8 Days · 7 Nights · Van up the coast, then Hobart

Convict roads,
then orange boulders

Up through the Midlands to Bay of Fires, back down the coast via Freycinet — then three nights in Hobart with a small car. About 670 km in the van and 300 km in the car, 35 km on foot, and not one metre of gravel.

Land

Sat 07:20

JQ701 → HBA

Van out

Sat 09:00

Apollo Cambridge

Van back

Wed 15:00

confirmed in writing

Vehicle

Euro Mini

5.94 m · 3.10 m tall

Hotel

Wed → Sat

ibis Styles, Macquarie St

Car out

Thu 15:30

Simba, Holyman Ave

Car back

Sat 15:30

plan for 13:30

Fly home

Sat 16:30

JQ706 → MEL

THE SHAPE OF THE WEEK

Why it runs this way round

One rule — no unsealed roads, because Apollo restricts them and a breach can void the liability cover — plus one idea: don't drive the same road twice.

✓Inland on the way up, coast on the way back. The two routes to St Helens are within 15 km and 2 minutes of each other, so you lose nothing — and the Swansea–Bicheno stretch is better southbound, driving toward the Hazards rather than away from them.
✓The B31 means no Hobart backtrack. Turn north out of the depot onto Richmond Rd and you're on the inland route immediately — via Richmond and Colebrook, rejoining the highway below Oatlands.
✓Day 1 is the easiest drive of the week, which matters most on your first day in an unfamiliar 5.94 m van. The Midland Highway is wide, barriered and has the state's best rest area at Campbell Town.
✓Bay of Fires gets a sunset and a sunrise. It faces east — arriving Saturday evening and walking Sunday morning gets both light windows out of one night.
✓Two nights at Coles Bay puts both Freycinet walks on fresh legs, and lets Mount Amos slide to Tuesday if Monday's rock is wet.

~670 km

driving

~35 km

on foot

3 h 20

longest drive · Sat

Read this first

Eight things research changed. Every bed is booked, the van is checked in, and the only thing still to buy is the park pass on the 11th — but the first two below are jobs for this week, not for Tasmania.

1 · SATURDAY’S SHAPE

Saturday is built around a 13:30 return, not the 15:30 on the booking

You can hand a hire car back early — so the plan simply does

The booking says 15:30 at 100 Holyman Ave. Jetstar closes domestic check-in at 15:50, and JQ706 departs at 16:30 — so taking the booking literally leaves twenty minutes for the return inspection, the paperwork, the walk and security.

You do not need anyone’s permission to fix that. A hire car can be handed back early; you have paid for the period either way. Saturday is therefore planned to reach the depot at 13:30, and that is the time to hold yourself to — leave Salamanca at 13:00 and the day has two hours of slack in it.

Changing the booked time in Manage Booking is optional and free. It costs nothing and means the counter is expecting you, which is worth two minutes if you would rather not explain yourself at 13:30 on a Saturday.

Manage booking IM50456624 →

2 · SETTLED

The car’s $6,380 excess is covered by your credit card

Nothing to buy — two conditions worth knowing anyway

The confirmation says you did not select protection, which would have left $6,380 riding on a scratch. Your card carries it, so decline the counter upsell and there is nothing extra to pay. The budget below is set to zero for it.

Two conditions that catch people out, both worth a two-minute look at the policy before the 17th. Card cover normally requires the hire to be paid with that same card — so use it for the balance at the counter, not a different one. And it reimburses rather than prevents: Simba still charges any damage to your card and you claim it back afterwards.

The gravel rule survives regardless. Simba’s unsealed-road wording isn’t published anywhere I could reach, and card policies almost universally exclude unsealed roads too — so a gravel prang is the one thing that would be uncovered from both directions. Same rule as the van: everything below stays sealed, and satellite-view any detour you invent.

Separately, Simba still takes a $500–$2,000 bond on the card at the counter. That is not the excess and it comes back on return — just make sure the card has room for it on the 17th.

3 · RESOLVED

The van is due back by 3:00 pm — not 2:00

Apollo confirmed it in writing · booking BIG457700/1

Apollo's reservations team, by email on 24 Aug: "You can pick-up and drop off any time during the branch opening hours between 9:00am and 3:00pm and the exact time does not change the price."

So the hour-before-closing rule doesn't apply, and Wednesday gains an hour over the earlier plan. The booking record still shows a 9:00 am drop-off — that's the slot originally selected, and Apollo confirmed it needn't be changed.

Keep that email on your phone. It's the only thing that contradicts the printed booking.

☎ Depot direct 03 6248 4168

4 · PICK-UP DAY

$125 and a $7,500 bond land on the card at the counter

Online check-in done — this is what’s left of Saturday morning

Online check-in is done, so the 9:00 am handover should run 60–90 minutes rather than a counter queue. What it doesn’t cover is the money.

Three things from the booking that aren’t in the $622.25 already paid:

$125 Hobart location fee, collected at the counter on the day. Real total for the van: $747.25.
“The Low Road” liability: $7,500 excess, and the $7,500 bond is debited, not just held. That is a real $7,500 off the card until after the van is returned and inspected — make sure the limit is there and that you can live without it for a week or two.
Drop & Go isn’t offered at Hobart. The van is inspected with you on Wednesday, so the tanks must already be empty when you arrive. That happens at Triabunna on Wednesday morning.

Flight recorded on the booking is JQ701.

☎ Depot 03 6248 4168

5 · CHECK STREET VIEW

Mud Walls Road may still have an unsealed section

The Colebrook → Jericho leg of Saturday's route

The B31 is what saves you the Hobart backtrack, but its southern section was historically gravel. A federally funded sealing project completed in 2017 — yet a 2020 traveller's account still describes an unsealed stretch. I couldn't resolve it from here.

Drop a Street View pin on Mud Walls Rd between Colebrook and the A1 before you leave.

If it's not sealed, the fallback still skips Hobart: Cambridge → Richmond → Campania → Tea Tree → Brighton, joining the A1 there. Costs a few minutes, no gravel.

6 · TWO PARKS, NOT ONE

Friday walks into a second national park

Which settles the 2-month vs 1-day question: neither, quite

Bay of Fires Conservation Area is not a national park — free, including its campgrounds. Wellington Park on kunanyi is free. Oatlands, Ross, Campbell Town, the Bicheno blowhole: all free. That much has not changed.

What changed is Friday. Tasman Arch, Devils Kitchen, Remarkable Cave and the Tessellated Pavement all sit inside Tasman National Park — a second park, on the one day you are in the hire car rather than the van. A Freycinet-only pass does not cover any of them.

So the honest comparison, for two adults arriving by vehicle:

Option	Cost	Does it actually work?
Freycinet One Park + a 24-hr vehicle pass on Friday	$98.40	Yes. Two separate passes, so the two vehicles are not a problem. Take this one.
Holiday Vehicle Pass, 2 months, all parks	$95.50	Cheapest on paper, but it covers one vehicle and you use two. Only works if Parks will put the hire car’s plate on it mid-trip.
Two Holiday person passes	$95.50	No. Person passes are for visitors arriving without a vehicle. You drive in both times.
24-hr vehicle passes × 3 (Mon, Tue, Fri)	$143.10	Works, and costs $45 more than it needs to.

So: keep the $50.70 Freycinet One Park pass you already planned — it covers Sunday evening, Monday and Tuesday, and takes up to two vehicles. Then buy one 24-hour vehicle pass on the morning of Friday the 18th, once you have the hire car’s plate. $98.40 all in, $2.90 more than the two-month pass, and nothing depends on a phone call to Parks from the road.

One mechanical note, since a vehicle pass is issued against a registration number: you will not have the van’s plate until Saturday morning, and you will not have the car’s until Thursday afternoon. Both passes can be bought on a phone in two minutes, so buy each one when you have the plate in front of you.

If you decide to skip the Tasman coastal stops and go straight to Port Arthur — which is a historic site, not a national park, and needs no pass — then Friday costs nothing and the Freycinet pass alone does the whole trip. The $47.70 is buying you the arch, the kitchen, the cave and the pavement, which are the best scenery of the day.

☎ Parks 1300 827 727 Buy online →

7 · MONDAY

Mount Amos goes first because it's the one weather can cancel

Tuesday is its backup

Amos needs dry granite — the slabs lose grip with the slightest moisture. Coles Bay sits in a rain shadow so 70–80% of September mornings are dry, but dew means the rock is only reliably dry by 09:00 about half the time, and nearer 70% by 11:00.

