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Published: January 3rd 2009
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We headed from St Helens down towards
Freycinet National Park where we were hoping to stay even though we knew it would be difficult to get accommodation. Accommodation in the park near Coles Bay is allocated by a ballot system drawn back in August, so we knew the only possibilities were a caravan park in Coles Bay, which were few and far between, or camping at Friendly Beaches, which was free (it only had long drops) but very limited in the number of sites. But before we got that far, we stopped at the Spiky Bridge near Swansea, and then at
Douglas-Apsley National Park . We were keen to stop here because we had also stopped here during our previous Tasmania holiday in November 2003 and had a photo of Annelies going for a swim in the Apsley River Waterhole. Both Annelies and Thomas went for a swim this time, although only Thomas went fully submerged (it was very cold).
Afterwards, we drove through Bicheno, stopping at the Blowhole picnic area for lunch. There seemed to be a bit of a swell running, so the blowhole was spurting quite high, at least compared to other blowholes we have come across previously and since.
We then drove into the Friendly Beaches camping area, which, as expected, was quite full, mainly with just tents or backpacker vans, although there were a couple of caravans that had managed to find a spot big enough for them. We spotted a bay with a car parking area which we thought we could squeeze the camper trailer into, so quickly backed it in before someone else took it. It wasn't until we were ready to unhook that we noticed a small tent tucked away in a corner of the tent area behind the car parking area fence. However, we figured it was a big enough area for us anyway and the young couple who eventually came back into the site did not act like we had taken over 'their' site. In fact, another family from Melbourne who were up from Hobart for a couple of days, rocked up later on and managed to squeeze into the area as well with their 2 small tents. So it was quite cosy, but their 2 youngest children, Bradley and Stuart, were of a similar age to Annelies and Thomas, and got on like a house on fire. The young couple, who had
found the site initially, never knew what hit them with their potentially romantic camping weekend interrupted by two families with boisterous children!
The next day (Sunday), we did the 11km Wineglass Bay - Hazards Beach circuit walk. During our previous trip to Tassie, Annelies (aged nearly 5) and Thomas (3 and a half) had done the shorter 6km return walk to Wineglass Bay without any assistance from us (apart from encouragement, holding hands and the promise of Kit-Kats at the top!), but this time we walked further and they both dipped themselves into the water for a swim, although it was very cold (again!).
We also drove out to Cape Tourville Lighthouse, which was very scenic with spectacular coastal cliffs.
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