Honeymoon: Phase Three: Freycinet

I got Jacqueline up early, which usually is not an easy task. It was helped by the fact that we were not on Tasmania time quite yet. We got ourselves packed up for a backpack that we were planning to do in Freycinet National Park. It was only about an hour from where we stayed the night. The coast was beautiful as there were miles of beautiful beaches. Finding Jacqueline breakfast became a difficult task. She was not hyped about a place that we stopped at in Scamander, so we had to make a detour out to St. Marys to find her food. This turned out to be a slow trip, as it led us up a winding, steep road. We found her some food which was not much better than the previous spot. One thing that irks me about Tasmania is that they don’t give prices for food at all of their cafes/takeaways. Thus we end up paying way too much for some cheaply made, unhealthy food. Back on track, we went back down another steep, winding road. This lead us to Bicheno where Jacqueline saw a place called Natureworld. I would not stop even though she wanted to go. We had bigger fish to fry on this day. We continued out until the turnoff for Coles Bay showed up. We took that road which lead us to Freycinet National Park. We stopped at the visitor centre to pick up our National Park Pass and get some information. Still confused when we left, we headed out to the trailhead. Here we were supposed to find all of the trails. The one we wanted to take out to Hazards Beach just did not seem to be showing up. We should have stuck to our guns and kept going the way we began. Instead we wasted a lot of time wandering around looking for the trailhead. Eventually we just decided to head up toward the Lookout of Wineglass Bay and use that trail instead. We were not too excited about it, because there seemed to be a lot of people around. I assured Jacqueline that the numbers would die off, but she was none too excited about hauling a heavy pack around all of these people. We both made good time getting up to the Lookout. Jacqueline was a bit grumpy about it, but I convinced her to go out and check out Wineglass Bay. It was awesome. I don’t mean to sound cheesy, but “I never saw blue like that before.” (Song from our wedding) It was an impressive site and we would make sure to remember it by taking fifteen pictures or so on this weekend. We dropped back down and it was nice to be going downhill after the haul uphill to get to the Lookout. We were unable to go fast very long as a group of five people were in front of us going slow. We would continue to have issues with slow folks not letting us pass when hiking the whole trip. We followed these people for a good five minutes until I had to ask to see if we could pass. The guy said, “Passed by a guy with a big pack” as if in shame. I wonder how he felt to see my 98 pound wife hauling 1/3 of her body weight right behind me. We made it down to Wineglass Bay, but we left that for another day. We took the Isthmus Track that would lead us over to Hazards Beach. Here we finally got away from all the people and we seemed to have the place to ourselves. After less than an hour of walking, we popped out at Hazards Beach. We sat down to have some lunch. One problem with Tasmania is their lack of bagels. This trip it did not seem to matter as we had some cheese foccacia rolls filled with meat and cheese. They were good. Hazards Beach was awesome. The waves were crashing away on the shore and the beach was filled with large, multicolored shells. Jacqueline was very excited and she stopped frequently as we walked down the beach to check out the shells. We walked to the end of Hazards Beach which sent us into the woods. One thing I noticed was that it was very warm in the woods, whereas on the beach it was a bit chilly. It did not bode well for my swimming prospects. I was determined though, because we needed to do a little bit of swimming on this trip. We were in the woods and eventually it shot us out at the head of Cooks Beach. This was our final destination for the evening. We still had a walk and seeing the footprints on the shore, we figured that we were going to have some company this evening. We also had company on our walk from a little black and white bird with an orange beak called an Oystercatcher. We got to the campsite and Jacqueline was none too pleased to see that our neighbors were women about our age. They seemed to be unconcerned with us, though, and we gave them plenty of distance as we found a nice spot to camp with a great view of the water. We saw our first wallaby in the campsite. We thought it was a kangaroo because they look very similar. It had a baby in the pouch and we made sure to take tons of pictures. It seemed to notice us, but not really be very scared. This was a bad sign of things to come. Once the tent was set up, I was determined to get in the water. It was not incredibly warm, but it was not insanely cold either. I got in and it was not too deep. I wandered out a long way and it only got about waist deep. I convinced Jacqueline to get in. That was a good