So it takes Monday with a 10:00 start, and the Wineglass circuit takes Tuesday. If Monday is wet, swap them — the circuit is a formed track and copes with weather. Put Amos on Tuesday instead and a wet morning means you simply lose it.

8 · EXPECTATIONS

Bay of Fires is a sunrise — and you get Salamanca Market after all

Both worth knowing now, not on the day

Bay of Fires faces east. The lichen only really fires with the sun coming off the water at it — sunrise, around 06:11. That's why Sunday starts early.

Salamanca Market is Saturdays only, 08:30–15:00. Wednesday’s stop in the van is shops and galleries only — but the Hobart nights land you back there on Saturday the 19th, market day, with the whole morning free before the flight.

Buckland church, and the mill tours: the Callington Mill runs hourly tours 10:00–15:00 at $15 each — a 12:00 tour eats your whole Oatlands stop, so decide in advance whether you want it.

Logistics

🚐

The van

Model: Apollo Euro Mini
Length · height: 5.94 m · 3.10 m
Booking: APXWP2 · BIG457700/1
Heating: 240 V mains only
Paid: $622.25
At the counter: $125 fee + $7,500 bond
Depot: 03 6248 4168 · 9–3 daily

Won't fit a standard bay in Swansea or Bicheno — use the long roadside pull-offs. Oatlands, Ross and Campbell Town all have wide sealed kerbside parking, which is part of why Saturday goes inland.

⛽

Fuel — one fill, two safe stops

Apollo hands the van over full and wants it back full, so on ~670 km you need one fill, plus a top-up if you're cautious.

Don't rely on Fingal or St Marys. Both are Bonney unmanned terminals documented as taking Bonney and Ampol cards — a standard Visa or Mastercard may be refused, and it's ~110 km from Campbell Town to St Helens with nothing reliable between.

· Ampol, 85 High St Campbell Town — 24/7, normal cards. Top up here Saturday.
· Tas Petroleum, Warrens Way St Helens — 24/7.
· BP Hobart Airport, 3 Holyman Ave — 24/7, two minutes from the depot. Your final fill.

Diesel ~245–250 c/L. Budget $190.

🛒

Where to shop

Campbell Town IGA, 113 High St — Sat 09:00–17:30. Going inland you skip Sorell, so this is your big shop and the last real supermarket before the coast.
St Helens SUPA IGA, 33 Cecilia St — Sun 08:00–18:00. Top up here on Sunday morning; Binalong Bay has only a small store.
Coles Bay Express opens 08:00 daily — small and dear, emergencies only.

💧

Water & waste

St Helens, Tully Street — free dump point with potable water, big-rig accessible. The best full-service stop on the route. Do it Sunday morning on the way out.
BIG4 Iluka has a dump point on site for the Coles Bay nights.
Triabunna's Esplanade East dump has non-potable water; the caravan park has power, potable water and sullage at the site itself.

Apollo wants the cassette and grey tank emptied or it's a $250 fee. Do it Wednesday morning at Triabunna.

September conditions

The east coast is the driest part of Tasmania. Wind, not rain, is what will change a day.

Coles Bay · Freycinet

16 / 6 °C

~46–63 mm over ~5 rain days. A rain shadow — 70–80% of mornings are dry.

Midlands · Oatlands

~8.5 °C

Frost and fog on clear mornings — a 10:30 start clears both.

kunanyi pinnacle

5 / −1 °C

Snow and ice restrict Pinnacle Road April–September.

Three things the forecast won't tell you

Daylight isn't a constraint. Just under 12 hours, roughly 06:15 to 18:00. Every walk here fits. Daylight saving doesn't start until October.

A 3.10 m van is a sail. Spring is Tasmania's windiest season. Expect crosswind on the open Midlands plains between Oatlands and Campbell Town, and again on the exposed coast north of Bicheno.

Dusk is the real hazard. Tasmania has the highest per-capita wildlife road toll in the world, most strikes fall between dusk and dawn, and about half involve vehicles over 80 km/h. The Fingal Valley on Saturday and the Buckland hills on Tuesday are both corridors. This plan gets you off the road before dark every night — keep it there.

Day by day

Five days in the van, then three in Hobart. Times are the plan; amber notes are where research says it’s tight.

DAY 1 🚗 ~233 km · 3 h 20 🥾 ~2 km town walks easiest drive of the week

Heritage Highway → St Helens

Cambridge · Richmond · Oatlands · Ross · Campbell Town · St Marys Pass

Today's legs · all sealed (verify Mud Walls Rd)

PLANNED · INLAND~233 km · 3 h 20 driving

Cambridge

65 min

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Oatlands

27 min

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Ross

11 min

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Campbell Town

57 min

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St Marys

33 min

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St Helens

IF MUD WALLS RD IS GRAVELadds roughly 10 minutes · still skips Hobart

Cambridge

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Richmond

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Campania

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Tea Tree

──▸

Brighton

──▸

Oatlands

Rejoins the A1 at Brighton and the planned route continues unchanged from Oatlands. Leg times not shown because this detour was never driven or measured — treat the 10 minutes as an estimate.

IF ST MARYS PASS IS SHUTcoast road north · about an hour longer

Campbell Town

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Lake Leake

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Swansea

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Bicheno

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St Helens

Only if the pass is genuinely closed, not merely slow — check transport.tas.gov.au the week before. Lake Leake Road (B34) is sealed, but this runs you down to the coast and back up it, arriving too late for the boulders at sunset — and it drives Tuesday’s southbound coast leg backwards, which is the view the whole week is built around.

you get out heredrive throughthe walkTimes are driving only — stops are on top.

🗺 Full route in Google Maps ⚠ St Marys Pass roadworks — check the week before

07:20 → 10:30

Land, taxi to Cambridge, collect the van

The depot opens at 09:00 and Apollo runs no airport shuttle — take a taxi to 14 Long St. Allow 60–90 minutes for a first motorhome handover. Photograph every panel before you leave.

Turn north out of the depot onto Richmond Rd (B31) — you're on the inland route immediately, no Hobart crossing.

11:35 – 12:25 · STOP 1

Oatlands — Callington Mill

More than 87 Georgian sandstone buildings on one street, the largest such collection in Australia. The mill is an 1837 Lincolnshire tower windmill restored to working order — the only operating mill of its type in the Southern Hemisphere.

RV Friendly Townwide sealed kerbsidetoilets in town

Decide on the mill tour before you arrive. Hourly 10:00–15:00, $15 each, ~40 min with steep internal ladders — a 12:00 tour uses the entire stop. Otherwise walk the Historic Village loop: 30–40 min on town footpaths past the Supreme Court House and gaol wall to the mill precinct. Sealed the whole way.

12:52 – 13:37 · STOP 2 · LUNCH

Ross — the bridge, the bakery, the Female Factory

The best-preserved Georgian village in Tasmania. Ross Bridge (1836) carries 186 panels carved by convict stonemason Daniel Herbert — the third-oldest bridge in Australia and genuinely worth the stop.

· Ross Village Bakery, 15 Church St — wood-fired oven, scallop pies. Saturday to ~15:00.
· Ross Female Factory, cnr Bond & Portugal — one of only two female convict sites in Tasmania. Weekends 10:00–16:00, free.
· Church St is very wide and takes tour coaches daily — 5.94 m is a non-issue.

13:48 – 14:08 · STOP 3 · SERVICES

Campbell Town — shop, fuel, Red Bridge

The easiest stop on the route and the only major rest area on the Midland Highway. The Red Bridge (1836–38, ~1.5 million convict-made bricks) is the oldest brick arch bridge in Australia and the highway drives you over it. The Convict Brick Trail runs along the High St footpath — each brick carved with a convict's name, crime and sentence.

Do the shop here. IGA Everyday, 113 High St, Sat 09:00–17:30 — the last real supermarket before the coast. Fill at Ampol, 85 High St, 24/7. Toilets at Valentine Park, open 24 h.

14:30 → 15:20

Fingal Valley, then down St Marys Pass

The A4 east of Conara is the good driving — the valley narrowing under St Pauls Dome, the South Esk, then a wet-forest plunge to the coast. Optional 10 min at Avoca for St Thomas' (1842). Fifteen minutes at St Marys if you want it.

Take St Marys Pass, not Elephant Pass — the latter is explicitly reported as "not a road for caravans." St Marys Pass is steep with tight corners but it's the main freight route and carries semi-trailers daily. Low gear on the descent. It also has a documented landslip history and live roadworks — check the roadworks link above the week before, and carry 15–20 min of buffer.

