January the 3rd will now be known as the time where my travel plans became a bit aimless. I had a vague plan, but I had to wait around for Brecht and Lorenzo - two people interested in a short Tassie roadtrip - to arrive. That was going to be 6th/7th Jan, so I had a few days to kill. I started by going to the tourist info centre, still thinking of getting a campervan for the journey, to get ideas. There I randomly met Cil, and we planned to go to Port Arthur together. A good day trip, out of the way of the roadtrip "loop". Cil had just finished spending new year with friends and wasn't ready to head back to her job in Australia yet.

Just through conversation at the hostel, I got two more interested parties: Katy from Hong Kong and Martyn from Perth. Cheap day out for four people! So we set off in the morning with a ridiculously big 4x4 and headed for Port Arthur via the Tessellated Pavement, spent a whole day then back to the Blowhole and Tasman's Arch before heading home. A great day, and we made plans to do another day trip to Richmond the next day to kill yet more time, this time only Martyn and I went along and we started off by replacing Cil's flat tyre and getting paid with breakfast before getting some car/camper quotes. None would be available until Saturday - three days away. I booked a car at 49 bucks a day before they all booked out. Martyn was in on the trip too. After a leisurely day in Richmond, we said goodbye to Cil and set about killing a further two days with beer and cricket on television. We watched the cricket for almost an entire day after we met Lorenzo, who is a great bloke. I wasn't sure of the size of the car we'd hired so I was hoping to fit him and his bags in with Brecht, who arrived the next day. That was when we planned our route and scouted out some cheap camping gear. Then, on Saturday 8th Jan, we checked out Salamanca Market in scorching heat and picked up the car at midday. Dubbed the Hindenburg, after another old disaster waiting to happen, I drove the '94 Hyundai Sonata out into the big bad world of Tassie with a genuine Aussie, a Belgian, and an Italian clown. I hoped this Hindenburg would prove less fatal...