Tasmania: Freycinet National Park

Freycinet National Park is on the east coast of Tasmania, one of the two oldest national parks in Tasmania. We based ourselves in Bicheno for the visit. In the morning we took the first bus of the day to the Park Visitor Center, and then "hitched" a ride to the trail parking lot to give ourselves plenty of time to complete our planned walk. In the parking lot we were greeted by a wallaby.



We had a wonderful day of walking on the Wineglass Track, Isthmus Track, and Hazards Track, then returned to the visitor center along Honeymoon Bay.

In Bicheno, there lives the smallest penguins, nocturnal, but we had no luck trying to spot them.

On the Bus from Launceston to Bicheno.


The bus from Bicheno to Freycinet Visitor Center left before sunrise.


On the way up to Wineglass Bay Lookout, walking past huge dolerite boulders (1st below), we stopped for breakfast at a bench with a view back to Hazards Bay.








Of course the best view was a few minutes farther along the trail from the bench at the Wineglass Bay Lookout. Wow!




Then down 1000 steps to the beach.




And across the Isthmus Trail, mostly wetlands, with very chatty birds in the trees above.








Where the Isthmus Trail runs into Hazards Bay Beach, there is an amazingly large (tall and long) shell midden, left by aboriginal peoples over thousands of years. At first I thought they were normal sand dunes (1st below) until I saw the layers of huge shells.






The trail back to the parking lot started with a walk north along Hazards Beach. Another Wow!










The trail continued across the headland. The sun was strong, but we found a good lunch spot (1st below). And later spotted our first kookaburra (poor photo 2nd below) of the trip.




And finally we hung out, waiting for the return bus, at Honeymoon Bay with views up to the dolerite hills and along the beaches. John had time to skip some shells .












In Bicheno (1st below view from Whalers Lookout), we stayed in a pod with a view (2nd and 3rd below).