Despite being back in the dorm we had had a pretty good night sleep. Although Charlotte had developed a bit of a cough and cold over the past few days which did cause a small issue amongst our American roommates. They wouldn't have a problem again though as they were checking out and moving on. It was Easter Sunday today and we were in the kitchen area rustling up our toast, the male owner went round giving small Cadbury's eggs to the females who were staying in the hostel. Charlotte was very kind and shared hers with me though. Our plan for the day was to drive round to the Freycinet peninsular and visit the Freycinet National Park. It was about a 45 minute drive round from where we were staying so we set off early in a hope to beat atleast some of the crowds. We made fairly good time and stopped off at the visitor information centre for a few minutes to have a look around. It was busy there so we were dreading what the main car park would be like. It was a further 5 minutes drive along the road and we weren't surprised to see it overflowing with Easter tourists. We followed the road around until we met a man directing people to parking spots. He told us to go up by "the witches hat" but it took us a short while to realise he meant the traffic cone that had been positioned next to a fence. We squeezed in and got a few things together. Our last few walks in national park had been almost uninterrupted by anyone else, so the crowds here was a slight shock to the system. Everybody was only there to see one thing too. Wineglass Bay. It's a secluded beach that takes 30 minutes of uphill rocky climbing to see and then a further hour of downhill rocky climbing to stand on. After our initial energy for longs walks, it was just starting to wain, aided by Charlotte feeling slightly worse for wear. We decided we'd just go to the lookout point and then carry on to see what else was in the park. We joined the procession up the steep track, overtaking the hundreds of Asian tourists who stopped every 10 feet to take a photo of the slightly differently angled landscape. We tend to do things in a bit of a rush, so it only took us about 20 minutes to reach the lookout point. We've got to say, it was slightly disappointing. It seemed to be something that tours, info centres and websites tell you to visit and tell you to love. We'd had a conversation with the lovely lady at the Penguin information centre when we had first arrived in Tasmania, about one of her "friends" completely disinterested in trees as they are all the same. Obviously, that's completely wrong, every tree is unique, just like humans but this secluded beach, that the whole of Tasmania was coming to see on Easter Sunday was incredibly disappointing. Bondi beach in Sydney was busy but it was busy with people using it as a beach, whereas this one was just a landmark for everyone to see. I will accept that late March in Tasmania might not be the peak time to go sea swimming, but still, we left a little bit disappointed. We wandered back down the pathway back to the car and moved on. On the way, we are pretty sure we passed some Asians still on their way up that we had overtaken during our ascent. Our next stop was down a windy unsealed road to a place called Cape Tourville. There was a short walk here along the cliff tops that was in our book, so we crossed that off. Along the way we walked up some steps to an abandoned lighthouse, which you couldn't enter because of asbestos. Instead, we sat on a rock looking out across the sea and ate some lunch. As a special treat for easter, we had picked up a Cadburys chocolate rabbit each, so we sat in the pleasant sunshine and ate that. While we were eating we were pretty sure we heard the distinctive bark of a seal out near some rocks but we couldn't see anything. When we finished, we carried on walking and got to a viewing platform which looked across the sea towards some rocks known as The Nuggets. This is where we reckon the seal bark had come from but we couldn't see any. There was a free viewing device on the platform and a couple were using it. We could hear them saying that they could see seals on the rocks but with the naked eye we couldn't. They even said to us as they were leaving there was some Fur Seals on the rocks but when we used the viewing device, we just couldn't find them. Eventually, it got a bit crowded and we moved on, finishing the walk and heading off once again in the car. The small town of Coles Bay was a short drive away and we stopped there to use the facilities and have a quick look around. There wasn't much to see. Only hundreds of boat owners taking up the road, driving in the wrong direction and then looking at us as if we were wrong. We were pretty much ready to start heading back to Swansea but made one more stop along the way. About 30km north of Coles Bay was a turn off to a place called Friendly Beaches. This was also a walk in our book, so we thought we'd get this short one scrubbed off too. We hadn't considered that the unsealed road to take us there would be quite so bad. It looked like a tractor had driven over it while it was wet and then it had baked solid in the sun. This made the journey very bumpy and more than once we heard loud bangs from the bottom of the car. When we got out to have a look, everything seemed to be in order though. Eventually, we got there and the small amount of cars parked up was reassuring that it would be considerably quieter than Wineglass Bay had been. Apart from a few surfers and a couple of families there was nobody to be seen. The waves and rough conditions were much more our thing too. We scrambled over rocks and walked along the sand for a while and then turned round to head back to Swansea.
