We woke this morning to the sound of rain on the roof – not a welcoming sound at all. But by the time we got up and out the door it had stopped. However, the damp cool air was still around. Fortunately the camp kitchen is enclosed so we were able to sit in relative comfort. This was going to be a quieter day since all we planned to do was go to the Bay of Fires. Apparently it got its name originally because some explorers saw native campfires on the beach.
We took a very narrow and windy road for about 30 minutes to get to the bay. The drive along the coast was beautiful but even though it was not raining, the wind created lots of waves. When we arrived at the end of the road (yep that is how we found the beach – the road ended totally) we discovered the beginning of the walk to the beach. A narrow path through the grasses that started at the end of a lonely house off the road was the way to find the “Bay of Fires”.
Needless to say we looked a the clouds, felt the air, and dressed for full on rain. Hats, rain jackets, fleeces, and Wes even put on his rain pants. I put on shoes rather than sandals. The walk was interesting and the beach was unbelievable. White silicon sand finely ground with black laval rocks spotted around points. Aqua colored water with white foaming water breaks. Well worth the effort of finding this beach although it was so highly spoken of we were surprised we were the only ones to be seen.
We left this beach and headed off to our next destination where tomorrow we plan to explore the “Gorge”. We had a choice of two roads to take and decided to take the one we had not driven yet which was a very interesting narrow, twisty road. I had thought that I had already driven may highways that were narrow and twisty but this was a new experience. The road had no shoulder and I think there was room to pass an oncoming car but a truck? Well when we did meet a truck Wes paled at how close we were to the ditch and I focused entirely on how close the truck’s mirrors were to my window. But we survived. The switch backs (and yes there were many since this road followed the coast closely) meant that we travelled at about 30 – 40 km / hour for long distances. It took use 2 hours to go 52 km. In hindsight I would say it was an interesting drive and we had the time so it was a good choice – and experience.
We arrived in Launceston, which is a large sized city, and let Karen direct us to the camp grounds. Well what an interesting route she took us. She did not go around the city to the far side but through the city in the most direct route. We saw parts of the residential part of the city that are not often explored by travellers. Again the streets there are wide enough for two lanes of traffic or two lanes of parking but not both, so we weaved our way down some streets around the parked cars and hoped not to meet an oncoming cars where there was a place with not cars parked. Driving at its best I assure you.
Then comes the fun. We get a site and then head off to do some grocery shopping. We are only in Tasmania for another 2 days so have to shop carefully to be sure to run out totally by Monday noon. At the store I got my first opportunity to parallel park. Then off to find a liquor store so we could have a bottle of Tasmania wine. Finally we remembered we needed to call the airport shuttle service to arrange our ride on Monday and the campervan rental agent to arrange to drop of the van. This meant we needed to buy a phone card since we have no phones to use. Ok, we find a place that sells them and study the options. We finally find the one we want and buy a $10 credit on the prepaid card. Then to the phone – not easy to find any more but finally locate a phone. It costs 50 cents to make any types of calls, even toll free calls which fortunately we had. Then we try to use the call card PIN and are told it does not work URRRGGGG. Another 50 cents – ooops all we have is $1 coins. So we have to spend a dollar to call the help service number to get it sorted out for the card. We then spend another $1 to make the call that we tried in the first place. It cost use $2.50 to make the three calls and we are not sure what the cost would have been if we just paid the toll charges directly. Oh well we have the calling card to use for the rest of our stay in Australia and New Zealand.
Now we are enjoying the wine – really good actually – and getting ready to make dinner. The wind is very cold and the camp kitchen is open sided so not much protection. However joining us in the kitchen tonight is a fellow from Montreal and two guys who just got off a 11 days back country hiking trek (sounded worse than the West Coast Trail in rainy season) so we had lots of stories to share and hear. We left afterwards feeling very chilled and ready to huddle in the van to get out of the wind and warm up. It feels like rain is coming.
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