23 October 2013 - Snug Beach Cabins & Caravan Park, Snug, Tasmania

This morning we retraced the route travelled a few days earlier, back up over the Tasman Peninsula and around the pretty shore, up the steep road out of Eaglehawk Neck, across the fire damaged Forestier Peninsula, across the bridge over the Denison Canal, past the reconstruction of Dunally and on west to Sorell. There we stopped at the Coles to restock our fridge and refill the diesel tanks before travelling on toward Hobart but stopping at a suspension specialist in the eastern suburb of Mornington. After receiving more reassuring murmerings we decided to proceed with our Plan A, the tour of the southern reaches of Tasmania, so travelled on through the busy city streets of the State capital and on down to Kingston, Margate and so here to Snug.

Looking at the map of this region and considering the possible attractions the average tourist might pursue, the caravan parks are few and far between, so it was a question of staying here or going on through to Cygnet, or Huonville or even all the way south to the pub at Southport. I had decided that Cygnet would best suit our purposes however I suspect that Chris had silently set his mind on this at Snug. We parked up in the beach reserve for lunch and he remarked, in his typical understated Pommie manner, that “We could do worse than this”. Given that unless I have a very good reason to insist otherwise, I generally let him have the last say; he is after all the driver. And so here we are.

It was still fairly early in the afternoon when we checked in however there were delays one after another; the chap in the next site had plugged in to our tap and had the wrong kind of fitting for our adaptors. Three heads and much discussion later, all in the absence of that errant camper, the water problem was solved although Chris said he would have words later with the cuplrit, a fact that seems to have since slipped his mind. These same extra heads engaged us in much chatter about travel, their own rig, the upcoming wedding of their son and much else. Our plans to drive up to the Snug Falls promoted in the tourist literature went out the back door, so we spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on television news, missed for the past three days and catching up with Olly and little Charlie on Skype.

The ABC News channel is on non-stop fire alert and reporting; the New South Wales fires are worse rather than better than when we last checked and a state of emergency has since been declared. It is a hideous situation and puts our own little lives into perspective. But there is little we can do. Thoughts and prayers are rather useless, the best we can do is stay out of the way. We will have to consider this when we eventually return to the mainland and head north.