When we got back to town, we had one final walk to do. It took in a headland on Swansea seafront and then ended up walking past a golf course and cemetary. It wasn't the most scenic one we had done while in Tasmania but we could still tick it off. After our walk we popped to the supermarket to pick up a few items to tide us over for a few days and even managed to get a Swansea pin badge next door in the gift shop. We headed home for a relaxing Sunday evening. With no internet, Charlotte found scrabble in the lounge area and we played a game. I eventually prevailed after what was a fairly long game.The hostel had been fairly quiet the night before. Occupied by mainly couples. Tonight, it was full of young backpackers and the kitchen was rammed. Rather than cook, we decided to have cheese and crackers for dinner. While we were sitting at our table, we were being gawped at by a group sitting on the sofa. One eventually came over and asked if we could move as they all wanted to sit together. We'd been sitting there for a few hours and refused. We'd have been fine if they'd asked if they could sit with us but we didn't fancy moving. There were other tables they could have asked but they only bothered asking us. The time got on and after catching up with a blog we headed for bed. We braved the fly infested showers for one final time before hitting the hay.
Monday
It was time to move on once again, carrying on up the east coast. We got breakfast sorted and then gathered up the limited items we had taken into the dorm room. Despite seeming to tidy the car every day, it would always ended up just as messy when everything got put back in. The drive was a pretty straight forward one up to the town of St.Helens. We made it by 11 o'clock but couldn't check in until 2 so we had some spare time to kill. After popping to the supermarket we found some reduced savoury rolls to have for lunch and then decided to carry on through to the countryside, as there were a few walks available to the north. The first one we never got to. It was down an unsealed road that didn't exactly sell itself to us with multiple warning signs. We weren't convinced our small 2 wheel drive Hyundai would make the return journey. Instead, we made it to what would have been the second walk. The car park was fairly busy but there were more wasps than people around. The track down to St.Columba falls was steep but fairly easy. On the way down I managed to head butt a rather large tree, it was just luck that the branch was covered in moss which softened the blow. The falls were a nice sight, though the light made it quite awkward to get a good photo. After a 5 minute stop at the bottom we turned round and headed back up the hill. This part was easier than we had expected it to be and we'd completed the walk in about 20 minutes. We headed off in the direction of the next intended walk but again, the book said the road to it was a little worse for wear so we hummed and harred over whether or not to do it. We decided not to and headed off back in the direction of St.Helens. Along the way though we passed a sign pointing to the Blue Tier, which was where the walk was. The book said this was the suggested access route as the road we had seen earlier was in disrepair. On a whim we went for it and at first the road was fine and sealed. A few miles along it changed to unsealed but was still in good condition. After a few more miles in when it became a bit hairy. There were many potholes scattered across the road, there were large grooves created by the tyres of 4x4s and the road became very narrow, meaning if a car came in the opposite direction, it would mean a long reverse or parking up in the thick foliage next to the road. Fortunately, nothing came towards us while we were heading up but a couple of utes did catch up with us. It just happened to be at the time I was out of the car inspecting the road ahead. Charlotte managed to reverse up and leave them enough room to pass. One of them did stop and ask if we were okay. We said we were but we were a bit wary about the road. He said it was passable with a car and there were cars at the top. I got back in and we crept up the hill very slowly. We made it in one piece and met the people who had passed us at the top. They did say it's a bit of a daunting road, which was slightly reassuring. It probably didn't help our confidence that we were in a rental car. It's fair to say all that stress wasn't really worth the very short 20 minute walk but then we did get lost and ended up walking along a creek bed for about half an hour before realising. We had wished we'd found the creek walk sooner, as we would have liked to do that one but it wasn't in our book and time was getting on. We found our way back to the car and headed off back down the bumpy road. It didn't seem as bad as it did on the way up but we knew what to expect second time round. We made it back to St.Helens, hunted down the campsite we were staying in and checked in to our rather plush cabin we had booked for the next 2 nights. The private bathroom and kitchen were luxury. We spent the evening in getting some much needed washing done and relaxing.
James and Charlotte
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