Road Tripping Safety Tips for Tasmania

If you’re planning on a campervan hire trip to Tasmania and it’s your first visit to this incredible location, you’ll be heading for an amazing road trip experience. With stunning vistas, incredible national parks, and a whole host of cultural attractions, Australia’s island state can truly be an awe-inspiring destination. However, for those unfamiliar with the terrain and climate of Tasmania, road tripping can be a potentially hazardous adventure - if precautions and a few safety tips are not heeded. Here’s four important things you should remember to ensure that your once-in-a-lifetime adventure remains a safe one:

 

Always be prepared for Tasmania’s unique weather conditions

Tasmania has four very distinctive seasons, and the conditions can be a little more extreme than those found on mainland Australia. Whilst the summer months can offer perfect conditions for road trips, travelling at other times of the year may expose drivers to heavy rainfall, thick fogs, and even snowy conditions. If you’re road tripping through the mountainous regions of the island, it’s also plausible for conditions to change rapidly during a single day. Thus, it is crucial that visitors are prepared and always drive to conditions.

 

Remember to top up your fuel before going off the beaten track

If you’re heading to the more remote corners of the island, always make sure to fill up your tank before embarking on your road trip. Whilst this may seem an obvious tip, many visitors to Tasmania are often caught out by the paucity of service stations along the quieter stretches of road, as well as their shorter opening hours too.

 

Give yourself plenty of time

Tasmania is best enjoyed at a leisurely pace as you traverse magnificent, mountainous landscapes, beautiful forests, and rolling green hills. However, due to narrow or winding roads, an abundance of wildlife, and volatile weather conditions at certain times of year, it is important that visitors plan their routes in advance and afford themselves plenty of time before embarking on long-distance journeys. Due to the limited range of alternative routes in some regions, in the event of an accident or a road closure it is prudent to prepare contingency plans. Carrying old-fashioned paper maps, just in case mobile or GPS signals are lost, can be a wise decision too.

 

Enjoy the wildlife but watch out for it too

Tasmania is home to an incredible array of wildlife, including possums, kangaroos, wallabies, and of course, the famous Tasmanian devil. However, ‘roadkill’ is a highly problematic issue in the state and in some scenarios, this can also lead to exceptionally dangerous situations for drivers if collisions with larger animals occur. In most cases, avoiding animals can simply be achieved by a combination of careful driving and diligence (especially when driving in rural regions). However, choosing when to drive can be a crucial factor also and it is important to be aware that drivers are far more likely to encounter animals on roads between dusk and midnight. So, make sure you avoid costly car repairs and do your bit to help protect Tasmania’s wonderful wildlife be driving safely on your incredible road trip experience.