Leaving Adelaide, we began our two-day journey to Tasmania to start the Tasmanian Trail.
December 25
Up early in Adelaide, after finishing Walk the Yorke, CareFree and I took an Uber to the train station and got on a train to Melbourne.
After leaving Adelaide and traveling through some forest, most of the nine-and-a-half hour train ride went along farmland, occasionally with mountains off in the distance.
The train ride was nice, and quite uneventful, and while much longer than an airplane, considerably less stressful as well.
As we neared Geelong, a city southwest of Melbourne, and our true destination for the day, we learned that our train would actually be stopping there. (We didn’t realize this before; we thought the train was taking a more northerly route to Melbourne that would skip Geelong entirely, and we hadn’t been able to buy tickets getting off at Geelong.)
We arranged to get off the train at Geelong, which was a little bit of hassle because we had checked bags and the platform at Geelong was tiny, so after we got off and the engineer pulled the train forward so first class passengers could disembark, I got back on the train and followed a conductor back to the luggage compartment to retrieve our packs. But, this saved us at least two hours: going all the way to Melbourne would have been at least another hour, and then at least another hour by different train back to Geelong.
A short Uber took us past the ferry terminal — our destination tomorrow morning — to a hotel room we booked; a bit pricey and way too large for our needs, but the only one available at a reasonable price tonight near the ferry terminal.
After decompressing a bit, we walked to the (apparently) only open restaurant, El Jannah, which seemed like what you’d get if you replaced all of McDonald’s menu items with chicken. We ate outside to avoid the noise of several groups inside; somewhat unexpectedly for the start of summer in southern Australia, it was somewhat cool and chilly, but we made do.
December 26
Another Uber, this time to the ferry terminal, got us there with plenty of time to spare for our voyage from Geelong, through Port Phillip (the large and very sheltered bay connecting Geelong and Melbourne to the ocean), and across the Bass Strait to Devonport, on Tasmania’s north coast.
With generally good weather, we had smooth sailing on our ship, the Spirit of Tasmania II. Clouds in the morning hung over the land, somewhat obscuring our view of the landscape and Melbourne’s skyline. Out on the sea, we saw several other large ships, including our ship’s sister ship, Spirit of Tasmania I.
The roughly 450-km trip took us a little more than ten hours. Nearly an hour after we arrived at Devonport, after what seemed like the most inefficient process ever to retrieve our checked bags, we called for an Uber to take us to Latrobe, the next town over.
Arriving in Latrobe, we checked in to our incredibly tiny cabin at the Latrobe Mersey River Caravan Park, then walked to town to get something to eat. Given that it was after 8 pm on Boxing Day, the town felt completely dead. The only place that was still open and serving food was a hotel/bar with somewhat lousy customer service and only bar food, since the restaurant and main kitchen had already closed.
Since we still have quite some chores to do, including resupply, and also moving our extra luggage that we’re not taking hiking to a storage locker on the outskirts of town, we’re planning on staying in Latrobe for two nights. Tomorrow morning, we’ll return to Devonport to walk the 8 km section of trail from Devonport to Latrobe. When we return to Latrobe in the afternoon, we’ll take care of the rest of our chores, and continue south the day after.