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| Road trip, East Tasmania |
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I've had worse views at lunchtime! Arriving on the east coast late in the evening, I parked near the Bay of Fires for the night.
The spectacular red color is a form of algae, the name "Bay of Fires" comes from the aboriginal fires that greeted the white discoverers that came this way a few hundred years ago. The next morning I strolled around the extremely laid back town of St. Helens, picked up a prescription at the medical clinic there (and yes, the doctors here also type using two fingers only) and enjoyed the change of landscape - and especially climate - I was almost sweating in my sleeping bag that night! The coastal scenery was beautiful, I just cannot get enough of beaches; listening to the waves, feeling the soft warm sand and collecting shells of endless variations.
You're my beach now! A little further south, Freycinet National Park is one of the best-known in Tassie. I had the beaches almost to myself and enjoyed a 1.5 hour walk up to a lookout over Wineglass Bay. After that I drove south to the town of Swansea for a beautiful sunset and a peaceful parking spot by the harbour.
The famous Wineglass Bay
I'm getting quite good at lizard spotting now! I decided on a whim (again) to spend the last day of my tour on Maria Island (after seeing some beautiful photos in a Couchsurfing profile), a national park (and former penal colony) only a very expensive ferry ride away, but what better way to spend the birthday money from a dear friend (thank you Marie!!), I even treated myself to some hot food (burger and chips, but hey, it was all they had at that hour), a welcome variation after a day of honey sandwiches. The ferry crew was helpful and friendly and gave me some advice on where to go and what to see on the island.
I started with the Painted Cliffs walk, just look at these spectacular formations and colors along the coastline!
This guy was grinning at me on the beach! Maybe a bird picked him out ot the water and realised the spikes weren't worth it ... I also explored the site of the penal colony with museum, there were actually people living here as famers up to the 1950s or so, imagine being on a remote island only some 20 km long all year!
There was another short walk not to be missed down to some fossil cliffs near the northern tip of the island. The fossils were everywhere, amazing to see this millions of years-old seabed now turned into stone. The wildlife on the island is very rich and diverse, and the island even serves as a reserve for endangered species, I got to spot a rare seabird and finally the cuddly wombat! I also saw several kangaroos/wallabies/pademelons (who can tell the difference anyway??), but unfortunately no whales (a mother and calf had been spotted earlier that week, but I did't get to see any).
That concluded my lovely road trip, it's been an amazing week and some easy 1500 km! I can easily recommend this kind of Tassie trip to anyone, the national parks are so remote, but still accessible, every day holds something new and a different landscape and climate, the pace of everyday life is so different in the small towns and you'll meet wonderful, helpful people everywhere. The sad bit is of course all the roadkill. I've seen flat wombats, possums, kangaroos, wallabies, pademelons, cats, quolls, possible tassie devils, lizards ... Recommendations:
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