Oatlands to Scamander

Last night Ethan helped cook dinner and did a great job with the meatballs followed by fruit dipped in melted chocolate!

 

Once the kids were in bed and darkness began to fall, Darrin went for a night walk to see if there were any of Oatlands older buildings illuminted. The mill was not, but the street lights in the main street gave the old georgian buildings a different look.

 

 

It was a quiet night at the freecamp - the only noise that of the water birds right behind us.  They stirred again in the morning, one swan with an injured wing enjoyed some personal attention by being fed by the children.  They enthusiastically shoo-ed all the other birds away to give the injured bird a chance.

 

We looked around Oatlands some more, including the three old churches, gaolers house, court house and the old remains of the gaol wall, which now contained the town swimming pool.

 

 

Back on the Midland Hwy and it was another 50 km's north to Campbell Town, where we stopped for a couple of hours.  Looked at the 'Red Bridge' - another convict masterpiece.  This is the oldest bridge in Australian still used on a major highway (this is the main road between Launceston and Hobart, so it gets some pretty big vehicles crossing it).

 

 

Planning this trip included researching gluten free venues and we discovered 'Burger Me!' in Campbell Town, and had planned all along to stop there for lunch.  We did, and we were not disappointed!

 

 

Campbell Town's main street has hundreds of bricks with details of convicts.  We found people of all ages and backgrounds, some with quite 'trivial' crimes they were transported for.  We found Red Kelly's (father of Ned), plus a possible ancestor in Eliza Wall...

 

 

Just north of Campbell Town we turned onto the Esk Hwy for the trip through to the north east coast.  It was a good road mostly, sweeping bends and fairly flat. Not much traffic.  The final part, from St Marys to Scamader was very narrow and winding though. It was about 100 km's from Campbelltown.

 

We are staying at Scamader Sanctuary Caravan Park which has access to its own rugged, wind swept beach. We went and had a look, but it really was quite windy!

 

 

 

There's also what looks like a second hand McDonalds playground in the caravan park which the kids were very excited about.

 

 

After dinner we wenet and had a run, play and sea shell hunt on the beach up near the river entrance.  Was still windy but not as severly as earlier.

 

 

A family portrait... compliments of the setting sun!

 

 

We were treated to a colourful sunset tonight from our caravan site.