Freycinet National Park & Tasman Peninsula

After a one day break I left for the next trip. So around noon I got in the car to drive towards Freycinet National Park via the Heritage Highway. A nice drive through the inland of Tasmania with some short spells in Iraq (town called Bagdad) and Jordan (Jordan River).

The Heritage Highway is the road between Hobart and Launceston. These are the second and third settlement in Australia. Because they didn’t have fast cars in the time of the settlements you can find a lot of historic places on route with historic buildings. I made some short stops in Oatlands (old mill), Ross (old bridge) and Campbell Town (another old bridge) from where I took the turn-off to the east coast. On this road I finally saw an Echidna that didn’t run away once peoples or cars came close, so I stopped to take some pictures.

I arrived at Freycinet National Park around 17:00 where I would walk the Wineglass Bay – Hazards Beach Circuit (11km 4,5h). At the begin of the track I met 2 people who just returned from the track and I asked them if they saw some wild life. They said they saw a few Wallabies and an Echidna. And what do you think what is looking in the back of your car? Yup, a Wallaby with a Joey in it’s pouch. Talking about the devil!

The walk itself was great. The first 20 minutes are the heaviest as they are uphill over the Hazards towards Wineglass Bay. But once you are at the lookout you are rewarded for this climb as you can enjoy the spectacular view over one of Tasmanian landmarks, Wineglass Bay itself! After a short stop to catch my breath I descended down to the bay itself enjoying the wild life I saw on the way down. A Kookaburra, and lot’s of Wallabies and Pademelons. Before I took the Isthmus track to Hazards Beach I stopped a short while in the hope to spot a Dolphin, but without any luck. From Hazards Beach I had to walk the last 2 hours along side the coastline.

On the beach itself I met a French couple that asked me if I knew where the huts were or at least I did know where they could pitch up their tent. There are multiple day tracks at Freycinet, but they didn’t prepare their self in such way that they knew where the huts were. And the funny thing is that this information is available for FREE. It probably wasn’t available in French. Good thing was that I did prepare myself better than they did by taking a small torch with me as it turned dark when I arrived at the car. After this I drove back to my camp site to realize I had the hardest available place left on the whole camping so I had to burrow a hammer from the neighbors. It appeared to be that I caught the attention of a Brushtail Possum that was checking everything I was doing. To bad for him that I had my food in the car and even worser for him that I had my camera with me. This camera came handy when I looked up to the sky. I just saw so many stars that it looked like all the stars in the universe were brought together on one single spot.

The next morning I left for the Tasman Peninsula. At Orford I had 2 choices towards the Peninsula and I decided to take the tourist drive which funnily enough was also the shortest drive (approx. 20km shorter). I took the Wielangta Forest Drive, which is mostly a gravel road so it probably would take a bit longer than the other route to the Peninsula.

When I arrived at the Peninsula I had my first stop at the Tasman Arch. This arch has developed when the roof of a sea created cave collapsed more than thousand years ago. This only shows how destructive water can be. And at the cliffs coast of the Peninsula the Tasman Arch is not alone. Nearby you can find it’s uncle Devils Kitchen (arch less) and little nephew the Blowhole (still with roof). A little south along the Waterfall Bay track you find it’s look-a-like the Pattersons Arch. This Waterfall Bay track is a nice track with some great views of the coast line and a very good opportunity to spot some wild life (I saw 2 big Echidnas crossing my path). It’s a couple of kilometers and will take 1 to 1,5 hours to walk. On the way back I took a short stop at the Blowhole to enjoy the beauty of nature and here I ran into a Skink, a reptile that appears to took a lot of steroids.

After this stop I left for the Coal Mines Historic Site. One of the many places were convicts have worked and lived. The site has a lot of interpretation signs along its many locations describing the history of these locations. Personally I think the site is to demolished to get a real idea how people have lived and worked here. There are a couple of ruins, but that’s all. Nevertheless it is still a nice place to walk around and to spot wild life as it is nice and quiet.

Talking about wild life. The Tasman Peninsula is a disease free area when you look to the Tasmanian Devil. The Devil suffers from a cancer which is called the Devils Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD) which already cut down a big part of the population. To keep the Tasman Peninsula disease free, they monitor every Devils movement on the Forestier Peninsula which is set up as a buffer zone as it is the only way in to the Tasman Peninsula by land. If they find a Devil with DFTD they catch it and removed it from the area so it can’t affect the healthy Devils on the Tasman Peninsula. They also try to breed disease free Devils so they could be set out in the wild again to try to increase the population and to prevent extinction of this special animal.

At the end of the day I returned to Glenorchy for another day at home before my trip to Devonport with stops at Lake St Clair, Arthur River, Stanley, Liffy Falls and Narawntapu National Park. A 5 day trip where at the end of it I pick up the rest of the family at the Spirit of Tasmania ferry terminal.