Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Our day began at the Snug Beach Campground in Snug, Tasmania. Today was a travel day as we packed up our bags, returned our rental RV, and flew back to mainland Australia.

“What’s the best way to do this? Just get out of your way?” Andi asked, as we dug out our backpacks from the under seat storage cabinets. There isn’t much room for one or two of us to move around in the small living space of the RV, let alone all four of us at the same time. So, yes, getting out of the way was probably best.

Aden played outside with the neighboring camper’s nine-year-old son, Archie, while Andi tackled the outside parts of the RV by dumping the toilet cassette one last time and put away the RV power cord and water hose. Inside the RV, I packed all our clothing, then cleaned and wiped every surface. We’re returning this RV much cleaner than we received it, that’s for sure.

What did we do with all our extra supplies? Andi gave our unopened food, drinks, and the new blankets and mattress topper we purchased to Archie’s grandmother (who was camped next to us). She was thrilled! There’s also a donation shelf at the RV rental center where campers can leave or take items like toilet paper and cooking oils.

Check-out time for the campground was 10:00am, but we were running a few minutes behind. Andi asked the woman working in the campground office if it’d be alright if we left 15 minutes late, and she very rudely told Andi that we needed to be out of the campground in two minutes, promptly at 10:00am. Andi was irritated.

So at 10:00am, we left Snug Campground and parked on the other side of the property fence to finish the last of our packing & cleaning. Staying at holiday parks are a necessity sometimes so we can shower, do laundry, & recharge all of our electronics, but they are not an enjoyable place to stay. They’re noisy, packed with people, and the campground employees are often rude people.

The best spots we camped in Tasmania were places Andi found through the Hipcamp app. Local property owners who were happy to let us camp on their property for the night. The scenery was often spectacular! The only downside to camping this way is that there is usually no water, power hook-up, and all trash must be taken with you.

Originally, Andi and I considered staying in Hobart for a few days after we returned the RV rental, but I’m glad we made the choice to fly out today. We enjoyed our travels through Tasmania, but we’re ready to move on to somewhere new.

The rental RV wasn’t due until 2:00pm today, so we had a few hours left to sightsee. We decided to drive to downtown Hobart to have lunch. It was raining off and on, of course, so not the best weather to be walking around outside. The four of us parked the RV in an open lot by the cruise port, and walked through Hobart’s waterfront area.

Hobart has a very charming feel to it. The capital city has waterway channels weaved throughout it, and an historic waterfront district home to fishing fleets and personal sailboats. There’s also restaurants, shopping, and a few museums downtown.

Andi picked a restaurant called Stock Market for lunch. Most of the customers seemed to be local business professionals on their lunch break. As is the case in most Australian restaurants we’ve visited, the food menu looked fantastic. I ordered a pulled chicken salad for my meal, Andi got the fried chicken burger, and the kids each ordered chicken nuggets and chips.

When Andi paid the bill, our waiter reached across the counter to the payment screen and manually skipped through the tip screen. “I want to leave you a tip,” Andi told the guy. “You were a very good waiter.” Our server told Andi it wasn’t necessary because all tips “go to the boss.” This must be reason several of our restaurant servers have manually skipped the tip screen when we go to pay for our meals. Ah, now we know. Andi reached into his wallet and gave our waiter a $10 bill, and the guy was thrilled. Tipping isn’t customary in Australia, but we still believe a person should be recognized for quality service.

After lunch, it was already time to return the rental RV. The four of us walked back to the parking lot next to the cruise port and drove 20 minutes to the RV rental agency by the airport. For the hour, the kids and I wanted for Andi to complete the check-out process.

Next, we walked with our bags to the Hobart airport. We still had three hours before our flight to Adelaide, Australia. The airline counter didn’t open until 90 minutes before our flight, so we had some time to waste in the airport lobby. Andi worked, the kids watched their iPhones, and I paced the floor racking up some steps while I waited. We recognized a couple that we first met on the Dove Lake Circuit hike in Cradle Mountain and later saw in the town of Strahan during our RV travels. They were traveling home to Adelaide. Andi and I smiled at what a small, friendly world traveling in Tasmania proved to be.

We flew Virgin Airlines for the first time, and were forced to check our bags on this flight. Carry-on luggage must weigh under 7 kg (15 lbs), and our backpacks exceed that limit. Australian airlines are very strict about baggage weight limits and manually weigh every carry-on size bag at the gate before boarding.

Checking bags is more of a hassle, but it was kind of freeing to roam around the airport without any luggage. Usually it’s a race to get onto the place to ensure we have space for our backpacks in the overhead compartment, but that didn’t matter on today’s flight.

As per usual, Andi and Tory paired up to sit together on the plane and Aden and I sat together. Our two-hour flight to Adelaide was full of families with small children, and quite noisy. I was thankful to have older kids who entertain themselves now.

Our flight arrived in Adelaide, South Australia around 8:30pm. We collected our luggage from baggage claim, and took an Uber to our rented airbnb condo apartment in the city’s downtown CBD (central business district). Adelaide is located in the southern part of Australia and is the country’s fifth largest city. Adelaide is known as the most beautiful city in Australia because of its many parkland areas, and is considered a hub of culture & arts.

Andi rented us a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment for the next seven days. We figured the kids would appreciate having their own rooms after sharing such a small space the past two weeks. The apartment building is walkable to many Adelaide city attractions, and has a community fitness center, library space, pool, and outdoor bbq area.

It’s always hard to get a feel for a city when you arrive in the dark. The key for our rental was located in a lock box in a laundromat across the street which was a new experience. It worked super well, actually. Andi said he thinks a lot of the units in this condo building are airbnb rentals and this “key cafe” is the way the owner manages it.

The last thing Andi and I felt like doing was shopping for groceries after we settled into our apartment, but we needed food. Luckily, there’s an IGA grocery store located on the ground floor of this apartment building. We stocked up on the basics tonight; yogurt, milk, eggs, veggies, fruit, pasta, and coffee. I’m sure we’ll be back tot that grocery store 85 more times this week.

We’re excited to explore Adelaide! Our home away from home for the next week.