The sequence might change, but Chapter Three will probably start at Launceston and encompass Cradle Mountain and the northwest of the island, possibly getting as far as Strahan and Queenstown. If it didn’t pan out that way, you’d slot those two into Chapter Five, provisionally titled Catching Up on the Places We Missed.
Chapter Four, and any subsequent episodes will be centred on Hobart, possibly incorporating a chance for Hughesy to get to Port Arthur on a guided tour while Madam does something else, but certainly concentrating on the food and wine options in a food lover’s paradise.
So, the Itinerary Explained
There’s something in Hughesy’s nature that makes me disinclined to go shopping around, but Madam’s definitely picked up on that particular aspect of the genome.
That explains some of the interesting scheduling you tend to find in the itinerary when she does the planning. Take, for instance, the matter of travelling from Bowen to Hobart, with four possible points of departure.
The most convenient point of departure is, of course, Whitsunday Coast, the old Proserpine Airport, but with a maximum of three departures (Virgin earlyish morning and afternoon, Jetstar later in the AM) there are connection issues.
Hamilton Island has departures for Melbourne reasonably early in the morning (10 and 11), Sydney around midday and Brisbane in the afternoon. The difficulty with Hammo is factoring in the ferry that gets you there. It is, however, a handy spot to return to when you’re heading out of Brisbane or Sydney. There’s also the question of getting from Bowen to Airlie to catch the ferry.
Further afield, it’s either Mackay, where you’re looking at paying for secure parking if you can’t get a lift down and back, or Townsville, where we get free parking and a night’s accommodation at The Golfer’s Motel. There’s usually a rather decent meal involved as well, which explains the whole default option, doesn’t it?
When you’re talking Hobart, in the absence of a direct flight from Townsville, there’s the small matter of connections. Head through Brisbane, and the last flight for the day leaves around 9:00 AM. That means catching a six o’clock flight out of Townsville, which means a five o’clock check in. Scratch that idea, even without pondering the previous night’s wining and dining and threat of sleeping in.
And, when Madam went checking, we found an interesting anomaly. We could do a two day trip down, leaving at a reasonable hour in the morning, and catch a connecting flight in Brisbane to land in Sydney around three in the afternoon (bush fire issues permitting). That was too late to catch anything that lands in Hobart in daylight. A little further research revealed that it was actually cheaper to go Townsville > Brisbane > Sydney > overnight stop somewhere near the airport > Hobart than it was to do the whole lot in a day.
So that’s what we’re doing.