15:53 → 18:00

St Helens, then out to the boulders for last light

Check in at Tasman Holiday Parks, 18 St Helens Point Rd — booking #57776, already paid. Check-in from 14:00. Then drive out to Binalong Bay and The Gardens with the evening in hand. Sunset 17:56.

⚠ Reception hours aren't published — ring (03) 6376 2332 from Campbell Town with an ETA if you're behind, since you arrive close to 16:00.

Keep it to the short stuff tonight — The Gardens walk and the Rock Pools are under a kilometre each. The real walk is tomorrow morning. ⚠ Watch the sat-nav: Reids Rd (C849) is unsealed; Binalong Bay Rd (C850) is the sealed one.

If you're running behind levers

This schedule has almost no slack

A 10:30 departure lands you at 15:53. If the handover runs to 11:00 you arrive 16:23 — still inside the 17:00 office close, but that's the whole margin. Cut Campbell Town to a 10-minute toilet stop and skip St Marys to buy back 25 minutes.

Drop Ross before you drop Oatlands

Oatlands has the working mill and the better village walk. Ross is lovely but it's the same idea, smaller. If only one survives, keep Oatlands.

Closed or not worth it

The Book Cellar at Campbell Town is closed Saturdays. Mount Elephant Pancake Barn on Elephant Pass is reported closed — and it's a 25–30 min hairpin detour anyway. Eureka Farm at Scamander shows as permanently closed.

DAY 2 🚗 ~164 km · 2 h 35 🥾 7.4 km sunrise day

Bay of Fires, then south to Freycinet

The Gardens · Break Yoke Creek · St Helens · Coles Bay

Today's legs · all sealed — no beach spurs

PLANNED · THE GARDENS~164 km · 2 h 35 driving

St Helens camp

~30 min

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The Gardens

~30 min

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St Helens

1 h 35

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Coles Bay

EASIER WALK · BINALONG BAY~150 km · 2 h 20 driving · back 20 min sooner

St Helens camp

~20 min

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Binalong Bay

~20 min

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St Helens

1 h 35

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Coles Bay

Jeanneret Beach loop is 5.6 km and easy, against 7.4 km for Break Yoke Creek. The sealed spine reaches both — every beach spur off The Gardens Road is gravel and out.

you get out heredrive throughthe walkTimes are driving only — stops are on top.

🗺 Full route in Google Maps

05:45 → 06:11 · THE ONE EARLY START

Sunrise at the boulders

Bay of Fires faces east. The orange lichen only really fires with the sun coming off the water at it — this is the photograph, and you're camped fifteen minutes away. Back for breakfast by seven.

09:00 – 10:15 · CHORES, ALL IN ONE PLACE

Check out, tanks, water, shop

Check-out is 10:00 but go at nine. Then the Tully Street dump point — free, big-rig accessible, and it has potable water. Best full-service stop of the whole trip; empty and fill here. Then SUPA IGA, 33 Cecilia St for the next two days, because Binalong Bay has only a small store and Coles Bay's is small and dear.

10:45 – 13:15 · MAIN EVENT

The Gardens → Break Yoke Creek

7.4 km return 2½ hrs 228 m sealed access ✓ ★4.2

Park at the end of the sealed Gardens Road and walk north into coast that has no vehicle access at all. This is the walk that makes Bay of Fires a day rather than a drive-by.

Navigation is by rock cairn and it's poorly marked in places, with loose rock underfoot. Fine in good visibility; turn back if the weather closes in.

14:00 → 15:35

Lunch, then Coles Bay — 114 km

Check in at BIG4 Iluka — booking 263967, two nights, already paid. Check-in from 14:00, and reception closes 17:00, so leave St Helens by 15:00 at the very latest. Arriving 15:35 leaves room for the Wineglass Bay Lookout (3.2 km, 1–1½ h) around 16:00 if you want the postcard on arrival — or just Honeymoon Bay and the Hazards going pink.

Adding the Jeanneret Beach loop doesn't fit. It's 5.6 km and lovely, but it pushes departure to 16:00 and arrival past reception. If you want both walks, ring 1800 786 512 before 17:00 — the confirmation says to call ahead of closing to arrange an out-of-hours arrival.

Alternatives for Day 2 sealed only

Binalong Bay → Jeanneret Beach

The gentler Bay of Fires walk, from the sealed car park off Main Rd. Swap it for Break Yoke Creek if you'd rather something easy, or add it if you've arranged a late check-in at Iluka.

5.6 km loopeasy★4.4

St Helens Point & Beerbarrel Beach

St Helens Point Rd is sealed to the car park and boat ramp. Park there and walk — the side roads beyond are gravel, but that's on foot.

3.9 kmeasy★4.5

Ruled out — and one of these matters

Peron Dunes is 4WD-only: Parks rates it Difficult, soft sand with tyre deflation required. Not a gravel technicality — a bogged van and voided cover. Also out: Skeleton Bay, Grants Point and Dora's Point (unsealed trailheads), and every beach spur off The Gardens Road — Swimcart, Cosy Corner, Jeanneret car park, Sloop Reef. The sealed spine reaches Binalong Bay and The Gardens; walk from there.

DAY 3 🚗 ~20 km local 🥾 4.3 km · Grade 4 dry rock or don't go

Mount Amos

No packing up, no repositioning — the only day you don't move the van

Today's legs · sealed park road throughout

THE ONLY DAY YOU DON’T MOVE CAMP~20 km all day · all inside the park

Iluka

10 min

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Wineglass car park

5 min

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Honeymoon Bay

10 min

──▸

Iluka

Both Day 3 options drive exactly this. Amos and the Wineglass circuit share a car park, so if the rock is wet and you swap the days, not one kilometre changes — only which track you walk. Cape Tourville Road is out either way: most sources put it at 5–7 km of gravel.

you get out heredrive throughthe walkTimes are driving only — stops are on top.

🗺 Today's pins in Google Maps

09:00 · GO / NO-GO

Two questions over breakfast

Has it been dry for 24 hours, and is the forecast dry? If either answer is no, don't go — the granite slabs lose all grip with the slightest moisture and there is nothing to hold onto.

If it's a no: swap with tomorrow. Do the Wineglass + Hazards circuit today — it's a formed track and copes with weather — and take Amos tomorrow morning instead. That's the whole reason Amos sits on Monday: Tuesday is its backup.

10:00 – 13:00 · MAIN EVENT

Mount Amos, from the Wineglass Bay car park

4.3 km return 2½–3 hrs Grade 4 · Strenuous 397 m ★4.8

The best view of Wineglass Bay there is — higher and cleaner than the lookout, straight down the curve of the beach. It packs more climbing than the 12 km circuit into a third of the distance, and roughly forty minutes of it is hands-on scrambling up bare granite.

10:00, not dawn. Overnight lows of 5–7 °C leave heavy dew and the low September sun burns it off slowly. The rock is reliably dry by 09:00 on perhaps half of September mornings, but nearer 70% by 11:00. The later start is the safer walk, and you have all day.

⚠ Campervans are not permitted in the sand-dune overflow bays at the car park. Mid-September is quiet so the sealed car park should be fine.

13:30 onwards

The afternoon is deliberately empty

Amos is short. Use what's left for Honeymoon Bay and Richardsons Beach — five minutes away on the sealed park road, granite and clear water, and the Hazards go pink at sunset. Or do nothing at all; tomorrow is the longest walk of the week.

Alternatives for Day 3 sealed only

WET ROCK

Swap the days — do the circuit today

Wineglass + Hazards is 12.1 km on a formed track and handles weather fine. Then Amos tomorrow morning at 09:30 before you drive to Triabunna. You'd reach Triabunna around 15:00 instead of 15:20 — barely a difference.

Wineglass Bay Lookout only

Same car park, the postcard view, back in 1–1½ hours. The right call if the rock is dry but the legs aren't.

3.2 km★4.7

Cape Tourville and Sleepy Bay — dropped

Both sit on Cape Tourville Road. Most sources put it at 5–7 km of gravel; a minority say sealed. At under 12 km to a recognised attraction it may fall inside Apollo's carve-out — but "may" isn't worth a $9,900 excess.

