As we leave Hobart and begin driving, both Rob and I are thinking about the remoteness of where we are. Even the name Tasmania conjures up some distant place that in normal circumstances one would not think of traveling to, yet we did. It is not such a foreign place -- everyone speaks English here after all -- yet it is so far away from everywhere else. Now, as we drive, we realize the way out can only involve a drive back to Hobart, and departing Hobart can only mean a flight back to a major city in Australia, and then one can fly hours upon hours to get back to North America. We are in a remote location! World events have an impact here, no doubt, but it seems like perhaps the local residents could stop following international news with little consequence to their daily lives.
Today we are leaving Hobart to drive north and east to the Freycinet National Park. This park is situated on a peninsula on the Pacific Ocean. We awake to the beautiful sounds of the Australian magpie. These birds have an amazing song that is always sung in a duet, very unusual, but pleasant. I am reminded of the kookaburra that I heard when we were in Richmond, not because of the song, but because these are birds that are only in Australia.
We check out of the hotel, but not before asking the front desk staff if they had any recommendations of things to do or see on the way to the park. One recommends an establishment called Kate's Berry Farm for a place to get a nice sweet. Another recommends a restaurant in the town of Swansea for lunch. It is called Salt Shakers.
We drive east on the A3, which is a nice four lane divided highway, until you pass the Hobart airport, when it becomes a two lane road. Australia does not spend lavishly on highways, I don't think, but they are adequate. Speed limits are generally 100 kilometers per hour, equivalent to about 62 miles per hour. Following the Prosser River to the coast, the biggest town we come to first is Orford, where we meet the ocean and proceed north along the coast. We stop at Raspins Beachin in Orford to admire the view. There are several nice beaches farther north that we pass along the highway, and we stop at one called Kelvedon, which has the most amazing shells. We stop to collect a few to take with us. The next sight we see is called the spiky bridge. This is a convict constructed bridge that has stone spikes arising along each side. No one knows exactly why the bridge was built this way, perhaps to stop cattle from going over the side, perhaps to strengthen the construction, or simply because someone thought it looked good.
We next reach the resort/tourist town called Swansea. It seems very nice and very clean, in fact, it has proclaimed itself the "tidiest town." It has a nice park along the shore. We locate the restaurant, Salt Shakers, that had been recommended and enjoy a nice lunch. I have really good fish and chips made with a Tasmanian white fish, and Rob has an Asian beef salad. We continue on to the park.
A note on the terrain: as we drive, the landscape is rolling hills with some forested areas and some open areas. There is no apparent agriculture beyond the occasional vineyard or orchard. We do see quite a few sheep from time to time, as well as a few cows, but mostly sheep. The ocean is a beautiful blue color with some areas of green, which provides kind of a tropical feel. However, the land seems somewhat arid. The trees are green, and the grass is green, so clearly it rains here (unlike California in the summer), but the trees seem very sparse, not lush. Many of the trees are gum trees, or eucalyptus, which do not have a lot of foliage. When you see water and beaches that seem so tropical, you expect the landscape to be tropical, too, like the Caribbean or Hawaii, but that is not the case here. We are reminded of what we saw when we drove the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, or even the landscape on Hayman Island in the Great Barrier Reef.
We arrive at the park and follow the signs to the Freycinet Lodge, where we will stay. The main attraction here in the park is called Wineglass Bay. It can be reached in only three ways: you can hike in, you can view it from a plane, or you can take a lunch cruise, which will take you there. We arrived at 1pm, so it is probably too late for a hike for us today, so we will plan to do that tomorrow. We check into our room, and it is above expectations. Beautiful furnishings, spacious bathroom and a fantastic deck that overlooks Richardson Beach -- what a view!
We're going to take it easy today. After we settle in, we take a short walk to Honeymoon Bay, which has some nice views of the mountains in the park, then we decide to head back and enjoy Richardson Beach. It is a warm sunny day, perfect for the beach. The sand is nice, and the beach is very gradual -- you can walk out quite a ways in the water and only get your legs wet. The water is very cool. There are some swimmers, but mostly people just getting their legs wet, like us. The sun is too intense to stay our here too long, so we had back to our deck and relax with a few card games. Our deck faces north, and we both comment that one of the interesting things to adjust to in the southern hemisphere is that fact that the sun is in the north, not the south. This can be a little disorienting at times.
Dinner is, of course, at the lodge, where the food is known to be good, at least that what the guidebooks says! We head over early to enjoy a glass of wine in the lounge before dinner. We choose a chardonnay from nearly Freycinet Vineyards. It is very good. For dinner, we start with oysters, a local specialty, grilled with bacon. They are okay, but too over-flavored for my taste making it difficult to taste the actual oyster. Next we each have a Greek salad, which is perfect. For mains, we each have the salmon. It is good, but not great. The salmon is farmed, not sure where, so does not have the incredible flavor of the Tasmanian salmon that we had at the restaurant Rockwall in Hobart. With dinner we enjoy a pinot gris from Bay of Fires Vineyard, also very good. Bay of Fires is to the north of the park. Our waiter, interestingly, is from Alabama. He is here on a one year work visa that Australia offers to foreigners who are under 30.
After dinner, we have a taste of the Cabernet Franc that we had purchased at Frogmore Vineyards. It is not good, I'm afraid. It is like drinking liquid green peppers (or capsicum, as they call them in Australia). Cabernet Franc is a difficult wine to make, and unfortunately, this was not a success. We have a big day of exploring the park tomorrow, so we turn in early.
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