Hobart to Coles
Bay, Freycinet National Park to Bay of Fires
For our next destination, and our last few
days in Australia we decided to head to our favourite state – Tasmania! We’ve
been twice before and still found ourselves wishing we’d done and seen more
things we’d missed out on previously, so it was an easy decision.
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| Early morning scamp to Richardon's Beach |
To keep our travel budget down, we booked a
cheap campervan deal through Apollo picking up from Hobart for 4 nights and 5
days of exploring – thinking it’d be a good practice for the month we have
booked in one on the South Island of New Zealand. We landed in Hobart pretty
exhausted, but fortunately got picked up in our van by the Apollo rep Greg (who
was very nice) and we got all the paperwork done pretty quickly – so hit the
road and went directly for some breakfast! After stocking up on some warm
clothes, we headed northeast along the coast towards Coles Bay.
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| My best European tourist pose |
We’d been there before – but were gutted we
only had a couple of hours there as it was amazing scenery, and is also home to
Wineglass Bay (one of the best beaches in the world apparently) which involves
a 3 hour trek to reach! Having left Hobart later than intended, we arrived at
Coles Bay in the dark. The visitors centre dealing with the camping and local
supermarkets were both closed – so we nervously picked a powered spot in the
national park at random - having no idea what to do or whether we’d be getting
a knock on the window in the middle of the night – and settled in for the
night. It was FREEZING! Fortunately we had an extra blanket, 2 sheets and a
heater (Greg took pity on us after we told him we’d been living in Brisbane for
4 years) so we coped ok and it was actually pretty exciting spending our first
night in the campervan.
In the morning – we woke and were greeted
by a pretty awesome view from Richardson’s beach of Coles Bay, and also a note
from the Rangers requesting some money! We slowly got ready and paid up for the
night – plus our national park fees for the whole State (a good discount!),
then went to get some supplies as we foolishly didn’t go shopping back in
Hobart thinking we’d do so on arrival and had no food! After picking up the
essentials (mainly wine and cheese) we had some breakfast and headed to the
national park to the start of the Wineglass Bay walk.
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| Wineglass Bay |
It is about a 45 minute walk uphill to the
lookout – which we’d had time to do before, but didn’t have time for the 2-3
hour return trip to the beach itself which had annoyed us ever since. So, we
kitted up – me in my best European tourist-hiking outfit and Lisa in more of an
ice-skating at Rockerfella Plaza number – and hit the trail. Going up to the
lookout wasn’t too bad – it’s mostly steep slopes and steps, so we assumed
heading down to the beach would be the same. Wrong! It was really steep,
awkward and slippery rocks combined with loose gravel and seemed to go on
forever.
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| Our hungry friend |
Fortunately the view at the bottom was
worth it – the place was pretty much deserted bar for a couple of pairs of keen
hikers strolling the sand and a young couple who’d braved the icy waters for a
swim. On the shore closest to the path there was a very friendly rock wallaby
who didn’t hop off when we wandered over towards him – usually the wild ones
are off at the slightest bit of movement. We sat down on some rocks to have a
drink and a banana, and he soon became VERY interested in us! We gave him a
little bit and soon he wouldn’t leave us alone, so we had to make a break for
it and he didn’t follow – clearly it is his feeding station for tourists who’ve
made the climb down (although on the way back up we did notice a big sign
saying DO NOT FEED THE WILDLIFE – which even had a picture of a wallaby on it
that we’d missed completely, ah well – this guy was clearly already used to
it...we regret nothing!!).
We had a stroll along the sand, which was
so white and fluffy – and crunched underfoot like snow does. Unfortunately it
was bloody cold down at the waters edge, and time was cracking on once again so
we dragged ourselves back to the path and began our ascent. It was TOUGH going,
and we took a few breaks.
Cooksey insisted I leave her on the hill a few times
so that she could be one with the rock wallabies, “they’ll teach me how to
forage…just leave me!!” but we persisted and made it up in just over an hour
which wasn’t too bad and we didn’t collapse at the top either!
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| At the lookout |
After a brief photo stop at the lookout we
scamped back down to the van and hit the road – heading north. We had a 3 hour
or so drive ahead of us, and once again were running late! This time we were
aiming towards the Bay of Fires – or somewhere hospitable nearby!
En route we opted for a campsite in a
little seaside town called St Helens which was at the southern end of the bay.
It was run by Big4 – the largest chain of parks in Australia which didn’t
really thrill us, as they are usually expensive and busy. We pulled into the
waterfront to have a quick look around and saw a rather amazing restaurant
called The Blue Boat – basically it was a converted boat, permanently moored at
the harbor with a few disco lights outside and a huge neon marlin on the roof!
We knew where dinner was coming from that night… I popped inside to see when
they opened until (an hours time) and asked where he thought was the best
campsite around. Fortunately, he recommended a park about 5 km back in
Steiglitz which was cheaper and quieter with a view of the bay… SOLD! We raced
back there, found it and booked in before getting changed and nipping back to
the blue boat for a hearty fish and chip feast.
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| The Blue Boat |
The food was amazing – so fresh (to the
point where it was actually being delivered whilst we were waiting and the menu
changed accordingly) and cheap too, we even BYO’d with our fancy wine from
Milton (Lisa’s favourite in Tassie) and chatted with the owners until getting
kicked out at around 9pm before heading back to collapse – exhausted again, but
satisfyingly full!
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| Nothing like a fish supper and drinking wine out of plastic cups! |
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