Today we are all at sea again! Cruising to Wineglass Bay on this beautiful east coast of Tasmania.
We met our boat at Coles Bay and were soon being welcomed on board by the crew . Your host, Tim soon turned out to be great fun as well as very knowledgeable about what we should expect to see. Our Sipper, Paul, also had a good sense of humour and lots of knowledge.
Setting out from port we started with Morning tea, or coffee for us, always a positive way to begin any trip.
We were soon at sea passing by and hearing stories about Hazards Beach and Promise beach, descriptions of the Rocks and how some of the formations happened.
Paul pointed out Bryan's Beach as one of the best on the island but explained that it had few visitors as the beach was a whole days bush walk from the main centres.
The next feature pointed out was the massive sea eagles nest way up in the forks of a tree, the birds have been there several consecutive years now despite their usual habit of having two nests which they use in alternate years.
We were warned that the sea might have a bit of a swell as we went through Schouten Passage as we were going into open sea and it could be a bit rough. We were really lucky as the boat only bounced a little and we were able to cope with that . Having got our 'sea legs' in Sydney and in .....
Rounding the point we were now in a totally different geological area, less trees and vegetation for a start and a series of caves and waterfalls ( although there was little water in the falls ) which were really splendid.
Coming around Cape Forestier and Lemon Island we were soon to enter the lovely Wineglass Bay, but not before we were distracted and detoured for a time watching a pod of common dolphins playing in the wake of the boat. They were very friendly and came along side for quite some time but they proved very difficult to capture in photographs!!
Stopping in the Bay we were served our gourmet lunch box and a glass of local reisling. It was very nice - cold meats, local cheese, salad, salmon and a piece of Rocky Road! To top it all we were also served very fresh local oysters, which have a really good reputation, so I tried my first oyster! Different!!
Enjoying a glass of local 'sparkling', we made our way back to port. It was a really good trip made more so by our hosts, so thanks again guys .
Back on land we decided to explore a little and found Muirs Beach, very pretty and to follow the sign for the town centre of Coles Bay, another nice beach area, a small convenience store and a restaurant. That was it!!!
So back home base to see what there was to explore there: Honeymoon Beach has some interesting rock formations, beautiful turquoise sea, a small light sandy beach and two wallabies/kangaroos bouncing about. It was amazing to see them on the edge of the beach but they were quite at home there.
Walking through the camp site at the top of the beach they or two different wallaroos came bounding by, not taking any notice of anyone. Fantastic!
What a way to end our time in Tasmania, we leave the island tomorrow to start the next part of our adventure.