Freycinet Bay National Park to Launceston

Day 336

Up and off on a walk to the famous and beautiful wineglass bay today. Drive up to the walking car park and set off walking from there. The going is steep and all uphill and takes us a while (with several rest stops on the way) but once we reach the lookout is all worthwhile.

Even on a cloudy and overcast day the view is beautiful down to the bay and we decide to continue our walk down to the beach itself.

On a warmer day I would have had my swimmers on before you could say ‘Dip in the ocean’ but today is not that day and so after a clamber over the orange stained rocks and a photo of the wallaby on the beach we continue our loop walk (rather than climb up and over the mountain again) to Hazards beach where we stop in between showers for some lunch.

Continue back up and into the hills, through forests and across one or two streams before arriving back at the car park 4 hours and 11 km’s after we started.

The journey back was actually pretty hard going with lots of ups and downs and although we have walked much further than that in the past we were both completely knackered and ready for a cold beer and a lie down. As we are getting back into the van Skippy appears out of the bushes and  bounces over to us expecting something to eat no doubt.

We tell him to shoo and that we haven’t got anything but he is a persistent bugger and our frantic waving of arms only appears to encourage him to come closer. We finally scare him off by starting the engine and giving it a bit of a rev up and return to the campsite for that well deserved beer.

Day 337

A short drive up to the lighthouse this morning and an excellent lookout over the cliffs and out to sea.

To get up to the lighthouse however you have to ascend one of the steepest roads we have ever been on, it is touch and go for a minute if Polly will even make it at all but she does and manages not to burst a blood vessel so we are all happy. The lookout is pretty good and you can just about see wineglass bay from here so we spend a happy few minutes gazing out to sea before jumping back in the van and heading back down the hill to Sleepy bay and a short walk to a deserted beach littered with orange lichen covered rocks and a thick carpet of green kelp.

Back at the campsite the sun comes out and it is actually pretty warm, so warm in fact that I put my swimmers on and decide to have a dip. Despite the warm (ish) temperature the water is freezing and after a brief swim I am back out and straight in for a hot shower to try and regain some of the feeling in my hands and feet.

Day 338

Leave Freycinet National Park and rejoin the Tasman highway heading north and decide to turn inland towards St Marys and through Elephants pass. The road clings to the side of a mountain giving you spectacular views back down into the valley as you climb finally arriving in the small town of St Marys at the top. You then come back down the other side of the mountain via St Marys pass and rejoin the highways a few kilometres later, a worthwhile detour. A brief stop at Diannas beach for some lunch and we continue on to St Helens and the start of the famous ‘bay of fires’ conservation area.

Interestingly not called the bay of fires for the proliferation of the red lichen coloured rocks but because when the first explorers arrived the natives had many fires along the coast here. The only previous time we have been to Tasmania was for the wedding of our good friends Troy and Bek and it was held just outside St Marys so we were on familiarish territory for once. After a visit to the tourist information we head off to a free camp on the actual beach where the wedding ceremony took place at Jenneret beach and set up in amongst the dunes.

The beaches here are beautiful with crystal clear water lapping the fine white sand and those beautiful red stained rocks everywhere just perfect for clambering over. After a brief explore we retire to the camp to enjoy a speciality of the area in a dozen oysters straight out of the shells with a touch of soy sauce and fresh chilli, delicious!

In an attempt to replicate what those early explorers would have seen (and mainly to keep us warm) we light a lovely little fire in the evening and pull our chairs up close to the warming orange glow.

Day 339

A bit breezy this morning and the sun is in and out as we head off on a walk up the beach. Walk for a few kilometres along the crunchy sand, spotting the endangered Hooded plover (they say endangered we seem to have seen loads of them!) and various other huge sea birds along the way.

Reach the next set of rocks and pause for a while to watch the waves crashing against them before turning back and heading for home.

Head out again in the afternoon to stroll along Jenneret beach (with lots more clambering) and watch a beautiful sunset before lighting another warming fire to curl up in front of in the evening.

Day 340

Leave the spectacularly beautiful Bay of Fires and after a brief stop in St Helens for provisions turn left and head inland (there is no other road). First stop of the day is at Tasmania’s highest waterfall, St Columba falls. A short walk through a dense rainforest and you suddenly appear on a viewing platform at the base of the falls.

