East Coast

                     Lovely Swansea

Finally stopped raining! Tassie on water restrictions and farm dams very low so can't really complain. Rivers are bubbling along though and countryside fairly green. Vineyards and wineries have sprung up everywhere since I was last here - some with enormous and palatial buildings to showcase the wines, some small farmgate types.

 

Beautiful morning - everything bathed in soft, lemony-gold light as I drove to Freycinet National Park. Talk about spectacular scenery!

I bought a season pass for Tasmanian Parks which covers me for Cradle, Mt Field etc. Hugh visitors centre and heaps of visitors - all car parks full for Wine glass Bay track so I went to Cape Tourville and Sleepy Bay instead. Excellent tracks including boardwalk with good signage. It is a long weekend here also so campsites and accommodation filled.

Some tracks are wheelchair friendly and shared with bikes.

Prevailing winds are so strong growth is stunted and even horizontal instead of vertical. Granite cliffs, mountains and steep climbs make for challenging walks. Colours of red, pink, orange and rust vary with time of day and weather conditions. After the rain staff were out repairing some miniscule erosion of track - everything is so well maintained.

Cape Tourville's lighthouse is automated now.

             

       The views are spectacular but nearly                        blown off the boardwalk.

The area has strong aboriginal connections and is famous for oysters in particular. A ranger was doing a really interesting "show and tell" session with local artefacts including a seal's skull! Much bigger than a kangaroo! Also had a replica skull of a Tasmanian Tiger - about size of smallish dog - the apex predator in Tasmania until it died out (though not everyone believes it is extinct) in the twenties.

After scones, jam and cream at Kate's Berry Farm (excellent) I drove on past the Spiky Bridge. It was built by convicts in 1843 and although no longer part of the highway is can still take traffic.  The design is really different and the reason it is "spiky" seems to be lost and only speculated upon now. It was an important bridge back in the day helping to open trade and settlement.

           Certainly not for sitting upon!

Close to Hobart traffic got really heavy especially around Richmond a lovely old colonial town - think Tourists with capitals! Road works are everywhere so lots of 40K zones and the roads on coast are quite narrow and traffic is slow - need to concentrate on driving. 

Think I am done with Backpackers so booked the Shoreline Motel (queen room with BATH) for tonight. Alastair arrives tomorrow morning at 9.30. Weather looks like holding! Fingers crossed!