Home

10%

Freycinet & Around Tassie

Few days in Freycinet NP and a road trip around

By Northern Adventures

Introduction

(Fri Dec 28th - Sun Dec 30th, 2018)

The fame of Wineglass Bay, the most celebrated beach in Tasmania, ensures a growing stream of visitors to Freycinet National Park. It is one of the east coast’s poster destinations, and the sublime national park, which is a wild domain of sugar-white beaches, pinkish granite mountains and utterly transparent water, are the reasons everyone is here.

We kept Freycinet National Park for the last days of our Tasmania road trip, saving its beautiful beaches with some lovely walking to a very relaxed adventure we planned for the very end of our journey.

Aiming to beat the crowds, we planned to stay overnight for two days at the more remote Hazards Beach, where there is a reliable fresh water source and which is luckily free of day-trippers posing for selfies at Wineglass Bay, although it's almost equally appealing (and with calmer sea waters than Wineglass).

Yet again blessed with favourable sunny weather, we slowly wandered along the secluded western coast of the peninsula, enjoying its clear sea waters and sandy beaches for numerous swims and relaxed sunbathing.

Day 1: From Coles Bay to Hazards Beach

It was already quite late in the morning when we luckily found a free parking spot at one of the parking lots at Coles Bay behind the national park entrance - something I knew is a bit tricky due to the overwhelming number of visitors, especially during the Christmas - New Year's break.

Having filled our water bottles to the maximum at the park entrance, we joined the crammed procession of day-trippers hiking up to the saddle between Mt. Mayson and Mt. Amos, where there is a viewing platform installed providing commanding views of the Wineglass Bay's picture-postcard white sand & turquoise waters combo.

Then a quick and less crowded descent to the Wineglass Bay itself followed, where we spent some time in shade having lunch and enjoying a short sea swim despite strong waves.

It took us less than an hour to cross the dry forest on a well-maintained flat footpath, finally emerging on a long sand stretch of Hazards beach on the western side of the small peninsula.

From here, it took us some beach-strolling effort covering a couple of kilometres to reach the secluded campsite located at the southern end of the beach; really a lovely place with a just a few people around, and most importantly, with a good fresh water source from a small creek nearby.

Frank, my cousin, has already been occupying a prominent camping spot with a fine view of the bay with his family tent big enough to also accommodate his two daughters, and me and Lenka pitched our tent nearby in the close proximity of the beach knowing we are going to have numerous swims in the sea.

The sun was shining, it was windless, water was clear and warm... it was just beautiful to be here and let the time go.

Dinner, tea & coffee all followed, and we continued with sunset-watching time with a bottle of Tasmanian red 🍷 that took me some sweating effort to transport to the campsite from the parking lot.

Day 2 & 3: Cooks Beach & back to Coles Bay

Very relaxed program was planned for the next day; a short stroll to Cooks beach located more to the south and then slowly back.

Swimming, sunbathing, chatting with my friends, tea, coffee, dinner, another sunset 🍷 time... we felt lucky to be here at this tranquil place instead of being squeezed with others at Wineglass Bay.

The following morning, time came for farewell, and we left Freycinet the same way we came here, further continuing to Hobart enjoying the coastal scenic drive.

What is going to follow are a few other areas and places we visited during our roadtrip across Tasmania when we travelled from Hobart to Launceston, and then back on the east coast.

Starting with the panorama picture below, we couldn't miss the view of Hobart from the prominent Mt. Wellington that rises directly from Hobart’s western suburbs.

Weather-permitting, the mountain offers beautiful views of the coast, though it's usually quite chilly and windy here given the altitude.

Westerway Raspberry Farm

On the way to Mt. Field National Park, we made a short stop in the small village of Westerway, visiting its large berry farm where all the different kind of berries may be tasted, of course season-depending.

Besides raspberries, blackberries and strawberries, other sorts of this forest fruit may have been tasted - and we tried all of them, both fresh and converted into delicious ice creams produced here.

Mt. Field National Park

Iconic Russell and Horseshoe Falls couldn't be missed on our way from Hobart to Launceston; later in the afternoon, the area was not that busy than during the midday prime time, and we followed up with couple of craft beers served in the friendly National Park Hotel conveniently located nearby.

Josef Chromy vineyards

We were recommended by Frank's parents who were born in Czechoslovakia to visit Josef Chromy's winery near Launceston.

The beautiful vineyards were founded by a Czech emigrant who fled the country in the 50's and whose personal journey from a penniless immigrant to the successful food and wine entrepreneur has been an inspiration for many (not only) in Tasmania.

Launceston & The Cataract Gorge

Launceston is a charming compact city with friendly atmosphere and good vibe which also possesses the beautiful Cataract Gorge in its close vicinity.

We stayed in the city for couple of nights before leaving for the Walls of Jerusalem national park, and we really liked strolling through its picturesque streets, sampling local food and relaxing in its parks.

Saint John Craft Beer Bar is the place to go here for a 🍺 or two here :-).

