Tasmania!

Today was the first day of our trip to Tasmania, and Whitney and I are already struggling to survive.

It was meant to be a liberating experience for us.  Rent out a camper, and roam the beautiful frontier of Tazzie without being tethered to strict timeframes and pre-determined itineraries.  Well, with freedom, comes additional responsibility.

"I feel too small and young for this," She said as drove the Camper-van out of the rental lot.  At 5'7''/130, Whitney Sellnow looked like a baby sitting on her fathers lap behind the steering wheel, pretending to drive.  The reality, however, was that she alone was in control of this two tonne residency on wheels, as it barrelled over the tasman bridge.

I called the campsite as whit drove, letting them know when we'd be arriving.  The woman on the other end of the line let me know that she was about to close up, but that she would wait for me.  I let her know that we appreciated her staying back, and that we would come straight there without stopping to shop or eat.  I made this promise despite a burning hunger.

When we arrived at the first campsite of our trip, we checked in and then promptly asked the innkeeper where we could go to get a bite.

"Its only about 700 meters.  You could walk from here if you wanted to,"  She explained,

"perfect," i thought,

...

"Can we just drive there?" Whitney asked,

"Sure," I said.  Little did I know what I was getting myself into.

As we approached the bar, we could see that there was plenty of space for parking, all around the structure.  The presence of such a large parking area was a huge relief for the two of us, who were not well acclimated with the beast of a vehicle we were now responsible for piloting. 

Once we actually turned into the parking lot itself, however, we noticed that at some point, among the trucks that surrounded the pub, the pavement had ended.

"I don't know where I'm going," Whitney said as she slowly pulled into the end of a row of vehicles.  I told her just to find somewhere she feels comfortable and gives us plenty of space.  She agree'd and went to straighten out the park job at the end of the row, but when she reversed, we didn't move.

We were stuck in the mud.