Tasmania Day 2

I wrote the next bit that day in Tasmania. I'll tell you when it switches back to now (as I post this).

A lot of driving was expected today as we planned to make our way up the east coast stopping first at a town called Richmond. Richmond was known for the oldest stone bridge in Australia built, of course, by convicts in 1853. It is wide enough for a normal 2-lane road.

We were blessed with bright sun for most of our photos, then we wandered over to an old church to find a pleasant surprise. The church, St Luke’s” is the oldest Catholic Church in Australia and is still in use. Framed in their small foyer is a letter from Pope John Paul II in 1986 congratulating them on 150 years of worship in that church. The years have been kind to the walls and roof, but the steeple has been replaced twice. We walked behind the church to the cemetery and looked as some of the old gravestones. It is always interesting to see what was written, how old the person was when they died, and any ornamentation on their headstone. Headstones have always been a great source for the historic record and the ones in Richmond were no different.

From Richmond we got back on the Tasman Highway and started making our way north up the east coast to the Freycinet Peninsula. We were making good time until we got stopped behind a serious accident along the only road heading north. Here I sit waiting for the accident to be cleared for us to start our trip again. We’ve lost 1.5 hours already and we’ve been told it will be “a while”. After scouring our maps looking for an alternate route only to find there just isn’t one, I decided to get out the laptop and site here looking over the cliff at the ocean and the beautiful blue water. It is a wonderful view and would be quite tranquil… if I did not know that every minute spent waiting here was endangering my chances of making it up to the Bay of Fires later today. I’m trying to remind myself that someone just up the road is probably fighting for their life right this second and my inconvenience just does not matter. At least we had some grub in the car and got to eat a picnic lunch here on the cliff side. That will save us some time later. The medical helicopter arrived about 20 minutes ago and since I can no longer hear the rotors I assume they found a place to land. An ambulance arrived on the road shortly thereafter. I doubt I’ll ever learn what happened, and I’m almost certain that I will never know the victims name(s), but I still say a prayer for them and the emergency personnel. Most everyone has been quite accepting of the road delay and patient, doing the same things we are: sitting and eating. We can see Freycinet Peninsula from here, so I know we will get there.

Funny update. As I was typing that last sentence a woman came up and asked if she could charge her Iphone off my computer as her battery just died. How funny is that?!?! Her kids are very grumpy, but she seemed very nice and of course I am charging her phone. When I finish this up I’m going to turn the computer off, but I have my radio transmitter/charger in the car so I’ll charge it over there. She is just two cars in front of us. Hopefully it will not be too much longer.

It wasn't. Obviously this is the part where I am back at now now, everything I'm typing now, I'm typing NOW. (Then, however, will never be now. For that I am, indeed, sorry. Sorrier still that only Clarice and my bro will get that reference.)

We had planned on hiking up to the Freycinet Lookout (1 hour) and then on down to the beach (another 30 minutes) before hiking back out. Well, because of the accident, if we were going to make it to the Bay of Fires we only had time to get to the lookout. Freycinet National Park, like all of the parks in Tassie, is huge and we barely scratched the surface - as with every place we stopped. Oh well, now we know what we want to focus on if we ever get back!

Freycinet Lighthouse

Us at the lookout over Wineglass Bay

Clarice on the hike up to the lookout

We did do a couple of hours hiking at Freycinet, but not nearly as much as we would have liked. It is definitely a picturesque place but so was our next stop - The Bay of Fires. Even before we started planning our Tassie trip I saw on MSNBC an article in the travel section about the Top 10 undiscovered beaches of the world. #1 was The Bay of Fires in Tasmania. When we went over to our friend's place for dinner they showed us some photos they took at the bay and I was sold. Because of the long drive, and the fact we were still 2 hours over exceptionally twisty roads from our sleeping place, we were only granted about 90 minutes and we only got to one small section of the beaches. It was fabulous! There were places to camp just over the sand dune from the beach, not very many people (in fact, at some points there was no one at all), and just some of the most beautiful water you will ever see. I took lots of photos and would have loved to spend an entire weekend just crawling all over the dunes, pools, rocks, beaches, inlets, etc. and taking pictures.

This is "The one I got soaked for" - I think it turned out pretty good!

We needed to get moving before the sun set and we would have to drive in the dark. As it was we still ended up with 30 minutes or so of nighttime driving - not something I would recommend in Tassie. Partly because of the treacherous roads and partly because a lot of animals are noctournal. I just missed an echinda on day 1 and barely missed a wallaby on day 2. Darn thing hopped out right in front of me. I've been lucky enough to have to hit a deer back home, imagine if I came all this way just to wipe out a wallaby or something!

Long post, but I hope you are enjoying our Tassie trip. Three more days to go!