FREYCINET NATIONAL PARK DAY 2

 We spent yesterday afternoon fighting with the WIFI.  The lodge had just installed a new system, and we were the guinea pigs.  Obviously, they got it going (or someone from Mumbai did, at any rate).  At 4:30 we had a Taste of Tasmania wine and food tasting.  There were seven different wines, starting with a champagne (very nice), a nice Chardonnay (Freycinet which, apparently is shipped to the US - or will be soon), a wonderful Pinot Noir, and a way-too-sweet Riesling.  We tried local oysters, mussels, and various cheeses as well.  Nice taste.  For dinner we tried some more mussels and oysters.  Delicious, but getting a bit rich for the likes of us.  Oooff.

This morning we decided today would be our visit all the local beaches day.  After breakfast, we drove up to Sleepy Bay.  Apparently, despite its bucolic name, it is a wild and woolly beach.  Not so this morning, it was beautiful.  The photos above and below are taken at the Sleepy Bay area.  We originally were just going to go to the overlook, but we ended up hiking down to the beach itself.  I'm glad.  Granite boulders, a lagoon, lots of eucalyptus brush, it was beautiful.

Our next beach visit was Jackson Beach near the ranger's station.  I'm not sure what I expected, but there were beautiful sea shells here.  In the photos (above and below) (I'm having a spacing issue today) you can see the lodge we're staying in.

 After our Jackson Beach tour, we decided we needed gas for our car, so we drove to the little town of Coles Bay.  We drove toward the sign that said town center, but we never found center.  There was a little cafe, a pier, and a burned out building.  There were also lots of lovely homes overlooking the Bay, but not much else.  We drove around for a bit trying to find a center, and eventually gave up.  On the way down the main road, just before the sign that said we were leaving Coles Bay, we saw another town center sign.  For just completeness sake, we drove to the "center".  Here we found a gas station.  We had to pay in the little grocery store/gas station/ convenience store.  Apparently, we'd found center.  Our next stop was Friendly Beach above 18 km beyond Coles Bay, north of where we're staying.  We stopped at an overview and then continued to a pull out so we could explore the beach.  It really was beautiful.  The photos below are of Friendly Beach.

Charlie standing on a basalt flow at Friendly Beach.

The Freycinet peninsula has a western windward side and an eastern leeward side.  The Friendly Beach and Sleepy Bay are on the leeward side.  As we were leaving Friendly Beach, a dark cloud appeared and we got a quick shower.  What the rain brought in was a really big wind following it.  "Blowing quite a gale" a Scottish woman once said to me - it really is doing just that.  We decided our last beach visit would be Honeymoon Bay.  The photo above is the bay, it was so incredibly windy, we didn't stay long.  During lunch we took the photo below of Jackson Beach from the lodge with wind.  Incredible.

Tomorrow we're off to Hobart.  This will be our last night at Freycinet Lodge.