Tasmania continued
Down Under of Down Under: Tasmania. Part 2: Wineglass Bay, Freycinet National Park, Richmond
After the hike in the Cradle Mountains we crossed a solid chunk of Tasmania again, with time to the east, heading to Freycinet National Park and the famous Wineglass Bay. Let me tell you this: Tasmania’s beaches, surrounded by cliffs, win hands down over most of what I had seen in Australian mainland, with exception of those around beautiful Byron Bay. Again, it might be my European nostalgia talking, as some beaches of Freycinet looked somewhat Mediterranean, but it is beautiful here. It’s like Caribbean meets Europe. Too bad, that the water is too cold here in Tasmania for comfortable swimming.
I had a special motivation to see Wineglass Bay. Do you remember Amanda, the girl I had met in Melbourne when I arrived to Australia in May? The girl who was the first foreign person I e-mailed with? So she is from Tasmania, and back in those days she sent me 2 postcards from Tasmania. And one of them depicted Wineglass Bay, which usually scores among Australia’s top beaches. That postcard still hangs above my old bed in my parents’ house. And now, 16 years or so after I had received it, here I am, looking at that place with my own eyes. I love these time-space-loops :-)
Our last common stop the next day was Tasman Peninsula, home of some cliffs (which seemed promisingly looking in tourist brochures) and Port Arthur, Australia’s most famous historic convict site. As we ran out of time, we finally didn’t go to see Port Arthur, and instead we saw few dramatic cliffs, commanding views over the cliffs and the endless ocean, and one more strikingly beautiful white sand beach. And then I drove Irene and Alex back to the airport. Irene almost missed the flight as we arrived to the airport 15 minutes before the scheduled departure, but thanks to miniature size of Hobart’s airport, check-in through the mobile phone and slight delay of the plane’s departure finally she made it. I left Alex at the airport as well, his flight to Melbourne was in 3 hours, and I went to return the campervan and then started my own 2 days in Tasmania. I did them in style. By hitchhiking and sleeping at wild in the sleeping bag. All about that in the next post.
It was great trip, but I quite ruined it with my arguing with Irene about small shit all time. Something’s wrong with me, I’m too tensed. Sometimes I think I’m ready for another round of India. And Irene is just as hard headed as me, so things get bit explosive from time to time. Sorry Alex and Irene…
