The East Coast

This is Wineglass Bay in Freycinet National Park. Another great hiking spot on the East Coast.

Been thoroughly enjoying Bicheno and the East Coast. Easter Sunday dawned bright & beautiful so we jumped in the car for a scenic drive up the coast, and to see if we could find any good walks along the way. Here are some photos:


This was our lunch spot the first day while doing the Wineglass Bay Circuit. It's located on the right-hand side of the first photo. Wineglass Bay was gorgeous as usual but it was a little crowded so we opted to cross over the isthmus to the beach on the other side which we had all to ourselves.

We came back to Tasmania on this trip primarily because of the hikes in Cradle Mountain & Lake St. Claire, but have been pleasantly surprised at how beautiful the coastline is here. Port Arthur was rugged and scenic, and the beaches up and down the coast from us here in Bicheno are really world class - as pretty as anything on Kauai - and virtually deserted. The photos below are shots of the beach just behind our little bungalow, and as you can see the white sand just seems to go on forever. Actually, for all practical purposes it does. You can walk about 200 miles up the coast from the spot you see in the picture and pretty much have Pensacola-quality white sand the whole way...and if you see another human being it means you're in a town.



This is a flowering Warratah - a type of Banksia that was growing in the driveway of our little cabin.


A stop for a photo op on one of the hikes.


And another. This is Apsley waterhole in Douglas-Apsley National Park just up the road from us

And below are a couple of photos of the Tasmanian countryside from our wanderings today.







Some general thoughts about the trip so far...just to answer a few questions:

There's always a bit of sticker-shock associated with a trip to Australia. Prices here always appear to be quite high by US standards. Usually, however, that's offset by a favorable exchange rate between the Aussie & US dollars. On our previous trips here the Aussie dollar has been worth about $0.60 US, so the price of things becomes pretty reasonable once you sort it all out. Not so this time however. The US dollar is pretty weak at the moment and the Aussie dollar is trading closer to $0.92 US. So...this trip is about 40% more expensive than I thought it was going to be. It's most noticeable on gas (or petrol as they call it here) which is selling for about AU$1.40 per liter, or close to US$5.50 per gallon once you do the conversions. Thank goodness our rental car gets about 35 MPG (as near as I can figure) but it's still painful to fill up every few days.

We're saving LOTS of money by booking self-catering places and eating in rather than dining out all the time. Plus it's just more fun to live like the locals.

Driving is really no big deal. I'm a lot more comfortable driving on the left after the experience of doing it on previous visits to both Australia and New Zealand, although coming up to a roundabout can still cause my heart rate to spike as I try to remember, once again, just who exactly has the right of way and where to look for approaching traffic. The sparseness of traffic on the roads always helps. Tasmania is a lot like like New Zealand in that you typically can be driving along for 15-20 minutes without seeing another car. When you do, however, it does recalibrate your startle reflex momentarily and (in my case anyway) there's usually a second or two of regaining consciousness and wondering briefly what the devil I'm doing on the wrong side of the road. Fifty years of muscle memory from driving in the US doesn't exactly hold you in good stead here...your first (natural) reaction is always going to be wrong, so you really have keep your wits about you on the road.

The roads are all two lanes - and narrow lanes at that. Speed limit on the highway is 100 Kph (or 62 MPH). Sounds pretty slow by LA freeway standards but believe me it isn't on these narrow roads. There's a big problem all over Australia with "Drink-Driving", especially at night when the critters come out. It's not at all unusual to see lots of fresh road kill in the mornings. Some of the wallabies and wombats can get pretty big too - nearly 100 lbs in some cases - which means they can really make a mess of any car that hits them going 60 mph. The trucks and buses all have "Roo bars" mounted on the front grill that will sweep them away without too much bother, but the little rental cars are virtually defenseless. Needless to say we don't drive at night.

There's something essentially endearing about the Australian people that always makes a visit here such a treat. From the lilt of the accents to the colorful turns of phrase we both enjoy just listening to them talk. There's also an innocent optimism present here - reminds us of the US from about 50 years ago. That, plus the natural and ingrained sense of hospitality that I first saw on my visits here when I was flying off the Enterprise & Independence. The people are, without exception, the nicest on earth.

The country began as an open-air penal colony and I swear you can still see some traces of that ancestry on the faces of a lot of the Australian men, who tend to be a rugged-looking lot and who appear to be ready to rumble on a moments notice. The women, however, are just the opposite - talk about sugar & spice. They're the most naturally "feminine" women of any country I've visited. No airs, no attitudes, just natural & down-to-earth.

The country is all vaguely familiar for anyone who grew up in Southern California. The stands of eucalyptus forests everywhere make any trip seem like an extended drive thru Balboa Park in San Diego, but with a bit of an edge to it. It's still a place where it always feels like you're about two wrong turns and a busted fan belt away from a survival situation.

Have talked before about the wildlife here, which always make a hike thru the forest eventful as a wallaby, wombat, kangaroo or pademelon goes boinging down the trail ahead of you. There is some weird stuff here, though- a function of about 60 million years of evolution on a continent separated from any other land mass. Someone once joked that some of the animals in Australia make you wonder if maybe there was an open bar in heaven before the last day of creation.

We're here for 3 more nights before we head to Launceston. We fly to Melbourne on the 10th, pick up another rental car, and then will be heading to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road.