Freycinet

So we left Dunally and headed north to the Freycinet national park. Instead of heading straight up the east coast, we were advised to head a little west up the Midlands highway that connected Hobart and Launceston and visit a number of historic towns just off the highway. So this is what we did.

We stopped at the town of Oatlands that looked interesting. It had its fair share of historic buildings and made a big deal about its dry stone walls. Instead of wood, fences were pieced together from stones without concrete mix. Reading about these creations, apparently it was the women of the town who were the architects, as it was said “men do not have the patience for such things”. So there you go. The other big thing Oatlands spruiked was a giant flour mill that was the only one of its kind in operation in the southern hemisphere.  The guy helping us at the visitors information centre came from Bankstown Sydney continuing our trend of meeting people originally from Sydney who have moved to other regions.

Fiona and Andrew standing in front of the female created dry stone fences 

We then moved on and lunched at the lovely and very pretty tree lined town of Ross.  Fiona and I had scallop pies and they were mouth-watering, fantastic, delicious. Then from the same bakery, the kids had the best wagon wheel biscuits I have ever seen, thick strawberry marshmallow, thick jam, milk chocolate coated biscuit. Sensational! We have commissioned Fiona when we get home to make some for us. Fiona said she might ask Jodie Aiken to help her as she makes better marshmallows. It was not all about food at Ross. They had some interesting stone buildings and antique stores, one of which the owner was originally from Manly.

 I love this bakery in Ross

After some advice from the local visitors centre, we heading north to Cambell Town, saw some interesting wooden carvings from trees and then heading east back to the east coast to the town of Swansea, which looked directly across to Freycinet national park. We stayed at a backpackers camp which had very good amenities. After dinner we headed out into town to check it out. It is a small but pretty town.

Wood carvings from trees at Cambell Town

east coast of Tassie

Swansea coast line with Freycinet in the background

The next morning we headed out early for Freycinet national park as the weather forecast was for a cloudy day with rain developing. We arrived and without delay did the Wineglass Bay lookout walk. It was interesting, I don’t know whether it was because it was a cloudy day or we knew what we were going to see, but when we arrived at Wineglass Bay, Fiona and I were slightly disappointed/underwhelmed at what we saw. If we had never seen or heard of Wineglass Bay, I think we would have thought “ oh that’s a nice lookout” and nothing more. However, while there, there were people from all over the world at the lookout. Wonder what they thought. We did a few other walks in the national park, but I am afraid when I consider some of the national parks we have already visited,  Freycinet does not compare favourably and will not make it to my Tasmanian Podium Finishes blog. 

We left and had a quick look at Bicheno before heading back to Swansea.

Fortunately we had planned a quiet afternoon and evening back at camp, as we were quite jaded because the weather really set in. For the first time in 2.5 months, we had a blast of raining weather that afternoon and evening.

Next stop St Helens and the Bay of Fires