The water is flowing pretty fast but apparently after heavy rain the falls really flow and so much so that after a particularly heavy storm huge parts of the cliff face were forced off by the water changing the whole look of the cliff.

On the road back form the falls we call in at the Pyengana cheese factory and witness an amazing sight, a robot milking machine! The cows are free to come and go as they please and the whole system is automated from the actual milking to the feeding and even a robot scratching machine!

The cows seem to love the scratcher and keep coming back to rub their heads and backs up against it and it all seems very space age. Head in to taste some of the cheese and those happy cows translate directly into the beautiful cheese and we come away with some pickled onion cheddar (delicious) and a piece of year old cloth wrapped cheddar.

Continue along the Tamsan highway and turn north at Scottdale to Bridport on the north coast and a huge campsite overlooking Anderson bay where we set up for the night.

Day 341

A quick stop in the Exeter information soon after we set off in the morning reveals a few free campsites in the area and one in particular that looks appealing to us. Right in the shadow of the Batman Bridge in the heart of the Tamar valley the site was originally a drovers rest area and has been kept today as a travellers rest area. The good thing about this campsite is its location. On our way we have been driving past plenty of wineries but still being on my P plates I cannot even have a sip and still drive and so we like to set up in a place that allows us to jump on the bikes to conduct some tastings. This is just one of such places and so after parking up in a nice sunny spot we get straight on the bikes and armed with a map of the wineries head off.

Now this region is well known for its cool climate wines so Riesling’s and Pinot’s and we were very much looking forward to seeing how they compared with some of the other wine regions we have visited.

First stop and not a short distance down the road is Tamar ridge, one of the better well known Tasmanian wineries. The Riesling was nice but I must say we were both a bit underwhelmed.

Another reasonable distance and as the name would suggest at the top of a hill was Goaty hill wines. This was much more like it, we enjoyed every single wine they had to offer and particularly the Riesling.

Final stop and again quite a ride away we came to Holm Oak. With quite a large range including ciders we took our time and worked our way through and range and very much enjoyed the Pinot Noir. Outside in the paddock we also met and fed Pinot the pig a few apples who was more than happy to see us and ran up the hill to greet us.

We retraced our steps (or pedals) back through the Tamar valley and towards the Batman Bridge, half expecting to see the bridges namesake along the way (we were disappointed) and arriving back at the van Just as the sun was setting.

Just in time to light a small fire and enjoy a cheese platter accompanied by a great bottle of Pinot Noir. Not a bad end to the day.

Day 342

Just a short drive in the morning and we find ourselves in Launceston city. A quick visit to the information reveals the campsites are a bit out of the city and so we head out to Hadspen, 10 minutes’ drive away and set up camp. Rather than drive back into the city we jump on a bus and let someone else do the driving for a change. Arrive back in the city and have a stroll through the shopping precinct admiring some of the old buildings that give you a hint that this is Australia’s third oldest city (after Sydney and Hobart). Now we always knew the Boags brewery was here and after our less than successful attempt at visiting the cascade brewery we thought it prudent to call ahead this time. We were told in no uncertain terms that we had missed the last tasting of the day and of course being and Sunday tomorrow they weren’t open! Walking along one of the city’s main streets you can’t help but notice the brewery and so I thought we should at least go and have a look even if it were only going to be of the outside of the building.

We walk straight up to it and lo and behold it is open and we haven’t missed the tasting at all!! We opt not to do the actual tour but rather skip straight to the good stuff and just do a tasting session and so we gather in an upstairs room and are guided through all 6 of Boags beers (by a Canadian no less). Some of our readers will be familiar with Boags beers (it is available worldwide) and we thoroughly enjoyed trying some of the less well known varieties, XXX ale and in particular the Wizard Smith English ale.

Tasting complete we head back into the city and manage (after much walking about looking) to find the bus to take us back to the campsite and with a cold night forecast get the blankets out to go on the bed.

Mount Field National Park to Freycinet Bay National Park

Day 330

Pack up and leave beautiful Mount Field National Park and head towards the capital of Tasmania, Hobart.  The drive in is pretty nice and takes you right along the banks of the Derwent River and into the city.

Davey

Do the now traditional lap of the city and call in at the visitors to pick up the usual range of brochures and pamphlets before heading to the ‘Treasure Island’ campsite a few km’s out of the city but right on the water’s edge.