DAY 4 🚗 ~118 km · 1 h 35 🥾 12.1 km the marquee walk

Wineglass Bay, then down the coast

Freycinet · Swansea · Triabunna

Today's legs · all sealed (eyeball Devil's Corner)

PLANNED · VIA DEVIL’S CORNER~118 km · 1 h 35 driving

Coles Bay

30 min

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Devil’s Corner

25 min

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Swansea

40 min

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Triabunna

Devil’s Corner sits north of the Coles Bay Rd junction, so it costs a 10-minute backtrack on top of the direct run. Its access road is reported gravel — eyeball it from the highway before turning in.

SKIP DEVIL’S CORNER108 km · 1 h 25 driving · no gravel question

Coles Bay

45 min

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Swansea

40 min

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Triabunna

The safe default. You lose the lookout tower and gain 10 minutes at Swansea instead.

you get out heredrive throughthe walkTimes are driving only — stops are on top.

🗺 Full route in Google Maps

08:30 – 13:00 · MAIN EVENT

Wineglass Bay + Hazards Beach circuit

12.1 km loop 4–5 hrs 363 m · Moderate ★4.8 · 3,679 reviews

The most-reviewed walk in eastern Tasmania. Go clockwise: stairs up to the lookout, steps down to the beach, flat across the isthmus, back along Hazards Beach. The crowds thin the moment you pass the lookout, and by the isthmus you'll likely have it to yourselves.

Budget 4–5 hours, not 3½. Parks Tasmania and every guide agree; the shorter figure circulating online is moving time only. An 08:30 start puts you back at the van around 13:00 with the afternoon intact.

Check out of Iluka before you walk — reception opens 08:00, check-out is 10:00, and you won't be back in time otherwise.

14:00 → 15:20

South to Triabunna — and this is the good direction

The Swansea–Bicheno stretch is materially better southbound: you drive toward the Hazards with Great Oyster Bay ahead and to your left, held in the windscreen for 20 km. Going north you'd have had it behind your shoulder. This is why the week runs inland-up, coast-back.

Devil's Corner is an unresolved maybe. Cellar door 10:00–17:00 daily, the lookout tower is free, and the view is the best roadside stop on this coast — but the access road is reported gravel and reviewers note caravanners arriving and leaving over parking. Eyeball it from the highway before turning in, or ring 0448 521 412. Note the Kitchen is closed Tuesdays, so it's a view stop today regardless.

15:20

Check in · Triabunna Cabin & Caravan Park

Booking BBA26090121260069, $49, payment taken on arrival — this is the one night not yet paid. Check-in from 15:00, so your 15:20 arrival is spot on. Power, potable water and a sullage point at the site itself, plus a dump point, laundry and camp kitchen.

Showers are coin-operated — carry $1 coins. And if there's daylight left, the Orford foreshore and Raspins Beach are ten minutes south.

Alternatives for Day 4 sealed only

IF YOU SWAPPED

Mount Amos this morning instead

If Monday's rock was wet and you did the circuit then, Amos goes here — 09:30 start, down by 12:30, Triabunna by 15:00. Same day, barely different clock.

Trim to the Lookout and take a long lunch

Wineglass Bay Lookout is 3.2 km and 1–1½ hours. If three walks in three days has caught up with you, take the view and give the afternoon to Swansea instead — Kate's Berry Farm is open Tue 09:00–15:00, though the van won't fit its driveway, so park on Addison St and walk in.

Spiky Bridge — confirmed unsealed

The pull-off is a dirt layby about 7 km south of Swansea, and it's a right turn across traffic heading south. It's a five-minute look at a quirky convict bridge — not worth breaking the rule for. If you want it, stop on the sealed shoulder and walk the last few metres.

DAY 5 🚗 ~145 km · 2 h 25 🥾 9.5 km an hour of slack back by 15:00 🏨 first hotel bed

kunanyi / Mt Wellington → depot → Hobart

Triabunna · The Springs · Salamanca · Cambridge · ibis Styles

Today's legs · all sealed

PLANNED · KUNANYI~145 km · 2 h 25 driving · van back 14:20

Triabunna

1 h 15

──▸

Hobart

25 min

──▸

The Springs

25 min

──▸

Salamanca

20 min

──▸

Cambridge

IF PINNACLE RD IS SHUT~110 km · 1 h 10 driving · hours to spare

Triabunna

40 min

──▸

Sorell

15 min

──▸

Richmond

12 min

──▸

Cambridge

Richmond is directly on your route in, so this swap costs no driving at all. Bonorong at Brighton is the other option — 20 minutes further west, $34.50 each, and the only way you’ll see a devil awake.

AFTER THE VAN · NO CAR YET~17 km · 25 min · someone else drives

Apollo depot

25 min

──▸

ibis Styles

Apollo runs no shuttle and you have no car until Thursday. Uber from the depot is about $40 for the pair of you and goes door to door; SkyBus is $24 each and leaves from the terminal, not the depot — so for two people the taxi is both cheaper and simpler. Check-in opens 14:00, so you can go straight there.

you get out heredrive throughthe walkTimes are driving only — stops are on top.

🗺 Full route in Google Maps ⚠ Pinnacle Road status — check at 06:00 Thu 17 · first day in Hobart →

06:45 · BEFORE YOU GO

Tanks, at the park

Not optional: Apollo's Drop & Go service isn't offered at Hobart, so the confirmation states the van must come back with toilet and grey water empty. Do it here on site — Triabunna has a dump point — rather than hunting for one in Hobart.

07:00 · DEPART

Leave Triabunna

Now that the deadline is confirmed as 15:00 rather than 14:00, this day has real slack. A 07:00 start puts you at The Springs by about 08:45 — sunrise is 06:12, so it's long light by then.

Check Pinnacle Road before you drive — the night before and again at 06:00. Snow and ice restrict it April to September. The usual closure point is The Springs itself: a gate above The Springs leaves your walk intact, but a closure down at Fern Tree takes the day.

08:50 – 12:20 · MAIN EVENT

Organ Pipes Circuit, from The Springs

9.5 km loop 3–3½ hrs Grade 4 · 486 m free — no pass ★4.7

Up through the Sphinx Rock lookout, traversing beneath the dolerite columns themselves, round via Junction Cabin and The Chalet. Tops out near 1,014 m — high enough for the weather to be its own thing.

This is 9.5 km, not the 6.4 km you may see quoted. That shorter figure belongs to a different track that summits via the Zig Zag at 1,260 m. The Springs circuit is longer, lower, and the right one for a departure day.

Boots, not trail runners — Sphinx Rock to Junction Cabin is rough and rocky, wetter in late winter. Poles help. If three big walks have caught up with you, the Springs–Sphinx Rock–Chalet loop is ~5 km and 2–2½ hours and still gets you the columns.

12:50 – 13:50

Salamanca — shops and galleries

Lunch and a wander. No market — that's Saturdays only, 08:30–15:00.

Don't aim for Salamanca Square car park — it's underground and won't clear a 3.10 m van. The Regatta Grounds car park is the motorhome-friendly one; Morrison Street also works.

14:00 → 14:20 · RETURN

Fuel at BP Cambridge, then the depot

BP Hobart Airport, 3 Holyman Ave — 24/7 and two minutes from Apollo. Fill, then hand back at 14:20, 40 minutes inside the 15:00 close. Depot direct line: 03 6248 4168.

Keep the fuel receipt, and photograph the van as you hand it over.

14:45 → 15:15 · INTO TOWN

ibis Styles Hobart, 173 Macquarie St

Booked and paid in full — $415.20 for three nights, Jetstar Hotels ref JQKZANYD3, Accor ref QKWSGTWZ. One standard room, two single beds, two adults. Check-in from 14:00, and the room is yours until Saturday 11:00.

The address is the reason the next three days work on foot: Salamanca is nine minutes downhill, Brooke St Pier eleven, and Battery Point just beyond. Nothing below needs a car except Friday.

16:00 → EVENING · ON FOOT

Battery Point, and a meal someone else cooks

Five nights of a two-burner stove earns you this. Walk down to Salamanca, up Kelly’s Steps, round Arthur Circus — a ring of 1840s cottages around a green — and back down Hampden Rd. About an hour, flat except the steps, and sunset is 18:00.

Mona is shut today. It opens Thursday to Monday only, so Wednesday is deliberately the low-effort evening and Mona gets Thursday to itself. Don’t try to squeeze it in now.

If Pinnacle Road is shut plan for this

Richmond, on the way in

Australia's oldest stone bridge and oldest intact gaol, a Georgian village, Coal River Valley cellar doors — twelve minutes from the depot and directly on your route. The obvious swap, and it costs no driving.

Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, Brighton

$34.50 each, 9–5 daily, no booking. Guaranteed Tasmanian devils — the one animal you won't otherwise see, since they're nocturnal.

Fern Tree, without the ascent

If the gate is only shut above The Springs your walk is unaffected. If it's shut at Fern Tree, there are lower tracks from the village — and you may walk past a closed gate, just not drive it.

DAY 6 ⛴ 50 min on the water 🚗 ~55 km, after 15:30 car-free till mid-afternoon Mona’s only open day

Mona, then the summit you couldn’t drive to

Brooke St Pier · Mona · Cambridge · The Pinnacle

Today’s legs · all sealed

PLANNED · FERRY, THEN CAR50 min on the water · ~55 km driving after 15:30

ibis Styles

11 min walk

──▸

Brooke St Pier

25 min ferry

──▸

Mona

25 min ferry

──▸

Brooke St Pier

20 min taxi

──▸

Simba · car

45 min

──▸

The Pinnacle

30 min

──▸

Hobart

IF YOU MOVE THE PICK-UP TO 10:00~70 km · no ferry, no clock

ibis Styles

25 min taxi

──▸

Simba · car

25 min

──▸

Mona

35 min

──▸

The Pinnacle

30 min

──▸

Hobart

Airport Rentals lets you change the pick-up time free. Parking at Mona is free, you save $60 of ferry fares, and the mid-afternoon dash back to the airport disappears. What you give up is the ferry itself — which is genuinely half of what people remember about Mona, and lets you drink at the museum. Our call: keep the ferry, take the 14:00 back. But at $58 for two days, look at collecting the car on Wednesday instead — see the note below.

IF PINNACLE RD IS SHUT~35 km · Mt Nelson instead

Simba · car

20 min

──▸

Hobart

15 min

──▸

Mt Nelson

15 min

──▸

Hobart

The Signal Station at Mt Nelson is 350 m up, sealed, free, fifteen minutes from the hotel, and looks straight down the Derwent to Storm Bay. Not the same mountain, but the same idea, and it never closes for ice.

WORTH A LOOK · COLLECT IT WEDNESDAY

The car costs $58 for two days — call it $29 a day. The two taxis this plan needs (depot to hotel Wednesday, hotel to airport Thursday) cost about $80. So picking the car up on Wednesday at 14:30, five minutes after the van goes back and at the same airport, plausibly costs less than the taxis it replaces — and hands you Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning with wheels.

Two honest caveats: a third day will not necessarily reprice at $29, because broker pricing is not linear and changing the dates requotes the whole booking — so check the number before you commit. And you would then be parking in the city for two extra nights. Get a requote in Manage Booking; if the extra day lands anywhere under about $50, take it.

you get out heredrive throughthe walkTimes are travel only — stops are on top.

← Wed 16 · the van goes back 🗺 Ferry pier, then the summit 🎟 Book Mona + ferry together ⚠ Pinnacle Road status

08:45 · WALK

Down to Brooke Street Pier

Eleven minutes from the hotel — down Macquarie, left at Elizabeth St, and the pier is the floating glass thing on the waterfront. Coffee at Salamanca on the way if you are early.

09:15 → 09:40 · FERRY

Mona Roma, up the Derwent

Twenty-five minutes upriver, past the zinc works and under the Bowen Bridge. $30 each return. Book the ferry and museum entry together on mona.net.au — same checkout, and the sailings do sell out.

The camouflage-painted catamaran with the sheep. Sit outside if the wind allows; it is the best view of Hobart you will get from water.

10:00 – 14:00 · MAIN EVENT

Mona

$39 each 10:00–17:00 Thu–Mon only 4 levels underground

Three or four hours is the right amount — it is cut into the sandstone and you work upward from the bottom. There is a bar and a restaurant on site, so lunch is solved.

This is the only day Mona is possible. It closes Tuesday and Wednesday, you land on a Saturday and leave on a Saturday, and every other day is committed. If Thursday is a write-off, Mona is what you lose.

14:00 → 15:30 · THE CAR

Simba Car Hire, 100 Holyman Ave

Take the 14:00 ferry back — 14:25 at the pier, taxi out to Cambridge for about 14:50. That leaves half an hour spare at the airport, which is dull but is the difference between making the mountain in daylight and not.

Bring to the counter: booking IM50456624 (Simba ref 187414), a physical driver’s licence and a physical credit card in Jaspreet’s name — digital cards are refused. A $500–$2,000 bond comes off the card. Pay the balance on the card that carries your excess cover, and decline the protection they offer.

Suzuki Fronx Hybrid or similar. Photograph every panel before you drive off, exactly as you did with the van.

16:30 → 18:30 · THE SUMMIT

The Pinnacle — the bit the van could not do

Pinnacle Road is sealed the whole way to the summit car park at 1,271 m. Wednesday’s walk started at The Springs, some 700 m below this; today you drive to the top, walk the boardwalk, and stand in the enclosed lookout out of the wind. Sunset is 18:01.

Check the road status before you leave town — same link as Wednesday. Snow and ice restrict it April to September, and it can be closed on a clear day in Hobart. Dress for it: routinely 10 °C colder than the waterfront, with wind that makes that feel much worse. Everything you packed for the Organ Pipes, put back on.

If the road is open but the summit is in cloud, stop at the Big Bend lookout on the way up — it clears more often than the top does.

DAY 7 🚗 ~200 km · 2 h 45 🎟 $55 each the one full day with the car

The Tasman Peninsula

Pirates Bay · Tessellated Pavement · Tasman Arch · Port Arthur · Remarkable Cave

Today’s legs · all sealed

PLANNED · TASMAN PENINSULA~200 km · 2 h 45 driving · the only full day with the car

Hobart

50 min

──▸

Eaglehawk Neck

10 min

──▸

Tasman Arch

20 min

──▸

Port Arthur

10 min

──▸

Remarkable Cave

1 h 15

──▸

Hobart

ALTERNATIVE · MT FIELD~150 km · 2 h 15 driving · gentler, cheaper, greener

Hobart

1 h 10

──▸

Mt Field

30 min

──▸

New Norfolk

35 min

──▸

Hobart

Russell Falls is a 25-minute return stroll on a sealed path, and the Tall Trees loop adds an hour among 80-metre swamp gums. It costs the same in park fees as the peninsula does — Mt Field is a national park too, so it is the same $47.70 day vehicle pass either way. Lake Dobson Road, further into the park, is gravel; the falls and the tall trees are not.

you get out heredrive throughthe walkTimes are travel only — stops are on top.

← Wed 16 · the van goes back 🗺 Full peninsula loop 🎟 Port Arthur tickets 🌊 Tide times, Eaglehawk Neck

08:30 · DEPART

Out through Sorell — with a park pass on the phone

The A9 Arthur Highway is sealed the entire way and there is nothing on it that a hire car should not be on. Fuel at Sorell if you did not fill last night — the peninsula is thin on servos.

Buy a $47.70 24-hour vehicle pass before you leave. The pavement, the arch, the kitchen and Remarkable Cave are all inside Tasman National Park, and your Freycinet One-Park pass covers only Freycinet. A vehicle pass is issued against a registration number, so this one goes on the hire car’s plate, not the van’s. Two minutes on passes.parks.tas.gov.au.

09:20 · 10 MIN

Pirates Bay Lookout

A pull-in on the highway just before the road drops to Eaglehawk Neck, with the whole isthmus and the sweep of the bay laid out below. Ten minutes, and it sets up everything else you look at today.

09:40 · 30 MIN

Tessellated Pavement, Pirates Bay Drive

A flat shelf of siltstone fractured into what looks exactly like a tiled floor. Short walk down from the car park.

Check the tide the night before. The pavement is a completely different thing at low water — pans full of still water and sharp edges — and largely submerged at high. If the tide is wrong, swap this for more time at Tasman Arch.

10:20 · 30 MIN

Tasman Arch, Devils Kitchen and the Blowhole

All three are off Blowhole Road, each a two- to five-minute walk from its own sealed car park. A collapsed sea cave you look down into, a 60-metre cleft in the cliff, and a blowhole that performs when there is swell running.

Waterfall Bay lookout is a few minutes further along the same road if the morning is running early.

11:45 – 16:00 · MAIN EVENT

Port Arthur Historic Site

$55 each harbour cruise included valid 2 days site 9:00 – dusk

Thirty-odd buildings and ruins across forty hectares of lawn above the water. Entry covers a 20-minute harbour cruise, a guided introductory walk and an audio guide — book your cruise slot at the visitor centre the moment you arrive, because they fill. Four hours is a fair allowance; you could spend six.

