Sat Dec 2nd-Freycinet to Launceston

Another fairly leisurely day. Spent hours walking along Friendly Beaches (saw 2 people) incredibly fine sand on this beach. Lots of oyster catchers and some small sea bird (hooded plover?) very cute little thing.

It was a very easy drive back via Campbell Town to Launceston (around 170kms). It gave us time to wander up Cataract Gorge-a surreal juxtaposition of nature with a typical Victorian can do attitude. Complete with formal gardens, peacocks, a more recent swimming pool, a gondola for getting people across the george-it's mad! But well worth a look.

We were staying in the Kilmarnock House on Elphin St (a little bit out of town and on one of the major roads but not as noisy at night than you'd think and AUD150 a night). Dinner was early in Pierre's on George St. Good food, maybe small portions but very good.

To bed early as we were fishing tomorrow

Friday 1st Dec-Freycinet National Park 2

The Isthmus track is beautiful with some of the largest gum trees I've ever seen. (And some very loud yellow tailed black cockatoos) They are almost as impressive as the karri forest near Walpole in WA. These are majetic trees that will hopefully be there long after I'm gone. Their shade was also a welcome relief as this was a hot day out in the sun.

You can see from the picture above that Hazards Beach gets very busy at this time of year! We had to stop and just sit here for an hour or so just because we could. I'd really love to come here camping some time. The water is Mediterranean blue and the sand is blindingly white (and today it was out of the wind compared to Wineglass over on the eastern side!)

Be warned though. It is a reasonable walk back to the car park from here (a good 2 hours for some closer to 3 I'm guessing). I don't think it can be stressed too much how easy it is to dehydrate out here. We carried 6 litres in total today and it was all gone when we got back to the car before 4pm. Some people definitely did not look suitably equipped.

Tonight we stayed at the Freycinet Lodge. Not the cheapest at AUD240 for an Oyster Cabin but it was a nice location. The food in the restaurant was good-not fantastic but very good but it had a barn-like, or cavernous, quality to it that detracted from the place even though the large glass frontage was impressive and definitely to its advantage. The highlight of the evening though probably had to be walking down to Honeymoon Bay with a chilled bottle of LD Jansz fizz, a couple of chilled glasses, and watching the sun start to go down before dinner. We had the added bonus of an echidna looking for dinner and amazing little fronded clouds coming in from the east creating little table cloths on the Hazards.

Friday 1st Dec-Freycinet National Park part 1

So after an early night in bed we were up at a reasonable time, well reasonable enough to be at the bottom of the track at 8am. There is a certain satisfaction in being the first to the best view for miles. It's an interesting little hill mind you-much steeper than it looks-not being very hill fit (well not at all) and consequently I would feel this hill in my legs for days after.

Well if you're reading this you may well have already heard of Tasmania and Wineglass Bay-it is beautiful but then all the beaches are-maybe because there were so many more people here than any of the others we'd been to it didn't impress as much. It is still quite superb with the perfect half moon carved out. But equally lovely on the other side is Hazards Beach you ca just see above to the right hand side of the picture.

After completing the Mt Amos track we re-applied the suncream before heading off on the Wineglass Lookout and Hazards track walk (11kms). The track up to the lookout is the most amazing path (with very arty seats) I've ever seen in a National Park. They seem to have decided that if they were going to do it at all they were only going to do it once and it was going to last forever. It is a fantastic piece of building work which fits in beautifully. Lord alone knows how long it would have taken.

Once you head down towards the beach from the lookout the crowds (okay there were maybe 20 people) thinned out a little and it's a great place to have lunch. Once beyond the Wineglass beach though things thin out even further...

Thurs 30th Nov-Bicheno to Coles Bay

This is a picture from Sleepy Beach (or Bay?) in Freycinet National Park. Very weird weathering patterns in the granite and huge jellyfish in the sea round here.

It was very cold this morning-almost camping in Scotland kind of temperatures-very cloudy and if anything the wind had picked up from yesterday. We spent a bit of time today up around Lost Falls and in the woods up there which was peaceful (apart from the cockatoos of course) didn't see another soul while we were there.

Lunch was down by Lake Leaky-a popular fishing sopt and clearly another man-made lake (well some of it anyway) with drowned gum trees all round the edges.

We did run into Swansea briefly but given the prevailing wind direction we decided to go straight back to Coles Bay. This was the busiest place, in terms of accomodation, we came across the whole time we were there. Got a really nice place, a serviced apartment, called 'Wineglass' in the 3 Peaks Complex ($150 I think for the night). After exploring the easy walks around the Park we decided on an early night in as we were planning an early assault on Mt Amos the following morning. We had a HUGE fish and chip supper from Jus Food down on the Esplanade. (Well we deserved part of it-we had done some walking today). I had to order the breaded scallops-you just can't do that most places.

