Tasmanian Bush-Wacking

Before I headed to Australia, I connected with a fellow member of the EAPSI program at our orientation in Washington D.C. that was not only headed to Australia as well but who had also grown up in the suburbs of Baltimore, albeit 10 years after me.  Cameron and I tentatively made plans to do a weekend backpacking trip while we were in Australia, but with he in Sydney and I in Melbourne, we would have to plan to meet somewhere in between.  Instead of that, we decided to fly down to the island state of Tasmania, south of Melbourne, as we had both heard awesome things about the scenery and hiking there.  Plans came together and we headed there for a long weekend leading up to the 4th of July as a patriotic gift to ourselves, both strangers in a strange land.

Tassie, as all Aussies call it, is located south of Victoria and is definitely the closest to Antarctica I will likely ever get.

Map of the island; Hobart is the capital and Launceston (where I tried to fly into) is the other major cty.

We were both scheduled to fly in and out of Launceston, with Cameron arriving an hour before me from Sydney.  As we were flying in, the pilot let us know that some THICK fog had set in over the whole city of Launceston.  It was really cool to see sitting low over the city as we approached, basically blanketing it, but after an aborted landing, they made the decision to push us down to Hobart as there was no sign that conditions would change.  This was really weird because otherwise in Tassie, it was sunny and beautiful!  Plus it totally threw a wrench into our plans as we were renting a car in Launceston and needed to drive a few hours to the park where we were backpacking in order to hike in a few miles to our first nights' campsite before dark.  I was informed that they would be chartering a bus to take us all to Launceston, but this would have taken far too long, so I grabbed a car of my own and we both drove to the park to meetup in time.

Edge of the island on the flight in. No fog yet in view!

Freycinet National Park, a mountainous peninsula on the eastern side of Tassie, where we would backpack for two nights.

The drive from Hobart to Coles Bay was totally GORGEOUS and a great way to get acclimated on my first time driving on the left-hand side of the road.  I left the airport and quickly found the Tasman Highway that took me nearly all the way to the park, so it was easy enough.  The road cruised through beautiful rural mountains and farms and out along the bay that the peninsula forms with the mainland.  Small villages were the only thing in between, with Orford where a river met the Tasman Sea being my favorite which I hope to revisit with Kara in August.  I made my way to Coles Bay, grabbed final supplies, then met Cam at the visitor center before we set off for the trailhead and strapped our packs on.

View of the Freycinet mountains from the small town of Coles Bay.

Wallaby, foraging around, at the trailhead.

Night 1 - Wineglass Bay

We got underway just before 4 pm, kind of racing the remaining daylight (sunset was around 5:30....it's winter here!), to get to our first campsite at Wineglass Bay.  Wineglass Bay is a pretty well visited bay on the Tasman Sea side of the peninsula that is featured on a LOT of Tasmanian tourism material, and we would be camping right next to it!  We only had 2 miles to go so we made our way up to the pass, took in the pretty overlook, then clambered down to sea level again where we trekked across the whole beach to the far side of Wineglass Bay, where we barely found our campsite in the dark that had set in.

View of Wineglass Bay from the pass.

Cool erosion in rock face at the overlook.

View from the overlook out to the Tasman Sea.

We set up camp and were promptly greeted by a wallaby, a brushytail possum, and another marsupial I can't seem to identify from my memory (too dark for pics, though these guys were not very timid or shy).  Cam had brought some chicken which we relaxed and grilled and ate while we talked home, our work, and the universe too as we saw a MASSIVE amount of stars and the Milky Way.  We also saw a pinkish glow in the sky towards the Southeast and I am pretty sure this was the highest vestiges of the Southern lights (aurora australis) that were only slightly visible over the horizon!  We both went to bed happy and woke to only slight annoyance at some visitors that made off with our remaining meatsticks!  I blame the possum!

Campsite, Night 1, right next to Wineglass Bay.

View from camp near sunrise.

Day 2 - Hiking along the Freycinet peninsula

We woke up before sunrise and went about the coffee/breakfast/camp cleanup routine in the chill.  Honestly, the weather while we camped was near perfect for me!  Warm but not hot during the day, sunny with occasional clouds, and cool but not freezing cold at night.  We really lucked out as it can be quite rainy during the winter here.  The day was spent trekking uphill to the tops of the mountains on the peninsula and the terrain was pretty rugged and steep, but the views up top were pretty awesome with 360 degree views of the mountainous mainland, the bay, and the sea.  We had originally planned to do a circuit but we second-guessed our distance and backtracked thinking we had missed a trail junction and then realized we only had enough time to head across the lowland area in the middle of the peninsula to reach a beach campsite on the interior side of the peninsula.

Wavy, stringy, eucalyptus bark,

View of the bay from high above in the eucalypt forest.

Looking back down on Wineglass Bay from some point during the ascent.

Walking in a eucalyptus forest is great because there is very little understory and you can see quite a long way.  Hillsides covered in the eucalypts are full of the tufted tops with the shiny light bark below and it is a totally different experience from American woodlands.  We backtracked through our campsite then back along the beach to the trail cutting through the marshy isthmus to the other side of the peninsula.  This area was really nice and we found an awesome reflective wetland spot to take pics along the way.

View of Mt. Freycinet opposit the marshy reflecting lagoon.

We were racing the sun yet again on Night 2 and enjoyed a sunset walk along Hazards Beach to our second nights' campsite.  There are a few backcountry campsites in this park and they all have nicely maintained composting toilets that made things a bit easier.  We got to camp after dark and unfortunately had to wade across the stream outlet to the campsite as the tide was in and there was no longer a dry route!  We had SEVERAL curious brushytail possums in our camp, and we ate a quick dinner and hit the hay pretty early, tired after a long day of hiking up and down and along.

Sunset from the dunes at Hazards Beach.

Cameron hiking towards a well-needed campsite with Mt. Freycinet beyond.

We woke early again to a little warmer temps, enjoyed the beachside sunrise and broke camp quick as we needed to move along on a 3 hour hike ringing the westside of the peninsula back to the car so we could get down to Hobart, return my car, and make our way to our airbnb apartment for the night.  It was a beautiful morning!  We cleaned up at the visitors' center, charged phones, and then returned to Coles Bay where we had an AWESOME lunch at a little cafe (wine, soup, and pizza!) with a beautiful view of the mountains.  A really really great time backpacking in Tasmania!