Bridestowe Lavender Farm

Visiting the Bridestowe Lavender Farm was a fixture on our itinerary ever since we got to know there is such a thing like lavender farm in Tasmania. And, on top of that, we realized that December is more than suitable month for the visit given the lavender season.

We got up early to leave Launceston just in time to arrive at Bridestowe Farm shortly before 9AM which is its opening time - naturally we wanted to beat the crowds and arrive earlier than herds from tourist buses start to spread out across the fields with their selfie sticks and mobiles.

At 9AM, there were just a few cars parked on the parking lot at the farm, and though the light was not that soft like it had to be during sunrise, it was still perfect to stroll through the fields, enjoy the beautiful picture-postcard scenery and smell lavender scent.

All in all, it was a lovely experience, and as a result there is no need to visit Provence now which is something I quite appreciate given the fact I cannot speak almost any single word in French :-).

Tasmanian Devils

Though we didn't really plan to see Tasmanian Devils somewhere in a zoo or in a similar place, we decided to make a short stop at the Trowunna Wildlife Sanctuary, passing by when travelling from the Walls of Jerusalem national park.

Interesting creatures these small animals are for sure, and it was also nice to hear that their infamous facial tumour disease seems to be diminishing these days.

Mt. William National Park & Bay of Fires

Little-known, the isolated Mt. William National Park features long sandy beaches and prolific wildlife of Forester (eastern grey) kangaroos, which once faced extinction in the 1950s and ’60s.

We started our east-coast roadtrip here in the northeast, hoping for unspoiled and uncrowded beaches; it has to be said it took us some time to find an attractive and tranquil campsite. With the popular camping grounds at Deep Creek or Policeman's Point being both full and not really appealing, we were happy to accommodate ourselves in the picturesque Stumpy's Bay which was just perfect and silent even a few days before New Year's Eve.

The main reason to visit Bay of Fires Coastal Reserve are its sugary white beaches which arc before an aquamarine sea together with huge granite boulders that are coloured bright orange by lichens.

Explorer Tobias Furneaux coined the name in 1773 when he passed a coastline illuminated by the cooking fires of Aboriginal tribes.

The reserve stretches north up the coast for over 30km from Binalong Bay and the scenery is splendid virtually everywhere, though to pick up a highlight The Gardens is the place to go with perhaps Sloop Reef or Cosy Corner to follow. Swimming was perfect at the rather unknown Suicide Beach near the Gardens.

Around St. Helens

Further to the south, the picturesque village of St. Helens serves as the area centre, and our highlights here included a simply delicious fish chowder (served in The Bays Kitchen) together with the remotely located Iron House brewery south of Scamander.

Douglas-Apsley National Park

Almost eaten alive by mosquitoes, that's how we felt during the short overnight stay in the woods of Douglas-Apsley National Park where we stayed overnight before venturing into Freycinet National Park.

Besides this annoyance, the famous waterhole was a perfect place for a swim during the hot summer day, and although we arrived at the campsite quite late in the afternoon and the waterhole was already in shade, its clear light-green waters were tempting enough we simply couldn't resist.

Hobart

Last but not least, then there is Hobart, Tasmania's capital.

We spent couple of days in this lively city which is still compact in size though offering numerous possibilities of what to do and where to eat out.

Recent IPA produce of Hobart's Cascade Brewery is quite good in my opinion; hailing from Czechia, I rarely go for lagers outside my home country patriotically assuming Czech traditional style simply cannot be beaten outside the very heart of Europe, however warm fermentation styles are a different story and having a few IPAs in Cascade's restaurant garden during a sunny day afternoon was a delight.

Hobart's annual Christmas festival in the downtown's harbour area was packed even on Sunday evening so that we quickly moved to nearby Preachers Bar to stick to local craft 🍺 produce, letting the time lazily go.

There is naturally much more, from Asian establishments to coffee houses, fish eateries or steak restaurants. One also shouldn't forget the regular Saturday Salamanca Market offering fresh local produce in the picturesque setting near the harbour.

Afterword

Writing this afterword in Aug 2021, it has to be said we got some luck visiting Tasmania before the world was shut down due to Covid just a year later - Australia is known for its strict Covid-related policies.

For the next time (in Australia) in the Covid-free world, my cousin Frank suggested to put the following among the hiking adventures:

Larapinta trail - Near Alice Springs (Northern Territory

Jatbula trail - Near Katherine (Northern Territory)

Thorsburne trail - Near Cardwell (Queensland)

Let's see :-).

Footnotes

All images are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, manipulated or used in any way without permission of the photographer (tomas.zrna@gmail.com).

Button Label

FootNotes

All images are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, manipulated or used in any way without permission of the photographer (tomas.zrna@gmail.com).

Hiking Madeira

Freycinet & Around Tassie

Few days in Freycinet NP and a road trip around

FootNotes

The island of eternal spring on foot

Across serene autumn landscapes of the Finnish north

Across Canary Islands' most diverse landscapes

Across mountainous border areas of Albania , Kosovo and Montenegro

Day-trips on the Pearl of the Mediterranean

South-to-north crossing of Lofoten's 🇳🇴 southernmost island