Know what you are walking into. It is a convict settlement, and it is also where 35 people were killed in 1996. The Memorial Garden and the ruined café are part of the site and are not signposted as a highlight. It is a good afternoon, but it is not a light one.

16:15 · 20 MIN

Remarkable Cave

Ten minutes south on sealed Safety Cove Road, then a steel staircase down to a platform inside a sea cave with the Southern Ocean coming through it. Quick, and the best full stop the day has.

17:00 → 18:20 · BACK

Hobart, in the dark for the last half hour

Sunset is 18:02, so the run back over the Forestier Peninsula and through Sorell is at dusk.

Dusk is when the wildlife moves. Wallabies, pademelons and possums on the A9 between Taranna and Sorell. Slow down, use high beam where you can, and do not swerve — this is the single most likely way to meet that $6,380 excess.

If Friday is a washout indoor plan B

Port Arthur still works, mostly

Half of it is outdoors, but the Separate Prison, the Penitentiary, the asylum and the museum are all under a roof, and the ticket is valid two consecutive days if you want to come back Saturday morning instead of the market.

Cascade Brewery and the Female Factory

Ten minutes from the hotel, both indoors, both a short tour. The Cascade building itself is the best-looking thing in South Hobart.

TMAG, free, on the waterfront

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery is free, ten minutes on foot, and holds the thylacine and Antarctic collections. The right answer if you want a day that costs nothing.

Bonorong, at Brighton

$34.50 each, 30 minutes north, mostly outdoors but the devil feeds run whatever the weather. Still the only way to see a devil awake.

DAY 8 🚗 ~25 km 🛍 market day ✈ JQ706 · 16:30

Salamanca Market, then the 16:30

Salamanca · Cambridge · Hobart Airport

Today’s legs · all sealed

PLANNED · MARKET, THEN HOME~25 km · car back 13:30 · JQ706 at 16:30

ibis Styles

9 min walk

──▸

Salamanca

20 min

──▸

Simba · car back

5 min

──▸

Terminal

ONE MORE STOP · RICHMOND~45 km · leave the market by 11:15

ibis Styles

9 min walk

──▸

Salamanca

30 min

──▸

Richmond

15 min

──▸

Simba

5 min

──▸

Terminal

Australia’s oldest stone bridge and oldest intact gaol, a Georgian village, and it sits between Hobart and the airport so it costs almost no driving. Only worth it if Wednesday’s Pinnacle Road fallback did not already take you there — and it means half a market rather than a whole one.

you get out heredrive throughthe walkTimes are travel only — stops are on top.

← Wed 16 · the van goes back 🗺 Salamanca → Richmond → airport 🚗 Move the drop-off time ✈ Jetstar check-in

08:30 – 10:45 · THE ONE YOU NEARLY MISSED

Salamanca Market

free 08:30 – 15:00 Saturdays only 9 min on foot

Three hundred stalls the length of Salamanca Place, under the plane trees in front of the sandstone warehouses. It runs rain or shine and it is the single best thing in Hobart that costs nothing. Go early — by eleven it is shoulder to shoulder.

The van week was always going to miss this: the market is Saturdays only, and both your Saturdays were travel days — the first in the Midlands, this one flying home. The Hobart nights are what hand it back — and this is the morning to buy anything you have been meaning to take home, because there is no other chance.

10:45 – 11:00 · CHECK OUT

Bags into the car

The room has to be empty by 11:00. Walk back up, check out, bring the car round and load it — then you are free until the airport with nothing to carry.

Parking, and a small piece of revenge: the Salamanca Square car park is underground, which is exactly why the van could not use it on Wednesday. The Fronx is about 1.6 m tall. Park there this time — it is the closest thing to the market by a wide margin, and it fills by nine on market day.

11:00 – 12:45 · THE REST OF IT

Back to the market, or the waterfront

Second lap of the stalls, lunch from a van, or walk the fifteen minutes round to Constitution Dock and the fish punts. If Wednesday’s Battery Point loop got rained off, this is when you do it.

13:00 → 13:30 · THE CAR GOES BACK

Fuel at Cambridge, then 100 Holyman Ave

Twenty minutes from Salamanca. Fill at the BP on Holyman Ave — same one you used for the van — and hand the car back with photographs of every panel.

The booking says 15:30. Come back at 13:30 anyway. Handing a hire car back early is normal and costs nothing — you have paid for the period either way. Taken literally, 15:30 leaves twenty minutes before check-in closes at 15:50, which is the only fragile hour in the eight days. Changing the booked time in Manage Booking is free and means the counter expects you, but the schedule above is what actually protects the flight.

14:00 → 16:30 · HOME

JQ706, Hobart to Melbourne

Departs 16:30, lands Tullamarine 17:55. Booking UIIZ7L, seats 24E and 24F. Carry-on only — 7 kg each, no checked bags — so there is no bag drop to queue for and online check-in is enough.

Domestic check-in closes 40 minutes before departure: 15:50. Check in on the app from Friday afternoon, when it opens 48 hours out.

If the weather is filthy on Saturday it barely matters

The market runs anyway

Salamanca Market has closed for weather roughly never. It only shuts when Christmas Day or Anzac Day lands on a Saturday. Stalls have covers; you will want yours too.

The warehouses behind it are all indoors

Galleries, the Salamanca Arts Centre, bookshops and cafés run the length of the block behind the stalls. You can do the whole morning under cover if you have to.

An earlier airport is not a disaster

Hobart’s terminal is small but it has food and seats past security. If the day collapses, drop the car early and go through — better than sitting on it.

Hikes

Every trailhead reachable on sealed road. Ratings and distances from AllTrails, grades from Parks Tasmania.

TUE · THE BIG ONE

Wineglass Bay + Hazards Beach

Freycinet National Park

★4.8

3,679 reviews

12.1 km4–5 hrs363 mModerate

The most-reviewed walk in eastern Tasmania. Long but not hard — a formed track with stairs and a beach, not a scramble.

MON · WEATHER-DEPENDENT

Mount Amos

Same car park as the circuit

★4.8

2,425 reviews

4.3 km2½–3 hrsGrade 4397 m

More climbing than the circuit in a third of the distance. Short, steep, forty minutes of hands-on granite — and the best view of Wineglass there is. Dry rock only.

WED

Organ Pipes Circuit

kunanyi, from The Springs

★4.7

271 reviews

9.5 km3–3½ hrsGrade 4486 m

Beneath the dolerite columns, topping out near 1,014 m. Free — Wellington Park charges nothing. Boots and poles; snow is possible in September.

SUN

The Gardens → Break Yoke Creek

Bay of Fires, end of the sealed road

★4.2

109 reviews

7.4 km2½ hrs228 mModerate

Coast with no vehicle access at all, north of where the tarmac ends. Cairn navigation and loose rock. This is what makes Bay of Fires a walking day.

SPARES

Shorter options, same car parks

· Wineglass Bay Lookout — 3.2 km, 1–1½ h, ★4.7. The postcard without the isthmus.
· Binalong Bay → Jeanneret Beach — 5.6 km loop, easy, ★4.4.
· Springs–Sphinx Rock–Chalet loop — ~5 km, 2–2½ h. The short Organ Pipes.
· Honeymoon Bay & Richardsons Beach — 1–2 km, five minutes from the Coles Bay camp.

SAT · ON THE DRIVE

Midlands village walks

· Oatlands Historic Village loop — 30–40 min, town footpaths, Georgian sandstone to the mill precinct. The best leg-stretch of the drive.
· Ross village loop — 35–40 min, Church St to the bridge and the Female Factory.
· Campbell Town Convict Brick Trail — 20 min return along High St and over the Red Bridge.

Your van needs sealed roads; your feet don't. The Lake Dulverton track at Oatlands is fine gravel — good to walk, just don't drive into the foreshore car park without looking.

Grade scale, so the badges mean something

Grade 2–3 Formed track, some steps and gradient. No experience needed.

Grade 4 Rough, steep, sometimes unmarked. Scrambling using hands. Experience assumed.

Two Grade 4 walks here: Mount Amos and the Organ Pipes. Neither is technical climbing, but both punish wet rock and poor footwear.

