Tasmania Self-drive Day 5, Wednesday.

After a leisurely hotel breakfast, we headed towards the east coast, with the highlight of the day being the celebrated Wineglass Bay at the Freycinet National Park. We would have liked to travel further up to the Bay of Fires, but not wishing to push ourselves too hard in terms of driving or ending up too rushed at each location, we decided on just making one stop at coastal town of Bicheno.

The blue water and beach made a fabulous view. The beautiful photos speak louder than my words.

Bicheno

Bicheno

Bicheno

Bicheno

There was a glimpse of the orange-hued granite, which is the characteristics of the Bay of Fires further up along the coast.

The orange-coloured rock surface is apparently due to a lichen.

We then proceeded to Freycinet National Park, which is a fairly short drive from Bicheno. We first headed for the popular Wineglass Bay Lookout. The way up to the lookout seemed longer and more strenuous than I had expected. But that might be because we were slightly behind our planned schedule.



On the way up to the Wineglass Bay Lookout



Wineglass Bay, epitome of Tasmanian scenery

Though we were slightly behind schedule, we decided to go ahead with a quick walk on the Cape Tourville trail, which was meant to be a 20-minute circuit. Of course we always need to add on time for taking photos. It turned out to be a easy, pleasant and worthwhile walk.



Cape Tourville



Cape Tourville lighthouse

Our final stop of the day was Swansea, where we would be staying overnight. There was a view of the Great Oyster Bay on the way.


Great Oyster Bay

Great Oyster Bay

Fireplace at the Swansea cottage where we stayed overnight

We had dinner at a local seafood restaurant not very far from the cottage. By the time we finished dinner, it was fairly dark already.

Being able to admire the starry sky without the light pollution of the city was a real treat. I took my first ever photo of the Milky Way, or of the night sky for that matter. Due to my inexperience and equipment limitation, the photo quality is much poorer than the bountiful Milky Way photos posted on the internet by amateur or professional photographers nowadays. Nonetheless, I must be satisfied with my first attempt.

Night sky at Swansea.

"The heavens declare the glory of God;

    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

  Day after day they pour forth speech;

    night after night they reveal knowledge.

  They have no speech, they use no words;

    no sound is heard from them.

 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

    their words to the ends of the world." (Psalm 19:1-4)