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[Mystic]

Chain of Lagoons campground is located about halfway between St Helens in the north and Bicheno in the south. Alternatively you can come down the Elephant Pass road from St Marys.

This is a large camping area with numerous sites of different sizes. Some secluded and well sheltered, ideal for tents, others are wide open and more suited to motorhomes and such. Facilities such as toilets are provided at a number of spots throughout the area, though be careful of the northern hybrid toilets. (Margie was bitten by some sort of insect inside these and it took a long time for the blistering to vanish. She still bears scars on her hands from these bites.)

Water can be obtained at either Bicheno or St Helens, where you should also be able to source firewood. All wood, living or dead, is protected at the camping area and should not be used for firewood.

Most of the camping area fronts onto a beautiful calm lagoon, often full of black swans and other bird life. Particularly spectacular early morning and dusk.

The site we chose was near the southern entrance to the grounds, about 200 yards away from the nearest pit toilet (clean and bug free), well sheltered, and bushy. Aussie bush is unique, and can be recognised anytime, but it is also picturesque.

A large variety of birds can be found here, and we frequently enjoyed their song, livening things up around morning and dusk. It was a nice, cosy stop.

The beach is accessed from the northern end of the grounds, and here you will find a very long beach with clear, blue water, and glistening white sand. Plenty of space on this long beach to find an isolated little spot for a quiet day. As the campground can be quite popular with families, this may prove a major blessing. The beach is a few miles long, and provides a great day walk to reach either end.

Looking west you will see Elephant mountain and the ranges leading up the pass to St Marys, a great backdrop to a lovely location.

If you are heading to this area from the south, you are best doing any shopping you need before you leave the suburbs of Hobart. Sorrell is your last chance to get any reasonable shopping done. The next major town you will pass through is Bicheno, where shopping facilities are very limited, and the local butcher (who only sells sausages) trades the worst sausages we have ever encountered anywhere. Great things for lighting fires though as the fat content is so high as to make them almost explosive.

From the north, St Helens offers excellent shopping facilities and you are able to purchase a good range of items at reasonable prices here if coming from that direction.

Chain of Lagoons makes a great place to spend a few days or an overnight stop along the highway to rest.

The biggest problem we found here was the rubbish left behind by previous campers. This is ugly, and damages the environment. If you take it in, take it back out with you please.

Otherwise, we thoroughly enjoyed our brief visit to this campground, to which we fled after snow at Hastings kept getting heavier. The sunshine and beach were a very welcome sight upon arrival.

I give this site a rating. It was nice, but way too many families and other people here.

Our Campsite at Chain of Lagoons

Location map

Map supplied by Tasmap, for more mapping information
please see www.tasmap.tas.gov.au

[Shane V]

Chain of Lagoons campground is totally different from the ones of the south coast. It has dry, firm ground which is level. The pegs of the tent required the hatchet to bang them into the ground...they definitely weren't coming out. Our campsite was well sheltered. We were there before holiday season got underway, so there weren't many people around.

This campground is on the coast so it is relatively flat and walking was easy. Trees were in abundance here and there was lots of bird life, many types I hadn't seen before. It was cool sitting at the campsite and just watching the birds flying past and sometimes it was as if they were making a direct line towards you before jinking away at the last minute. It can get pretty noisy here at dawn and dusk with all the birds and their noises. I loved hearing them.

The mountains, which started to slope up on the other side of the highway, made a lovely backdrop while walking along the beach. When I saw the sand my first thoughts were of tropical beaches. It is virtually the same colour and very soft to walk on. The water is a turquoise colour and absolutely beautiful to look at. The waves here are pretty good too. I'm not a surfer but I think that surfers would like to have a surf here.

Another animal you might encounter here is possums, especially if you leave food out. They love to rummage so don't leave anything out that you want to keep. Please put all rubbish in bags and away from the possums, besides the fact that it makes the place ugly it is also not good for the animals to eat what is not in their natural diet.

The sound of the waves crashing on the beach was hypnotic. When the swell was up it actually got quite loud.

I liked this campground, but not as much as the ones in the south. It seemed to be less private. I enjoyed encountering the animals and the walks but could only give this site a rating.