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Published: July 30th 2014
After hearing about the mini tornado that wrought havoc on the north-west coast yesterday we were amazed to wake up this morning in Coles Bay to absolutely perfect weather. We have been so incredibly lucky with the weather on this trip as we have only had two slightly dodgy days and we were travelling on both of those days and managed to find activities en route that didn't involve being out in the weather too much. Thanks to those who enquired whether the wild Tassie weather was affecting us!
I thought that Bernie had planned for us to hike the Freycinet Peninsula Track today which is a gruelling hike that takes in Mount Graham and Mount Freycinet. Imagine my relief when Bernie told me that we only going to hike the moderately difficult 11km Wineglass Bay and Hazards Beach Circuit! Even though the weather was superb we packed our wet weather gear and some water and chocolate and purchased some salad rolls for lunch before driving out to the parking area at the start of the trail.
We set out on the Wineglass Bay Track at about 9.30am heading first for the Wineglass Bay Lookout that afforded us a
fabulous view down over the spectacular turquoise water and brilliant white sand for which Wineglass Bay is renowned. Awesome, aweSOME, AWESOME view! We feared that we would not get to see this view in such fantastic weather, but the east coast has turned on the blue sky and sunshine for us. We are two very, very happy Tassie Tourists!
From the lookout we set off down the fairly steep track to Wineglass Beach. As we arrived the couple who had arrived at the beach before us headed off so we had the beach to ourselves for about 20-30 minutes while we had a snack and took photos of the deserted and pristine beach to our heart's content. Just as we were preparing to head off, another couple with a toddler strapped into a backpack carrier arrived. How good is that? There are so few people about that everyone gets to have the beach to themselves for a while before they return to the car park or continue on with the circuit walk. I was seriously impressed about the toddler being carried up to Wineglass Lookout and then down to Wineglass Beach - it's a difficult enough trail without a
squirming toddler on your back!!
Next we enjoyed an easy stroll along the Isthmus Track that separates The Hazards from Mount Graham and Mount Freycinet. It was a lovely, easy walk on an almost level track past the Hazards Lagoon towards Hazards Beach. When we reached Hazards Beach the sky was still blue and the sun was still shining, but the wind was absolutely howling along the beach. We had to head north-west along the Hazards Beach Track towards Fleurieu Point ... straight into the wind. I won't be needing any microdermabrasion after my free Freycinet silica facial. I reckon the sandblasting that I received has scoured at least ten years of wrinkles from my face!!
When we reached Fleurieu Point we hunkered down in the lee of a rocky outcrop and ate our salad rolls and chocolate before heading into the tea-tree and casuarina for a more sheltered walk along a fairly easy path interspersed with some occasional uphill and downhill sections. As we walked along this section we could hear the surf booming against the cliffs below us. Eventually we reached the intersection with the path up to Wineglass Lookout and knew that we only had
an easy 10 minute walk down hill to reach the car park.
The suggested walking time for the Wineglass Bay Circuit is four to five hours. We completed the hike in just under five hours, but we didn't push ourselves really hard and we stopped a couple of times for food and water and about 246 times for photos!!! It is just so beautiful here that you can't help but snap away indiscriminately.
We talked to a couple of wallabies in the car park as we were changing our shoes. They were very tame; I suspect that, despite all of the signs about refraining from feeding the wildlife, these little guys have come to associate tourists with handouts?! All they got from us was to lick the salt from the back of our hands.
We drove back into Coles Bay and bought ice-creams for us (we earned them!) and ice for the Esky before heading back out to our room at the Edge of the Bay Resort. The weather was still gorgeous at three in the afternoon so we walked down to the beach and paddled. It was a bit invigorating, but nice to have bare feet
after having them laced up in our hiking boots all day.
Yay, the power is back on after a twenty minute outage. If I go and have a shower now I should be able to blow-dry my hair? I hope the power doesn't go out again! Salt and sand washed off and hair washed and blow-dried we ate in again tonight at The Edge Restaurant. All day we had been thinking about tucking into lamb shanks for dinner tonight! Just after our garlic bread, but before the lamb shanks, the power went out again. Oh no, I hope the lamb shanks aren't going to get cold. This outage was only for a few minutes so before long we were tucking into our much anticipated hearty dinner.
The official distance for the hike we did is 11km, but FitBit recorded 25,287 steps (17.22 km). I guess the incidental steps in pursuit of the perfect photo really added up?!
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wendy
non-member comment
Hi again
What lovely blue skies... Great photo's and i haven't unpacked my new camera yet!.. i would say a juvenile Black-tailed Gull ;) [not the pacific gull..] and not the gorgeous and rare bird, the blue hooded babbler lark who is equally comfortable in many habitats, is a robust, short tailed bird with a flair for feathering her own nest with style. Have fun.. xox ;