Devonport to Hobart and surrounds.

 630 the alarm sounds, and you awake onboard the Spirit of Tasmania, that is if you havent already risen. 

I know I take a while to get organised, so I set my alarm for 530. 

The cabin was small but adequate for what we needed, a good nights sleep before tackling our first day in Tassie. 

by 7am we were reversing the D-Max out of our very tight parking spot and heading off the ferry. 

When we hit street side, it was still dark out. We were hungry, you could eat on the ferry but we chose to find something along the way. We headed towards the highway, which would take us to the Midlands and Hobart Beyond. 

About 15 minutes out of town we came across a truck stop at Sassafras, and as anyone on a road trip knows, this is where you will find the good grub. 

there were a few  truckies and early risers inside, and we could see and smell why. 

Coffee and roast beef and gravy rolls for breakfast, dont mind if I do. Infact, I wish I had ordered 2. they were THAT good. 

We ate in the car and off we headed. 

The sun was just coming up by this time, so we could see the incredible beauty that surrounded us around every bend.  Through Elizabeth Town and just bypassing Perth, the Tasmanian one, not the WA one. I could see Cradle Mountain to the South West of us, and we skirted this mountain range for a while as we headed towards Symmons Plains, we made a quick detour into the racetrack, home of Supercars when they visit Tassie.  

A mutual decision was made that if we saw a brown sign, which usually denotes a tourist attraction that we would stop.  Tasmania is FULL of these signs, we would spend the next 10 years and never see everything.

Campbelltown was the first of these. OMG, what a gorgeous village this was. We stopped and walked, took pictures of everything, in awe at the history and beauty. We have already fallen in love with this state and we only just got here. 

Churches, old stores, sandstone buildings, the Red Bridge, and while it is a quintessential midlands town, its history is that of massacres and unrest when the colonial settlers came and 'conciliated' the last members of the local clan the Tyerrenotepanner. 

On the hills outside the town there are metal sculptures that catch the eye. 

Our next stop was Ross, a small town located on 78 kms south of Launceston, but an entire world or should I say century away. 

It was established in 1812 and lies in the lands of the Tyrernotepanner Nation, whom I mentioned before. The colonials gave them the name Stoney Creek nation.

Ross is also the home to a Female Factory, part of which still stand. Between 1848 and 1854 approximately 12,000 female convicts passed though its doors. 

It is filled with heritage listed sites, and I urge you to take the time to drive off the main highway instead of bypassing this town.