Stories of the road…
Just another stop
WE WERE SOMEWHERE along the highway in Victoria and we were tired. Night had set in an hour ago and we still had quite a distance to travel. How about we pull in at some place along the road and go on in the morning? My travelling companion agreed and a few kilometres further along the highway we came across a clearing, an informal stopping place, pulled into the far end where trees and shrubs concealed us from the road and spent the night.
That was an unofficial overnighting spot. But maybe, as I have, you too make use of those official rest stops along the highways and byways to take a break or to overnight before continuing your journey the next day. Plenty of people do.
Here in Tasmania, the national parks service maintains quite a few cheap campsites for people who have purchased a parks’ pass. You pay between AU$7 and AU$20, depending on where they are. The service also has some free campsites, like the small campsite a few kilometres from the surfing beach at Cloudy Bay on Bruny Island or the larger campsite at Friendly Beaches on the East Coast. Facilities are usually nothing more than a composting or pit toilet and they do not usually supply water, so bring your own. Another free camp, this one allows only a single overnight, is that maintained by the local council just out of Lilydale in northern Tasmania. I’ve stayed there. It is a convenient overnight on a longer trip to the East Coast and has an amenities block and a water tank. There is a short bushwalk along the track that follows the stream that starts at the bridge near the camp.
Sometimes, especially after a few days bush camping and feeling unwashed and grotty, you are prepared to hand over a few dollars for the convenience of a shower and toilet at some low-key, cheap campsite. If you are heading over to the Frecinet Peninsula on the East Coast and you start your journey from Launceston or Hobart late in the day and take the road between Campbell Town and Swansea, the modest Lake Leake campsite is not far off the main road at about the half-way mark. Last time I went through there it was $20 a night.
A lakeside stop
We turned off the hardtop and followed a signposted secondary road for a few kilometres until it changed to all-weather gravel just past the hotel, itself a surprising find here. The hotel offers meals, but how it survives out here I have no idea.
Lake Leake is no metropolis. What it is, is a dam with a large catchment lake amid the forested hills. And a shack settlement. The campsite is small. There’s a bench seat and table with shelter and an amenities block. No shops here. No shops anywhere near here, so bring food and necessities. See the caretaker as you drive in.
The main activity of people who own the shacks is trout fishing in the lake. You need the equipment and a (state government) permit to do that.
We didn’t stay at the lake, just went there for a lunch break and to check out what is there on our way to the coast.
So, Lake Leake. A usefully-placed stopover completely lacking in shops, cafes, upmarket big-name campsite facilities, fuel, entertainment, crowds, supermarkets or luxury. And all the better for that.
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