car - and already Nikki and Steve are moaning about having to walk!
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