The Beauty of the East Coast

We arrived on the east coast of Tasmania after our "rainy day off" in Branxholm, and the weather was glorious. Our first stop was the Bay of Fires, so named for the many aboriginal fires spotted by a French explorer in 1773, and not for the orange-colored lichen that covers many of the rocks there.

Pretty much the whole area was completely spectacular. It was hard to drive along the coast because I wanted to stop and look at every viewpoint.

We did stop on one beach and Shana got her feet wet (you can't tell from the photo, but the sand on the beach is white, which makes everything even more beautiful).

We spent the next three nights in Swansea, in a little beach cottage with a view of the ocean. We used Swansea as a base to do two major things: visit Bicheno, a beautiful town that was a big whaling center in the 19th century, and hike in Freycinet National Park. Although, of course, we also did a bit of wine tasting.

Our visit to Bicheno was lovely. We hiked up to a couple of viewpoints that gave us an overview of the town and its surroundings. This one is known as Whaler's Lookout because it was used to spot whales near the coast (mostly by Aboriginal women who were known to have keen eyesight).

After hiking back down, we followed the Foreshore Walking Path around the town along the coast. Our first stop on the path was the blowhole, which did not disappoint.

It was fun watching kids (and adults) try to get close to the spray of water but without getting wet or, in the case of one kid we watched, having a great time getting soaked.

The rest of our walk was just as beautiful, if a bit less explosive, and included a delicious lunch at The Lobster Shack, a local institution.

The next day, we got out early to drive to Freycinet National Park for an 11 km hike. We wanted to start early to avoid the worst of the heat. And, it turned out, starting early also allowed us to avoid the massive crowds that arrive later to do the first part of the trail we did.

The trail starts with a hike up to an overlook of Wineglass Bay, a beautiful bay that can only be approached on foot or by boat. First, however, on the way up you get a view of Coles Bay, on the other side of the penninsula.

Then we hiked down about 1000 steps to Wineglass Bay, which has another beautiful white-sand beach.

The hike continued accross a narrow isthmus to a beach on Coles Bay and along the water through often rocky terraine until we returned to our starting point.

It was a stunning hike. We were glad we started early and finished before 1 pm because it was really getting hot. We celebrated by going to a nearby oyster farm for lunch, where I enjoyed some of the crop, and we shared a lovely cooked fish and even lovelier bottle of Riesling from our favorite Tasmanian winery (Glaetzer-Dixon, in case you're wondering).

The next day, we drove south from Swansea to a little town from which we would do our tour of Maria Island (more about that in the next post). Once again, and we hope this is not getting too boring, the drive was along a beautiful coastline providing several scenic stops.

In particular, the view from Mayfield Estate Winery, where we did a tasting, was unsurpassed. Definitely the best wine-tasting view we have ever had.

More from Tasmania soon,

Jeff and Shana