Hikes, Beaches, and Penguins

Friday July 31st

We drove up to the Freycinet Peninsula, a National Park area with good hikes and Wineglass Bay, rated one of the World's Top 10 Beaches by some fancy travel magazine. We stopped in Coles Bay, the town just before the park, for a pit stop and to pick up our Park Pass. The guy at the "information center", really the tiny town shop, was very helpful and recommended hiking Mt Amos instead of just walking down to the water like we were thinking. He said if we were staying in the area we should really do both, one this afternoon and another the next morning. He seemed so psyched on the walks we figured we should take his advice, as locals always know best.

The hike up Mt Amos was no joke. It is a granite mountain and there isn't actually a trail- you follow little yellow (probably the worst color choice possible) arrows up the side of a steep mountain, scrambling over boulders, through crevices, and trying our best to avoid any water, where the rock turns into a slip and slide (we had been warned of this by the guy in the shop). It was the most challenging hike I've done (glaciers included!) and there was a group ahead of us where we thought a few of them might not make it. 

We did finally reach the top (after about 2 hours of literally climbing with hands and feet, knees, bums...) and the views were magnificent. Wineglass Bay is as beautiful as the photos, and from this vantage we could also see Oyster Bay in front of us and Coles Bay behind. The weather was perfect, the views unbeatable, and we took a well deserved rest at the top with a few Aussie students who had taken a weekend trip to Tasmania.

Heading back down was possibly harder than coming up. All of us actually slid down sections on our butts because that seemed a safer alternative to trying to walk. I had a major wipe out where there was a trickle of water and my feet flew out from under me. I got a bruise the size of a salad plate on my hip. I don't think Tiffany understood why I was being such a baby about falling until she saw the evidence. 

We made it to the town of Bicheno (bee-shen-oh), north of the park, where we stayed for the night. We had read about a surf shop that organizes penguin tours and had to check that out. A group of 6 of us were driven out to the coast at dusk where we met our penguin guide. He told us we were going to see Little Blue Penguins, formerly called Fairy Penguins until it became un-PC. The little guys spend most of their time at sea where they feed and can sleep. During breeding season they all come to shore at night, but since this was "off" season for them, only a few would be coming in. They have to be careful of predators in the sea- mostly seals, and also on land- typically birds of prey. As a group they make a beeline for shore, then hang out by the rocks until they think it's safe and waddle inland to their burrows. The penguins have no innate fear of humans, and will happily walk between your legs if they think you are in the way.

We watched them come in from a couple of different spots. It was a pretty full moon, so there was a lot of natural light (which they don't like) and the guide had a flashlight with a dullish bulb so as not to blind them. The birds are super cute, and let us get quite close. They are a protected species, and their biggest threats are domestic or feral dogs and cats, which can wipe out large portions of the colonies. Since they aren't historical predators, the penguins don't know to be afraid of them.

In the morning we hiked down to Wineglass Bay, another fairly challenging walk, but no where near as difficult as the day before! It was spectacular on the beach. The sand was white and stretched out in an arc in front of us. The water was aquamarine and crystal clear. And the best part was we were the only people on the beach for at least an hour. We went paddling in the water, which, as usual, was much colder than it looked. We had a picnic on the beach, then had to make the hike back up before our park pass expired.

We made the drive to Launceston, Tassie's second largest city. We found a cozy place to spend the night, did a bit of exploring, and got some good sleep after 2 days of solid hiking.