I just read a very interesting, detailed and informative blog about this woman on her solo travel to Peru. It has made me want to jump on the next flight there! But before I do, I think I need to write about my recent trip to Tasmania before all the details escape me. Two months ago, in April, we spent a few lovely days in Tasmania. It was a toss up between going to Ayers Rock or Tasmania. To the icon of Australia or the picturesque Tasmania. We were having such a hot summer this year, we dared not chose to go to desert country in the center of Australia. As a result Tasmania we went!
The plan was to fly in and then to rent a car and drive ourselves round the island. This was going to be a self catering trip, if you remember my trip to Mount Eccles where the only place to eat was at country pub where one can’t really get any veggies, it was decided very early that we would self cater. So, hotels were carefully booked to have cooking facilites and where that is not possible for it to have at least a microwave.
We arrived into Launceston, a small airport, and first thing we discovered was that you can’t bring fruits into Tasmania. I had two apples with me! Upon stepping into the airport building there was a man doing a check for fruits. There was a big bin for disposal of any fruits. But it felt such a waste to throw food away, we just sat and ate the apples. But before we could finish the apples, the said man had finished checking all the other passengers and was making his way towards us. He informed us that if there had been dogs at work that day, they would have been onto us, it turns out we couldn’t even eat the fruits there. So, we threw the partially eaten apples away and made our way to our bags.
First stop after collecting our car  was to the supermarket. We found a Coles and armed ourselves with enough food to last us the next few days. First destination was to Coles Bay where we had booked a cabin at a Caravan Park. We had our GPS with us and an old map and another travel book. I guess it was safe to say that we were prepared for the drive. After about an hour, I could not stop complaining about the car seat! The rental company had given us a Ford XR6, a full size sedan that had bucket seats. I was just too small for the seat that was too low to begin with, my knees were way higher than my hip that made me really uncomfortable, and the lumbar support was in the wrong place, worse of all is my eye level was at the dashboard level. Before long I was sitting any garment I could lay my hands on to elevate myself. The drive to Coles Bay turned out to take quite a bit longer and much more uncomfortable than I had imagined. One unexpected delay was the route the GPS had us take, it was trying to direct us by the shortest distance without taking into consideration the type of road, as it turns out onto a very small road. By the time we realised and turned around we had wasted some time. It was dark when we arrived into Coles Bay, though not very late, only perhaps about 6pm. But it was really cold. First thing we did was to turn the heater on, full blast!
The cabin turned out to be quite cosy, it had two bedrooms one for the kids with 4 bunk beds and another master room which was separated from the rest of the cabin by a curtain. It had a small stove top above the microwave and utensils. So first thing was to organise food! The utensils were not great but before long dinner was on its way.
As you would have expected cooking was cumbersome. One of the stove top was not functioning. But I had not planned on anything elaborate so although it was harder but worked out fine.
Though the night was very cold and I had stolen a doona from the kids bedroom, the morning that followed I practiced yoga and then enjoyed a lovely breakfast, this was shaping up to be a very nice holiday indeed. The point of going to Coles Bay was to visit the Freycinet National Park so after breakfast off we went. We opted to go 250m up to the famous Wineglass Bay lookout. It was a greyish overcast day so the photos were not very good. And it was rather cold too but because we were climbing we were not affected by the cold.
We really took our time climbing up to the lookout point. Even elderly people with walking sticks were going faster than us. We tell ourselves to be like the tortoise and enjoy the journey. Hahaha
We did finally get to the top to the look out point. As usual we brought some coffee so we whipped it out and had a nice cuppa while admiring the sight. Then we decided we would walk down to the bay itself.
But first we had to walk almost all the way down to the car then take a branch in the trail to head off to the Bay. We went slowly as it was pretty steep. Met a few people on their way up who said somehow it seemed to them like a good idea to walk down but the walk up they didn’t bargain for. 🙂 We were in for a treat!
It did eventually taper off. When we finally got to the beach I thought it was well worth it.
It was very cold because the weather was cold and it was quite windy by the beach. The beach was deserted except for us and the few people who arrived after us and left before us. There was a yacht out in the Bay. Otherwise it was our own private beach. We put on the layers we had peeled off during our walk and got out our food. There was a seagull that came so close and was very intently eyeing our food that we practically had to wrestle with it to keep it!
We would have stayed longer but it really wasn’t practical to stay more than we did because it was really cold and it was getting dark. So we said goodbye to the seagull and headed back up. It was a fantastic day and a really good start to our Tasmanian holiday.
HaHa.. I couldn’t stop laughing when I read that you were looking straight at the dashboard. Nice photos! Great view!