After departing the ferry, I drove up the coast to Coles Bay and Freycinet National Park. I arrived mid-evening and mostly just got myself settled in the hostel. The next day, I woke up early to do the hike to Wineglass Bay. I'd also tried to get on a kayaking tour of the coast, but unfortunately they were all booked up (more on that later).
I drove into the national park, parked my car and headed off for the crystal clear waters of Wineglass Bay. This may be one of the hardest beaches that I've ever had to go to. It involved a 1.5 hour hike over a 'mountain' to get to it. It was very beautiful, and the wave action was amazing. There was even a friendly wallaby and her joey wanting to share some lunch with the hikers. I met two lovely American ladies and the invited me to do the Isthmus/Hazard's Beach hike... a three hour journey around the peninsula. It was a fantastic hike that showed off the forests of the Freycinet Peninsula and the white sand beaches. I have to say that I was pretty knackered at the end of the 3 hours. I gave my new friends a lift back to the lodge and headed out to Cape Toursville to see the lighthouse. The lighthouse was amazing, but the cool thing was I again got to see 2 whales. 7 whales in 2 days. Fantastic! They were even playing down in the bay and I got some very long distance photos of them breaching. Here's hoping that zoom will let them show up half decent. After watching and taking 100 photos hoping to just get one good one, I went back to the hostel.
While hiking with the ladies, they informed me that they were doing the twilight tour with their group that evening and they knew of a couple ladies who had decided to drop out. I casually made my way to the beach for their meeting time, and it just so happened that there was room. I got to go on the kayak tour. Yay for making new friends. It was fantastic. We again got to see some seabirds, including a sea eagle, and there was hopes that we would see some whales again in the bay, but no such luck. When the kayak tour was over, I found out that I didn't even have to pay for the experience. I've now started to talking to various random strangers just in the hopes of getting a good deal on something.
After spending one more night in Coles Bay, I made my way up the coast to the Bay of Fires this morning. It was a very grey, overcast day so the scenery was a little lacking, but the wave action was fantastic. I spent the morning walking the beaches and sand dunes of the Bay of Fires and then drove inland towards the city of Launceston. Fortunately, I arrived with enough time to go to the Cataract Gorge. This is an amazing place that the people of Launceston tried to 'tame' in the late 1800s, early 1900s. It is literally in the middle of the city. There are high cliffs, the biggest river I've seen in Australia, and a large manicured area at the end of it with a walking suspension bridge and a chairlift. It was fantastic to walk around for a couple of hours. I spent the next hour getting acquainted with Launceston. It seems like a very nice, quiet city. Though it is Show Day today so everything was closed downtown.
I'll spend the next couple days zipling, visiting Boag's Brewery and maybe even see some penguins. Then it's off to Castle Mountain and the West Coast. Can't believe my first week is almost over here and that I have a while week yet to explore and discover.
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