After loading the car, we left Hobart not long after nine and headed to the petrol station to top up the car. Petrol is currently under £1 a litre. From there, we joined the A3 Tasman Highway on the north-eastern side of the city and headed east across the Tasman Bridge. The road is a 4-lane highway as far as the airport when it reverts to two lanes. The speed limit on the 2-lane roads is 100kph, but we spent most of our journey tootling along at 60-65kph except when someone came up behind us. Then we speeded up until we could pull off the road to let them past.
After the airport, the road crosses two long causeways across the bays to Sorell. After that, the road heads inland through Orielton, Runnymede, Buckland to Orford where we rejoined the coast. At Triabunna, we pulled over and had a coffee at an art gallery. The owner assured me it was made from the finest Australian coffee. I'm not sure about that, but it was a pleasant break.
Triabunna is a small port where it's possible to catch a ferry to Maria Island, a National Park. It is vehicle free and is a wildlife haven. Sadly, we didn't stop as we've realised you can't do everything in the space of two weeks!
After Triabunna, the road heads generally North following the coast through Ravenscar and Pontypool to Swansea. I wonder where the first settlers came from? We stopped briefly at Kelvedon Beach, a three mile stretch of pristine sand, to take in the view across Great Oyster Bay to the Freycinet Peninsular.
On the outskirts of Swansea, we turned up a side road to look at a local wildlife refuge. It was a bit underwhelming, but we did see lots of Grey Fantails. There plenty of them, but in the scrubby trees, they were constantly moving and too close for binoculars. They fan out their tails, hence the name, but also partially spread their wings whilst flitting around.
We found a small park next to the sea in Swansea and were joined for lunch by a number of Silver Gulls! We'd made up some rolls before leaving Hobart, so we ate them at a picnic table with no assistance from the gulls!
North of Swansea, we passed through the Grange hills and numerous wineries. We eventually pulled over at Devils Corner Winery and tasted a Riesling, an un-oaked Pinot Noire and an oaked Pinot Noire. The Riesling was pleasant, but tasted overly of apples and both Pinots were a bit thin on taste. The tasting was free and we didn't buy anything!
Shortly after this, we arrived in Bicheno. It's a small sea-side town that originally supported the whaling fleet. It also briefly acted as port for coal mined inland from here, nowadays its a fairly sleepy holiday town. It has several restaurants, cafes, a supermarket, post office and Newsagents and a Tourist Information Centre.
Our home for the next three nights is just across the road from the shore and is small, but nicely decorated and equipped. We have a kitchen/diner, a bedroom and a shower-room and a small patio and garden outside. It's possible to walk into town along the foreshore.
After settling in, we drove back to the town centre, just over half a kilometre away and bought a pass for the car and up to eight occupants to all National Parks for up to eight weeks. A day pass per person would cost A$24, so at A$60, our multi pass seems like a good deal. We also bought so food stocks for dinner and for sandwiches for tomorrow. It helps the money last longer doing a bit of self catering!
I won't have to eat pork chops here! I'm not a fan. Here, lamb is cheaper than beef and way cheaper than pork. I saw beef mince in the supermarket here is half the price of pork mince.
We have no internet access here, in fact I can't get a phone signal either, so blogs are being produced off-line and I'm hoping I can access public internet in town later. Apparently, we can get half an hour for free each day!
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