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Published: February 13th 2013
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From Swansea we drove to Coles Bay, I bought some delicious oysters, and then, rather than go down the Freycinet Peninsular, we decided we'd drive north.
We passed sheep, olive and walnut groves and vineyards and then bushland for quite awhile. We've seen so much roadkill this trip - small wallabies, pademelons and possums. We haven't seen a lot of live wildlife except for a wallaby who hopped in front of the car. There are a lot of birds, however, and around this area, a lot of black swans .. so that's where they went when they left our area at home!
The hills and trees remined us of the south coast of NSW. We came to Bichino where the water was a beautiful blue, the rocks smooth and sandy/orange. It was a pretty place. We had lunch there and then drove around the area. There were small tents erected in the caravan park and bike riders everywhere - obviously a bike tour of some sort. In fact, once we’d left town, bike riders were on the highway non-stop. We were glad they were going into Bichino and not going the same way as us, as we passed them
continuously for about 25 kilometres.
Finally we came to St. Helens. We vaguely remembered it from ten years ago, a big wharf and several shops in the main street. We booked into the caravan park for two nights. Today was wash day. We started early and had two loads on the line by just after 9am. Now we could go out and do some more touring!
We decided we’d drive about 20 kilometres north of St. Helens to the Bay of Fires. First stop was Binalong Bay. We parked the motor home and walked down to the beach. It was lovely, rounded rocks, glaringly white sand and turquoise water. So nice to be barefoot on the sand, though the water was coolish for paddling.
On then to the Bay of Fires where every glimpse of the beach was gaspingly beautiful, white sand which went on and on, still turquoise water, interspersed with the round boulders, with their orange lichen colouring them in part. The Bay was named in 1773 by a Captain Tobias Furneau in response to the many aboriginal fires he saw burning along the shore
We spent a lot of time driving around there
and walking on the beach, then we headed back to St. Helens. We’d decided we’d have our Valentine’s lunch a day early to avoid the restaurant crowds. We went to The Captain’s Table at the wharf and had a window seat right at the waterfront. We had an entree of sourbread and dukkah and then I had a delicious seafood platter with the freshest and best fish, prawns and squid I’ve had in a long time, served with wasabi aioli and a salad – very delicious. There is always a wind comes up each afternoon so it was very pleasant sitting at our table in the sunshine and out of the wind.
We left the restaurant and then drove to the other side of St. Helen’s Bay, out to the peninsular to Akaroa. More of the same – white sandy beaches, large smooth rocks - beautiful beach overload, great day!
We went back to the caravan park to bring in the dry washing and have a lazy afternoon. Tomorrow we leave St. Helens - it’s been a nice stay.
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