This place really is beautiful. It is one of the most beautiful National Parks I've been to and I hope it stays that way. I would love to come back and spend a couple of weeks here the beaches are spectaular, the camping looks great, the views are ever changing, the sky goes on forever and there are some beautiful gum trees.

Signposts in Bicheno

You don't see these on the roads every day!

Wed 29th Nov-St Helens to Bicheno

Wind was howling this morning. The beach at Beaumaris was looking very beautiful but completely blown out (it also looked very cold).
So we took the road to St Mary's and stopped on Elephant Pass to see the garden at Blueberry cottage-lovely people.
We then spent rather longer than we intended to at NatureWorld just north of Bicheno. It runs off voluntary donations and could probably do with more (and like everywhere else it could do with more water). Its full of creatures you never thought you'd ever see. Tassie Devils, echidnas, cape barren geese, padamelons-all the critters you'd love to see in the wild but don't stand much chance of (apart from as road kill of which there is a truly upsetting amount on the majority of the roads on Tassie).

Really good tourist info here. Staying at Bicheno by the beach (AUD160 for a cabin) and booked into the new Seasons restaurant (open less than a month as booked out solid).

A walk up Whalers lookout and along the beach to Blowhole which, given the weater lately and the wind that had been blowing hard all day, was performing brilliantly.

Tues 28th Nov-Around Binalong Bay

This was the first proper lazy day. However walking up and down the beach it really didn't seem to matter that we weren't running around being tourists.

There was virtually no-one around-white sand for miles and whistling sand too (my first whistling/squeaking sand). I thought this was very cool.

The contrasts of the colours round here are just incredible, the sea is cobalt blue and the grey granite is covered by lichens of various shades-red being the most obvious- bull kelp adds a textural element at the boundary between the rocks and sea. I was quite happy doing not a lot here.
Great little cafe, Agnasi, in Binalong Bay here but we were going to be staying in St Helens tonight. For AUD68 we got into Queechy cottages just over the bridge from the main town.
Another walk around Beer Barrel beach was also absolutely lovely. There were fairy wrens wallabies and the feel of the South African fynbos about the place (actually it all seemed tinder box dry and since we've been back the fires have not been good).
Good fish and chip shop in town 'Something Fishy' well you'd expect the fish to be good around here. All washed down with a very pleasant bottle of Braided River (Marlborough SB $16).

Mon 26th Nov-Launceston to Binalong Bay

This was a holiday about relaxation. So this isn't going to be the most riveting read but if you like interesting places and are prepared to go slowly around a small part of a big island (yes Tasmania looks small sitting there off the bottom of Australia 'the mainland' but it's larger than Ireland). Then this may have few good ideas for you.

It is still quiet at this time of year and we're still not sure if it ever gets really busy here in Tassie but that makes it very appeaig in itself.

We did a quick drive around the Tamar Valley stopping at a couple of vineyards. We first drove through Grindelwald-the Swiss Village on the west side of the valley just north out of Lauceston- then onto Tamar Ridge wines (just bought out)-nice Riesling ('05) and Guwurtztraminer (04) with a pleasant Pinot Noir (04). Buy their first label not the second Devils' Corner label (my preference).
Across towards George Town and a very scenic drive to Jansz and Pipers Brook.

(more wine tasting)

It's around 260kms (our route down the B81) to Binalong Bay so the next bit was a little rushed through the old mining areas (although we did stop in Derby for a great coffee and raspberry and white chocolate muffin). We were staying just out of St Helens at the Bed in the Treetops. A fantastic B&B (around AUD280 for B&B and a 3-course dinner each with wine included). Lovely people great location lovely food and would love to come back again (to see the new place).

Tasmania-Sun 26th Nov 2006

Okay
So there are good flights from Perth to Melbourne and on to Lauceston (or Hobart) the best value seemed to be with Virgin Blue.
So after doing the one lap (53km) Great Perth Bike ride in the morning we had time to get to the airport for a 12.55 flight across the continent (our first internal flight).
You end up in Launceston airport-or we did-around 9pm so it was 10pm by the time we'd got into town and be warned there isn't that much open in Launceston for food at that time of night.

We were staying at the Hillview B&B on George Street-so it's very central with consequently a reasonable amount of traffic noise in the night. A great breakfast (especially as we hadn't found anywhere the previous night) and lovely rooms for AUD130 a night. A great deal for those of you out there being paid in Euros or GBP!