Walks the gravel rule cost you

Worth knowing what you're trading: Cape Raoul ★4.9 and Cape Hauy ★4.8 on the Tasman Peninsula are the two best-rated day walks in the south-east, both behind unsealed roads — though the peninsula is off this route anyway. Closer to hand: Cape Tourville and Sleepy Bay at Freycinet, the Bay of Fires beach trailheads (Skeleton Bay, Grants Point, Dora's Point), Douglas-Apsley near Bicheno, and Peron Dunes, which Parks rates 4WD-only.

The rule is still right. A breach can void the liability cover outright and leaves a $9,900 excess standing even if you've paid it down to zero.

Beds & bookings

Seven nights, all booked: four powered camp sites, then three in Hobart. The van heater is 240 V only and nights run 5–7 °C.

✓ All four nights are booked

Three reservations, $204 of beds, $155 of it already paid. Two of them are not the parks originally shortlisted — the plan below is the booked one.

Tasman Holiday Parks · St Helens

Night 1 · booking #57776 · powered, 2 adults

$35.00

paid

BIG4 Iluka on Freycinet

Nights 2 & 3 · reservation 263967 · one two-night booking

$120.00

paid

Triabunna Cabin & Caravan Park

Night 4 · ref BBA26090121260069 · campervan site

$49.00

on arrival

Two payments still to make

Freycinet One-Park pass

Buying it Friday 11 Sep — plus a $47.70 day pass for Tasman NP on the 18th

$98.40 →

Triabunna, at check-in

Tuesday afternoon — card or cash on you

$49.00

NIGHT 1Sat 12 Sep · St Helens

BOOKED · PAID · #57776

Tasman Holiday Parks — St Helens

18 St Helens Point Rd, Stieglitz · 4 km east of town · ~15 km to Binalong Bay

$35.00

powered · paid

Powered site, 2 adults, one night, paid in full on the “Welcome 10%” rate. Check-in from 14:00, check-out 10:00.

Not the park originally shortlisted — the plan had BIG4 Tassie Getaway Parks on Penelope St, in town. This one sits out towards St Helens Point instead: slightly further from the IGA and about 5 minutes further from Binalong Bay, and $35 rather than $52. The Saturday schedule is unaffected — you arrive around 15:53 either way.

Saturday has almost no slack. Check in first, then drive out to the boulders — sunset is 17:56 and you’ll want to stay for it. If the day is running late, ring them from Campbell Town.

☎ 03 6376 2332 Map →

All eight Bay of Fires campgrounds are free, unpowered and first-come — lovely, but unusable with mains-only heating in September.

NIGHTS 2 & 3Sun 13 + Mon 14 Sep · Coles Bay

BOOKED · PAID · 263967

BIG4 Iluka on Freycinet

15 Reserve Rd, Coles Bay · 10 min to the Wineglass car park

$120.00

2 nights · paid

Powered site, 13→15 Sep, balance $0.00. Reception 08:00–17:00, check-in from 14:00, check-out 10:00.

Ring 1800 786 512 before 17:00 on Sunday if you’re running late — that’s the whole reason the Bay of Fires walk has to be a morning. Reception has no after-hours desk.

· One vehicle per site — not an issue with a single van, but it’s the rule.
· Black-water dump point is beside the amenity block.
· Laundry takes $1 and $2 coins — get change on Sunday at the St Helens IGA.

☎ 1800 786 512 Map →

FALLBACK — NOT NEEDED NOW

Freycinet Resort, Swanwick

1819 Coles Bay Rd, 4–6 km out. Ensuite caravan sites individually serviced with power, free showers.

phone

for a rate

⚠ Rate unpublished and likely well above Iluka — but it's the only other powered option within 20 km.

Richardsons Beach inside the park is $16 and beautiful, but its pads are listed for 5.4 m vans. Freycinet Campground, the Golf Club and Honeymoon Bay are all unpowered.

NIGHT 4Tue 15 Sep · Triabunna

BOOKED · PAY ON ARRIVAL

Triabunna Cabin & Caravan Park

7 Vicary St · 2 min walk to the IGA · 90 min from the depot

$49.00

not yet paid

Campervan site, ref BBA26090121260069, 15→16 Sep. Sixteen powered sites, each with power, potable water and a sullage point at the site itself. Black-water dump on site — do your tanks here Wednesday morning. Laundry, camp kitchen, BBQ, free wi-fi, caretakers living on site.

Check-in from 15:00, check-out 10:00. A 15:20 arrival lands just inside it.

The $49 is taken at check-in, not now — have a card or cash on you Tuesday afternoon. Free cancellation up to 48 hours out; 50% inside that.

Note the address is 7 Vicary St, not 4 — the earlier plan had that wrong. Showers are coin-operated; carry $1 coins.

☎ 03 6257 3575 ✉ manager@tccpark.com.au Map →

Staying at Triabunna rather than pushing to Cambridge is what makes Wednesday work — it puts you 90 minutes from the depot with the Organ Pipes still in reach.

✓ Hobart is booked too — three nights and a car

$415.20 of hotel already paid and $58 of car. The excess is covered by your credit card, so nothing here is outstanding.

ibis Styles Hobart · 173 Macquarie St

Nights 5–7 · ref JQKZANYD3 · in Wed 16 from 14:00, out Sat 19 by 11:00

$415.20

paid

Simba Car Hire · 100 Holyman Ave, Cambridge

Thu 17 15:30 → Sat 19 15:30 · ref IM50456624 · Suzuki Fronx Hybrid or similar

$58.00

2 days

NIGHTS 5, 6 & 7

ibis Styles Hobart

173 Macquarie Street, Hobart TAS 7000

One standard room, two single beds, two adults. Booked through Jetstar Hotels on 7 June and paid in full — Jetstar ref JQKZANYD3, Accor ref QKWSGTWZ. Non-refundable, so there is nothing left to decide.

The location is doing real work. Salamanca is nine minutes downhill, Brooke Street Pier eleven, Battery Point fifteen — which is why Wednesday evening, Thursday morning and the whole of Saturday need no car at all.

Check-out is 11:00 on market day. That is the only awkward edge of the Hobart stay — you have to break off the market, come back up and clear the room. Ask at check-in whether they will hold bags, though with the car outside you will not need it.

Parking is not included in what you paid — ask the rate at check-in on Wednesday and compare it with the street. Hobart CBD meters are free after 18:00 and all day Sunday, but Saturday is charged.

Map →

THE CAR · BOOKED

Simba Car Hire, Hobart Airport

100 Holyman Ave, Cambridge — five minutes from the Apollo depot

Booked through Airport Rentals on 5 September for $58. Reference IM50456624, Simba booking 187414. Suzuki Fronx Hybrid or similar, out Thursday 15:30, back Saturday 15:30.

The $6,380 excess is covered by your credit card, so decline the protection they offer at the counter. Pay the balance with that same card — card cover normally requires it — and remember it reimburses after the fact rather than stopping the charge.

The 15:30 drop-off is a planning matter, not a problem. You can hand a car back early, so Saturday is built around reaching the depot at 13:30. Changing the booked time is free and means the counter expects you, but it is optional.

At the counter: a physical licence and a physical credit card in Jaspreet’s name — digital cards are explicitly refused — plus a $500–$2,000 bond that comes back on return.

Manage booking → ☎ 03 6164 9522

Plan B

Eight ways this wobbles, and what you do instead. None of them ruin a day if you’ve decided in advance.

RISK 1 · SETTLED

Wednesday’s return, and the $7,500 on your card

The deadline question is closed: Apollo confirmed by email that drop-off can be any time between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm, and that the 9:00 am slot on the booking doesn’t need changing. Wednesday now reaches the depot at 14:20 with 40 minutes spare.

What replaces it as the thing to watch: Drop & Go isn’t available at Hobart, so the van is inspected with you standing there. Cassette and grey tank must already be empty — that’s the Triabunna job on Wednesday morning, and it’s a $250 fee if you skip it.

And the $7,500 bond is debited, not held. Check it comes back after the inspection, and don’t plan on that money for the rest of the trip.

RISK 2

St Marys Pass is closed or slow

It has a documented landslip history and live roadworks were reported on the Esk Main Road — reduced speed limits and occasional lane closures between Avoca, Fingal and St Marys.

Check the roadworks roundup the week before and carry 15–20 minutes of buffer. If the pass is actually shut, the detour is long — back to Campbell Town, east on sealed Lake Leake Road (B34) to Swansea, then north up the coast through Bicheno. About an hour more, and it costs you the Bay of Fires evening. Worth knowing before you commit to Saturday's schedule.

