Hobart, Strahan, Cradle Mountain and Freycinet - Apollo

Ten nights and 1,117 kilometres in a loop from Hobart in a campervan, west first and then round the top of Tasmania with four stay days.

Hobart takes the first of them, with Mount Wellington above the city and the Saturday market in Salamanca, then the run straight across the island to Strahan with another, on the wild west coast, where the Gordon River cruises go up into rainforest that has never been cut.

Cradle Mountain follows with a third, where the Dove Lake circuit runs below the mountain and the Overland Track starts, then Launceston, and Freycinet with a fourth, where pink granite peaks stand above Wineglass Bay and the walk over the saddle takes a couple of hours. Port Arthur closes the loop, the best preserved convict site in Australia, where some twelve thousand men were held over nearly fifty years.

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. Eleven days for 1,117 kilometres is a slow pace with four stay days, which Tasmania rewards: 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 Gordon River cruises and the Cradle Mountain shuttles both need booking, the second running in place of private vehicles to Dove Lake for most of the year. The loop format avoids a one-way relocation fee.