Saturday, 10th October

Freycinet National Park & Wineglass Bay

On Saturday we set off from Swansea and drove up the East Coast of Tasmania toward St Helens where we would be spending the night. On the way we stopped at the Freycinet National Park and took a short (but very steep) walk to a lookout over Wineglass Bay. This is one of the big tourist attractions of Tasmania but it was surprisingly quiet (an annual triathlon was taking place in the Freycinet Peninsula over the weekend so maybe everyone was watching that instead). The lookout is very impressive as you’re pretty high up and it was a bright clear day so we had great views.

We could have walked for another 90mins or so down to the bay but decided not to as we had quite a long drive ahead and we were hungry. We saw a couple of Kangaroos with joeys in their pouches wandering around the car park (cute and willing to pose for photos, but were they just planted there for the tourists we wonder?).

We also took a walk around the Cape Tourville lighthouse where we saw some more impressive views (and more local wildlife).

Bicheno

We stopped again in Bicheno for lunch and then drove down the Esplanade. Not much beach here but a lot of rocks at sea level that have been eroded by the ocean. Some impressive photos of another blowhole and we sat and watched it for quite a while. There were a couple of people edging closer and closer so we sat with the camera poised waiting for them to get wet!

Binalong Bay

We checked in to the motel in St Helens and had a walk through the town looking for somewhere for dinner but didn’t find anything we fancied so decided to drive into Binalong Bay in the evening (which we’d originally intended to do the following day). There are some beautiful little beaches in Binalong with really white sand and it’s very picturesque as the sun sets.

Still didn’t find anywhere for dinner here though so we went back to St Helens and had Fish & Chips from a place near the harbour and a can or two of local beer.