One of our ‘must see’ attractions is Mona (Museum of Old and New Art) and as we check in to the campsite we are happy to see that we are literally a stone’s throw from it. We are less happy when we get a look at some of the other people with whom we are sharing the campsite. Now I’m not going to say ‘inbred’ for fear of offending some of our readers but by the looks of some of this lot I’m guessing they share more than just a bathroom with each other.

We decide to capitalise on our proximity to the museum and walk straight over there for the afternoon.

The museum is entirely the private collection of Tasmanian millionaire David Walsh and is housed in a $100 million building designed by famous Melbourne Architects Nonda Katsalidis so Carmen and I were both looking forward to this. Added to this and also on the same site is a separate micro-brewery and winery so we were both really looking forward to this!

The museum building is built in to the side of the rock face and so (once you have figured out where the entrance is) you enter at the top level and wind your way the lower galleries first before working your way back up again. Upon entry you are each given a modified ipod touch to guide you around and also provide information on the works (there are no little labels on the walls). Whilst we both thought this was a good thing to start with it turned out to be a bit of a gimmick and rather than look at the work and then read the little card next to it you were constantly fiddling with the device, updating it and pressing two or three buttons before you got any useful information out of it. Also when you stopped and looked for a minute everyone seemed to be spending more time looking at the devices than the art works. The building itself is interesting with beautiful exposed sandstone walls everywhere (apparently not an original design feature) and some great unexpected vistas through and over other spaces but the layout was a bit confusing and even with the map (more looking at the device) you weren’t sure where you had been and as the works had no discernible order to them you often found yourself walking the entire length of the building to see a room you had missed.

I think overall we did enjoy ourselves, there were some nice pieces (and some rubbish) but I don’t think it lived up to the hype at all and whilst I would recommend going there don’t expect to be blown away.

Walking around the rest of the site we had a look at some of the other buildings, also designed by Nona Katsalidis including a micro-brewery, a winery and several accommodation pavilions before returning to the winery for some tasting.

Being old hands at this now we worked our way expertly through their range and whilst we weren’t overly impressed we ended up buying a bottle (if only to get our tasting fee back) before returning to the van and locking all the doors to keep our fellow campmates at a safe arm’s length.

Day 331

Up with the larks this morning or rather the noisy ducks that seems to be right outside the van waiting for us to get up.

Morning

Once we had managed to get rid of them we hopped on a bus into the city for a look around. First stop is the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and after yesterday’s experience we were both glad to see rooms with pictures hanging on the walls with little cards next to each telling you about them. We even had a volunteer walk us around, talking to us about the pictures and the artists. The museum upstairs was good as well and had a big section devoted to Antarctic expeditions which we later realised (once we saw the ship in the harbour) would leave from Hobart due to its close proximity.

Next we strolled around the harbour and through Salamanca, stopping to have a look in a gallery at some of our good friend Rays (famous) brothers paintings which were not at all what we were expecting but good all the same.

We then followed a sculpture trail through the lovely waterside area of Battery Point with each of the sculptures being a number which relates in some way to the history of Hobart.

The walk was nice enough and we got to see the finishing line for the Sydney to Hobart yacht race along the way.

We knew the Cascade brewery was closed tomorrow so after we had finished the sculpture walk we thought we would jump on the bus and head up there to do some tastings (for a change) so we strolled up the hill to the bus stop and whilst we were waiting thought we would just call and check they were open this afternoon. The good news was that they were open, the bad was that they were closing in 10 minutes. We cut our losses and got the bus back into the city where instead we called in to the lark distillery to try some of their whiskies (we don’t mind a drop). We tried a few and they were all pretty good but the prices were through the roof and you were looking at over $100 a bottle! So content with tastings alone we got the bus back to the campsite and turned in for the night.

Day 332

Time to leave Hobart and head South on a day’s driving tour of the Huon valley. Straight up and over one of the mountains surrounding Hobart and into some beautiful driving country again, this is Tasmania’s apple and cherry country and the roadside is littered with orchards all full of apples. Fittingly our first stop of the day is at the apple museum filled with various apple harvesting machinery and a great exhibit of 160 (or so) varieties of apples all grown on the area.