idea because my wife looks hot in a swimsuit. I kept her out there for quite some time and I even got up the nerve to get in over my head. We finally retreated when Jacqueline yelled that there was something big swimming towards me. I looked over and sure enough, there was a large dark shadow coming my way. I retreated and although we did not get a good look, both of us think that it was a sting ray. We got ourselves back in warmer clothing and we made ourselves some dinner. This was when the wallabies came out in force. Soon, our campsite was surrounded by wallabies. While trying to make dinner, I also had to fend off the intruders. Jacqueline was much too sweet to them. I made sure to chase them and give them a bit of a swat on the butt. They always went just far enough to be out of the way, but not far enough to miss out on any eating opportunities. We finished dinner and decided that our legs were still in good enough shape to keep walking. We were a bit nervous about leaving the tent, but the wallabies had not seemed dangerous, so we took the risk. There was another beach, Bryans Beach, that was a little under an hour away. This trail was much like the others that we were on during the day, except this time we did not have our full packs on. Thus we could enjoy the scenery much more. The trees were still so funky looking and the track was very easy to walk on. Here we saw a wild wallaby which was far more exciting. Bryans Beach was much like the beach we were already at and we stayed for only a matter of minutes. It was just fun to walk and not have the heavy pack on. We did not want to miss out on opportunities to enjoy this trip, so I was glad we wandered out there. When we returned, another couple had shown up to the campsite and they were sitting on the beach with a blanket with a wallaby sitting right on the corner. We were not as nice as both of us have the belief that wildlife should be wild. When a wallaby showed up right at the front of our tent, I gave it a small bonk on the head with an empty water bottle to let it know that its behavior was unacceptable. It took a minute to figure out what was going on, but it scampered away quickly. I think it was a little too used to using its cuteness to get food and had not expected another greeting. We slept that blissful sleep of a calm night after a hard working backpack, but awoke in the morning to more miles to march. We went back up Cooks Beach and this time took a different trail that would lead us uphill to the mountainous part of the peninsula. It was arduous hiking, but the scenery was fantastic as it was hard not to enjoy the eucalyptus trees. Eventually, we came to saddle where we threw our packs down to climb to the top of Mt. Freycinet. It felt so much easier without the heavy weights dragging us down, even though we were going uphill at a lot steeper rate. The trail became difficult to find in spots, but luckily they had orange markers on the trees to direct us. We spotted another unique Tasmanian wild animal. Later, we would learn the name was an echidna. It looks like a cross between a porcupine and a hedgehog. It was quick to hide itself, so we left it alone and scrambled to the summit. There was only one spot right near the end that took a little maneuvering to get up. Jacqueline handled it fine and we were rewarded with a magnificent view. From one side we could see Wineglass Bay and from the other, the rest of the Peninsula which was a lot more wild even then the places we were lucky enough to see. We trudged back down and Jacqueline spotted a blue-tongue lizard which was rather huge. We got to throw our packs back on after lunch and go right back to going uphill. This led us to Mt. Graham. The views from there were also spectacular, but not as great as the top of Freycinet. We dropped back down after this and would continue descending until we hit Wineglass Bay. This was a much more difficult day than expected, as usually when backpacking along the beach, we do not expect to gain 2000 feet and then have to drop it again. It lead us down to Wineglass Bay and though we knew our car was only an hour and a half away, we decided to make camp for the night. We tried to find a spot where the mosquitoes would leave us alone, but unfortunately could not escape them on this night. They were not bad when it was windy, but once the sun went down, the only way to be outside was to be moving. We only had two wallabies to keep us company for dinner on this night and we thought we might have the beach to ourselves, but some high school kids showed up as the evening wore on. We walked the beach and it was very enjoyable to have this time to spend with my wife. We had no choice but to chill in the tent for the evening as the mosquitoes were relentless outside. I got Jacqueline out of bed early in the morning, because the sky was starting to look like rain. I figured it would be more fun to walk out before the rain came down. It took us about the hour and a half that we were planning. It was good to get back to the Getz and head off to our next adventure.