RISK 3

Wet granite on Mount Amos

Roughly a coin-flip by 09:00 in September, better by 11:00. Dew, not rain, is usually the culprit.

This is the one risk the itinerary is actively designed around: swap Monday and Tuesday. Do the Wineglass circuit Monday and take Amos on Tuesday morning at 09:30, reaching Triabunna by 15:00 instead of 15:20. Two nights at Coles Bay is what buys you that option.

RISK 4

Pinnacle Road shut for ice

Snow and ice restrict it April–September, at short notice. The usual gate is at The Springs, which blocks the summit but not your walk, since the circuit starts there. A closure lower down at Fern Tree is the one that hurts.

Swap in Richmond — twelve minutes from the depot and directly on your route in. Or Bonorong for guaranteed devils. Check the status page the night before and again at 06:00.

RISK 5

Saturday runs late

Day 1 has almost no slack. A 10:30 departure arrives 15:53; an 11:00 handover means 16:23, and the St Helens office shuts at 17:00. Any roadworks delay on the pass eats straight into that.

Levers, in order: cut Campbell Town to a 10-minute toilet stop (−10), skip St Marys (−15), drop Ross entirely (−45). Keep Oatlands — it has the working mill and the better village walk. And ring Tasman Holiday Parks on (03) 6376 2332 from Campbell Town if you already know you'll be late.

RISK 6

The hour between the car and the plane

Car due 15:30. Check-in closes 15:50. Departure 16:30. Twenty minutes to cover the return inspection, the paperwork, the walk and the security queue — with no margin for a queue at the counter or a scratch that needs arguing about.

Fix it before you fly, not on the day: move the drop-off to 13:30 in Manage Booking. It is free. If for some reason you cannot, then the market ends at 12:30, you leave Hobart at 12:45, and you accept that Saturday is run to a stopwatch.

Two things are in your favour if it does go tight: you are carry-on only, so there is no bag drop, and online check-in opens 48 hours out — do it Friday afternoon, from Port Arthur if need be.

RISK 7

Thursday is the only day Mona exists

Mona opens Thursday to Monday. You are in Hobart Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday — and Wednesday you are in a van until mid-afternoon, Friday is the peninsula, Saturday is the market and the flight. That leaves exactly one day, and Mona also closes without much warning for private events.

Check mona.net.au when you book the tickets, and check again Wednesday night. If Thursday falls over, the honest answer is that Mona is what you lose — swap Friday and Thursday, do the peninsula on Thursday and Mona Friday, rather than trying to squeeze it into Saturday morning.

Book the ferry with the entry in the same checkout. Sailings are roughly hourly and they do sell out on a fine Thursday.

RISK 8

Gravel, again — the one thing your card won’t cover either

The van rule was Apollo’s. The car rule is Simba’s, and I could not find their unsealed-road wording published anywhere — so treat it as at least as strict, because nearly every Tasmanian operator excludes damage sustained on unsealed roads. Your credit card cover almost certainly excludes them too, which is what makes this the one gap the card does not close.

Everything in Days 6 to 8 is sealed: the Arthur Highway, Pirates Bay Drive, Blowhole Road, Safety Cove Road, Pinnacle Road and the Richmond run. The traps are the ones that look tempting on a map — Cape Raoul and Shipstern Bluff off the peninsula, and Lake Dobson Road if you choose Mt Field. Satellite-view any detour before you commit to it, the same way you did with Mud Walls Road.

Second-order: dusk on the A9 Friday. A wallaby is the most likely thing to test that cover — and even a covered claim means the damage is charged to your card first and reimbursed later, plus a fortnight of paperwork in the week you get home.

Numbers to have in your phone

Apollo1800 777 779 Apollo Assist (roadside)1300 798 212 Apollo Hobart depot03 6248 4168 Tasman Holiday Parks03 6376 2332 BIG4 Iluka1800 786 512 Triabunna park03 6257 3575 Parks Tasmania1300 827 727 Simba Car Hire03 6164 9522 Jetstar13 15 38

Coverage along the Great Eastern Drive is good now — 15 new towers between Buckland and Binalong Bay — but Telstra is strongest, Vodafone has nothing at Binalong Bay, and the Freycinet tracks are patchy. Make phone bookings from a town, and download offline maps before you leave Cambridge.

Budget tracker

Edit any figure — it saves on this device. Van, camping and the hotel are the real booked amounts; food, fuel, the car and extras are researched benchmarks, marked where I could not verify them.

Fixed costs

Campervan hire confirmed

$622.25 paid + $125 Hobart location fee at the counter. The $7,500 bond is separate and comes back

Freycinet One-Park pass buying 11 Sep

$50.70, twelve months, one park, up to two vehicles — covers Sunday evening, Monday and Tuesday. One 24-hr pass only works if both Freycinet walks fall inside a single window.

Tasman NP pass, Friday buy on the day

24-hour vehicle pass, $47.70 — the hire car needs its own. Zero if you skip the coastal stops and go straight to Port Arthur

Diesel

~670 km · 67–80 L at ~245–250 c/L · one fill, at Cambridge

Camping — 4 nights, all booked

Night 1 · Tasman Holiday Parks paid

Booking #57776 · paid in full

Night 2 · BIG4 Iluka, Coles Bay paid

Reservation 263967 · $120 for the two nights

Night 3 · BIG4 Iluka again paid

Same reservation — the second half of the $120

Night 4 · Triabunna on arrival

Ref BBA26090121260069 · payable at check-in

Food & extras

Groceries

Big shop at Campbell Town Saturday, top-up at St Helens Sunday

Meals out & coffee

Ross bakery, St Helens, Swansea, Salamanca

Callington Mill tour (optional)

$15 each, hourly 10:00–15:00 Saturday

Taxi to the depot

Apollo runs no airport shuttle

Buffer

Laundry, coin showers, odds and ends

Hobart — 3 nights, after the van

ibis Styles Hobart paid

Nights 5–7 · ref JQKZANYD3 · non-refundable, nothing left to pay

Simba car hire, 2 days confirmed

$58 for the two days — less than the two taxis it saves you if you pick it up on Wednesday

Excess cover for the car covered

Your credit card carries the $6,380 excess — decline the upsell at the counter

Mona — entry and ferry Thu

2 × $39 entry + 2 × $30 return ferry

Port Arthur Historic Site Fri

2 × $55 · includes the harbour cruise and a guide talk, valid two days

Petrol for the car

~300 km in a small hybrid, handed back full

Two taxis out to Cambridge

Depot → hotel Wednesday, hotel → car Thursday. About $40 each for the pair of you

Parking

Two nights at the hotel plus Saturday at Salamanca Square — ask the hotel rate at check-in

Eating in Hobart

Three days of breakfasts, lunches and dinners for two, with no kitchen

Trip total

— per person

Fixed$0

Camping$0

Food & extras$0

Hobart$0

Per day, over 8$0

Excl. van hire$0

Flights are not included, and neither are the two refundable bonds — $7,500 on the van, $500–$2,000 on the car. Two national parks charge — Freycinet and Tasman — and they need separate passes because you are in two different vehicles. Bay of Fires and kunanyi are free, and Port Arthur is a ticket, not a park pass.

Convict roads, then orange boulders

Why it runs this way round

Read this first

Logistics

The van

Fuel — one fill, two safe stops

Where to shop

Water & waste

September conditions

Three things the forecast won't tell you

Day by day

Heritage Highway → St Helens

Bay of Fires, then south to Freycinet

Mount Amos

Wineglass Bay, then down the coast

kunanyi / Mt Wellington → depot → Hobart

Mona, then the summit you couldn’t drive to

The Tasman Peninsula

Salamanca Market, then the 16:30

Hikes

Grade scale, so the badges mean something

Walks the gravel rule cost you

Beds & bookings

ibis Styles Hobart

Simba Car Hire, Hobart Airport

Plan B

Wednesday’s return, and the $7,500 on your card

St Marys Pass is closed or slow

Wet granite on Mount Amos

Pinnacle Road shut for ice

Saturday runs late

The hour between the car and the plane

Thursday is the only day Mona exists

Gravel, again — the one thing your card won’t cover either

Numbers to have in your phone

Checklists

Before you fly

At the depot, Saturday 9 am

Sunday, leaving St Helens

Every morning before you drive

Hobart, after the van

Budget tracker

Fixed costs

Camping — 4 nights, all booked

Food & extras

Hobart — 3 nights, after the van

Convict roads,
then orange boulders