The exhibits are real apples as well brought in by the regions growers and we even get to taste a few although the ones for tasting are your standard Golden Delicious and Granny Smiths.

After the excitement of the Apple museum we continue on into the Huon valley and through some of the regions pine forests, the drive is excellent again as we pass through Huonville and continue further South until at Southport we reach the end of the sealed road and have reached the southernmost point in Australia.

Well almost the southernmost point, you can continue down a dirt track a further 30km’s but Polly doesn’t want to go down there and so we are at OUR southernmost point. A celebratory lunch looking out over the ocean and you can almost see Antarctica on the horizon (2000 nautical miles away) and we figure that we are closer to there than we are to Brisbane.

Head back North and our way stop just outside Geevestone at a roadside fruit stall to pick up some apples, not just any old apples either, Geevestone Fannies (cue the crude jokes)! Continue back to Huonville and decide to take a detour through Kettering and Margate before heading back past Hobart and across the Tasman Bridge, Eastwards to a small and not very well kept campsite at Richmond for the night.

Day 333

Head into historic (and pretty) Richmond for a look at Australia’s oldest bridge (1823) and the quaint high street before continuing east and then heading south again down onto the Tasman peninsular.

Pull up at a lookout overlooking Pirates bay (Arrrrr) and stop just down the road to look at the ‘Tessellated pavement’, a natural phenomenon where the rocks have weathered in a rectilinear way to look exactly like paving stones.

Continue to the bottom of the peninsular and come to famous Port Arthur, a penal settlement first established in the 1830’s as a timber getting camp for government projects but more famously used as a giant punishment station for repeat offenders from the Australian territories. Basically if you were a prisoner from England sent to Australia and you continued to offend you were sent here so I should imagine it was pretty rough. In its heyday there were more than 2000 prisoners, soldiers and civil staff here and there are the remains of 30 odd buildings from the time.

Walking around on a warm sunny afternoon it is hard to imagine the hardships the men had to go through but the site is pretty well preserved and you can see the division from the well-manicured government gardens and relative comfort of the commandants house to the austerity of the penitentiary, the separate prison (modelled on Pentonville prison) and across the water the Point Puer boys prison.

We spend the afternoon taking in as much as we can and retire a short drive away to the Nubeena RSL car park to camp up for the night. The car park is OK and you get to use the RSL facilities for $10 so we settle in for a good night’s kip.

Day 334

Awoken at some ungodly hour this morning by road works seemingly in the back of the van but actually just down the road a bit. Pack up and head back to Port Arthur (your tickets are valid for 2 days) to see what we missed yesterday. Not such a nice day today and as we are on our guided introductory tour of the grounds the drizzle turns to rain and the rain gets heavier. Call in at some more of the buildings and have a look at the separate prison (for those that are not paying attention modelled on Pentonville prison in London).

The cells don’t look too bad but it was all about sensory deprivation here and so the inmates lived in complete silence, locked up for 23 hours a day and even during their 1 hour outside they were in separate exercise yards so they couldn’t communicate. If this sounds a bit harsh you’ll be happy to learn that this system is now in use worldwide including Sydney’s Long bay Jail and Guantanamo bay.

By the time our tour is complete it’s raining cats and dogs and so we opt not to drive down a 12km dirt track to Tasman National Park and instead head north, along the highway to an almost free ($2) camp at Mayfield Bay Conservation Area. This is definitely the heaviest rain we have had in almost a year and the going is pretty slow but we make it without any problems and set up quickly in the rain. Of course as darkness descends the rain eases and then stops and we fall asleep to the soothing sounds of the waves lapping the shore.

Day 335

Wake in the morning to a beautiful clear and sunny day and all thoughts of yesterday’s torrential downpour are gone from our minds. Enjoy breakfast and coffee and pack the van for our onward journey, just up the road to Coles bay and Freycinet National Park. Stop for some petrol along the way and have arrived by lunchtime so check in and set up in our National Park beachside campsite before strolling down to the beach for a look.

Pity it’s not warmer as the beach looks lovely and the water is crystal clear and normally I would be straight in for a swim but make do with a walk along the golden sands before returning to the van and planning a walk across over the hills to the famous wineglass bay tomorrow. The afternoon is spent mainly relaxing and drying the van (and contents) out after yesterday’s rain and a visit from a possum or two in the evening rounds out the day.