We woke to the promise of a wonderful day to explore Freycinet National Park, encompassing most of  the peninsula across Great Oyster Bay. On the way into the park we encountered our first live wallaby (we’ve seen plenty of road-killed!).

Such a cute fella, glad to see a live one!

We headed into the visitor center and learned that there is no available caravan camping in the park, but they gave us other available options. We then headed to the end of the road to see the famous Wineglass Bay! The crowds of selfie-taking tourists on the trail attest to Wineglass Bay’s Tasmania bucket list status! We didn’t have time for the 3 hour hike down to the beach and back, or the 5 hour circumnavigation trail to Hazards Beach and around the headland, so we settled for the hike up to the Lookout.

The purple line marks our hike up to the lookout and back.

We hiked up through the weathered granite rocks that gave us vibes of Arizona!

The view of one of the best beaches in the world is stunning! The name ‘wineglass bay’ comes from the whaling days of the 1820’s when so many whales were dragged into the bay to be butchered it stained the water wine red!

After our hike we traveled to the end of the other road in the Park, to the Cape Tourville lighthouse.

from this vantage point you can see the entrance to Wineglass Bay and the strip of white sand beach in the mid-distance!

And finally, as we descended from the lighthouse point we stopped at Sleepy Bay and discovered where “Sedona Meets the Sea!” The red rocks sloping into the deep blue of the Tasman Sea!

We ended up camping at a local restaurant, The Pondering Frog, at the head of the peninsula, for a good night’s sleep!

As it was forecast, it rained! Finally breaking the 2 month drought here in Tasmania! We took the break as a chance to go to town, do laundry, dump, get water and use the free wifi in town to update this blog.

The old time grocery/hardware/department store in town has a wall of great old photos.

I’ve never seen a public toilet with a window. This one is on a slope overlooking Great Oyster Bay!

We finally struck out on our own. With Easter over, but 2 more days of Holiday left, we though we might finally find some camping spots available! We are starting our tour by driving north, up the east coast. Our first stop was in Buckland when we saw this old church along the road.

The stone church dates from the 1830’s I think based on the tombstones around it!

The otherwise small, dark interior was lighted by these beautiful stained glass windows!

We eventually made our way to a free campsite at a boat ramp on the Swan River just outside of the small town of Swansea. It seems more used by locals than tourists as there are no hiking trails or amenities, but it serves our purpose for the night!

Robert ventured a little way onto this old rotting dock. Clouds are forming, it’s supposed to rain tonight.

There’s not much to setting up in this rig. So we took a walk along the road, seeing sheep out in the bone dry paddocks.

It’s such a drought here that the roads are littered with roadkill, animals that graze along the road where whatever water there is supports a little greenery.

The closest we have gotten to cockatoos! We heard them and saw them flying over at Connie’s.

The Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo!

Easter Sunday! We were invited to Connie & Brendan’s for morning tea with hot-cross buns!

Yummy toasted hot-cross bun slices with homemade rhubarb-apple jam, 50 year aged honey, and homemade quince jam!

The rest of the morning was spent cleaning the motorhome and preparing the vegetable lasagna I made with the help of Connie’s pan, utensils and oven! We had time for wildlife observation too!We’ve been watching, and hearing the squawking of, this trio of native hens in the yard since we got here. They hardly stay put long enough to take a picture tho! They are Tasmanian Native-hen, flightless and found only on Tasmania. Connie then pointed out a little fella in the front yard, snuffling along the fence line.

It took a few minutes to get a picture of his head and nose because it was usually stuck in the ground!

The Short-beaked Echidna, or spiny ant-eater, is a monotreme, like a platypus, in that it lays an egg in an abdominal pouch that hatches in only 10 days, and the jellybean sized young stays in the pouch for three months lapping up a milk-like substance from specialized pores. The young is eventually weaned at about 12 months old. The strong snout is used to push into the soil or rotten stumps so the sticky tongue can slurp up termites and ants. It has large strong front claws to dig and backward facing claws on the back feet to aid in burrowing during hot, dry times. I thought this guy was burrowing his nose into the dirt to avoid confrontation with me trying to get a picture, but he was searching for ants!

We finished up the day with a great meal and more stories and an early bedtime!

Today Robert and I took the Motorhome back into town to do some shopping and figure out the dump station, water filling and other maintenance chores. I also discovered that I need more cell service in order to work on these posts, so they will be sporadic as I find the spots that have the best cell service! We returned to Connie’s for dinner and a wonderful evening sitting in the garden and hearing each other’s stories.

The garden is filled with bursts of color and whimsical art works.