Leaving Hobart we travelled North up the East coast towards the Freycinet National Park. Along the way we passed a succession of beautiful and empty beaches. We stopped for a picnic lunch at Nine Mile Beach, and, sure enough, we had the whole nine miles to ourselves.
The Freycinet Peninsula is a stunning area of pink and grey granite mountains, forest, and rugged coastline dotted with white, sandy beaches backed by a blisteringly blue sea. We hiked up a steep path to "The Saddle" from where we were able to gaze down onto Wineglass Bay, ranked as one of the world's greatest beaches. On the track to another great viewpoint, Sleepy Bay, we had our first encounter with a Tasmanian tiger snake, a specimen about half a metre long that wanted to share the path with us. We passed swiftly by as it appeared to be intent upon minding its own business and did not seem to pose a threat. It was only when I googled a description that I learned a full grown tiger snake, under provocation, can produce a highly neurotoxic venom capable of affecting the central nervous system and inflicting muscle damage and kidney failure! Oh well, at least ours was a little one!
We spent the following day very pleasantly enjoying a succession of wine tasting tours along the Tamar Valley Wine Route, before taking the longest single-span chairlift in the world across the Tamar Cataract Gorge. As I write this blog entry from our hotel room in Launceston the first bottle of our wine purchases is sliding down very nicely!
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