Wineglass Bay

We went on this tour compliments of Geno from Wineglass Bay Day tours.

Freycinet National Park, which I have been educated is pronounced ‘fray sin ay’ and not ‘Fry can net’, is about 2 hours drive from Hobart so there are a couple of stops along the way to break up the journey. Along the way Phil, our guide, played a DVD about the history of Tasmania, it nature and significant events, but we needed to pay attention as there was going to be a quiz.

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Our stop is at Orford, just to allow us to stretch our legs as it breaks the journey almost in half. The beach here is beautiful and there is a view over to Maria Island. The next stop is to a wildlife carer who is rehabilitating Wallabies and Kangaroos and we got to feed them breakfast, and they we hungry! If the wallabies are lucky none of them will be living in the rescue home and the tour will by-pass that stop.

Today there were lots of hungry but shy wallabies not sure if they should come over. But soon enough hungry beat shy and they all came over for breakfast. As they get closer to being released back into the wild their human contact will reduce and you won’t get to feed them. They have everything a wallaby needs to get ready for life back in the great outdoors, food, shelter and a trampoline to practice their hopping on. OK maybe they use if for shade but it is a good story.A little further along we stopped at Spiky Bridge. The bridge was built by convict labour to allow easier access to this area. There are lots of theories why the stones were placed upright on the edges of the bridge, regardless of the reason they make the bridge quite memorable.

For morning tea (own expense) we stopped at the Bark Mill at Swansea. They serve a wide range of café and bakery food, and it is a chance to pick up lunch for the day if you desire. I didn’t need to buy a separate lunch as I spread most of my chocolate muffin on my pants for later. It was nice off the plate with a hot chocolate but I am not so sure it will be as nice when I am scooping the chocolate out of my pockets.

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Our next stop on this amazing coastline is at Friendly Beach named because of the friendly meeting between the early Europeans and the traditional owners. The story includes a bit of nudity, with the European explorers stripping off to show they were all the same, so I just hope the meeting didn’t occur on a windy autumn day!

You have two options for lunch, for those into seafood we stopped at Freycinet Marine Park where there was a range of Oysters, muscles and of course scallops. This is another place competing for Tasmania’s best scallop pie but if like me you are not keen on seafood, or chocolate muffin off you pants then you can head into the bakery or pub at Coles Bay. I had a toastie and was going to eat it on the beach overlooking Coles Bay, but with the strong winds blowing and it being a little cool (ok cold for me) the warmth of the café won.

With everyone rounded up we headed to the Wineglass Bay lookout walk.  The walk is relatively easy although the path is uneven at times and there are lots of steps particularly near the top. But if you can, definitely do the walk to the lookout, you get a stunning view over Wineglass Bay.

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Now it is choice time, walk down the 900+ steps to Wineglass Bay or take the two easier walks. We decided to walk down to the bay while the rest of the group went the other way. The path was well defined and easy going down but by the looks of the people returning the 900+ steps up might be harder than the 900+ steps down. It is interesting to see the change in the vegetation the closer you get to the beach and also the growing glimpses of the azure water in the bay. And then almost without fanfare the path opens out onto the beach and the view is stunning.

The walk comes out at one end of Wineglass Bay and we almost had the complete beach to ourselves. Well that was excluding the pair who went for a swim a few hundred metres along the beach. The rumour was they were skinny dipping and I thought they were brave enough just going for a swim. The rocks have a red lichen growing on them and matched with the pure white sand and blue waters makes for some awesome photographs. A word of caution, we had about 30 minutes on the beach and that flew by so quickly we might have left a little later than expected. This meant we couldn’t take it easy on the walk back if we wanted to meet up with the rest of the tour group as planned.

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We timed it perfectly and arrived back in the carpark just as Phil rung us and arranged to take us back to Honeymoon Bay to meet everyone else. We didn’t get long at Honeymoon Bay but it meant we only missed out on one walk, the walk to cape Tourville and the lighthouse, and we got to dip our toes in the waters of Wineglass Bay.

Last stop for the day was at Coles Bay before heading back to Hobart, well not before the quiz which I need to say I got one question right! OK that wasn’t too big out of seven but I still won a chocolate so who cares.

The sun was setting as we headed back to Hobart but after a couple of walks and being warm and snug in the bus there might have been a chance I had a little snooze.

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