Tasmania East Coast to West Coast Loop - Apollo

Nine nights and 1,247 kilometres in a loop from Hobart in a campervan, up the east coast and back across the island by the west.

Port Arthur comes first out on the Tasman Peninsula, the best preserved convict site in Australia, where some twelve thousand men were held over nearly fifty years and the ruins now stand in parkland.

Swansea and Coles Bay follow for Freycinet, where pink granite peaks stand above Wineglass Bay, then the Bay of Fires and St Helens, whose boulders are covered in orange lichen and whose name comes from the Aboriginal fires Tobias Furneaux saw from the sea in 1773. Devonport comes next across the north, then Cradle Mountain with two nights, and Strahan on the west coast, with Lake St Clair inland on the way home, the deepest lake in Australia and the far end of the Overland Track.

The camper and the day-by-day plan come from Apollo, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with a nil-excess insurance pack available at booking. Ten days for 1,247 kilometres is a comfortable pace and Tasmania rewards it, since the distances are short and the weather changes fast. The island is a good deal cooler than the mainland and the highlands get snow outside summer. The Cradle Mountain shuttles run in place of private vehicles to Dove Lake for most of the year, and the Gordon River cruises at Strahan need booking. The loop format avoids a one-way relocation fee.