We arrived here on Sunday, taking a short drive from White Beach. St Helens is a much more ‘touristy’ town, with a main strip of shops, a good supermarket, but in Tassie you don’t see the large shopping centres that we have in the outskirts of Melbourne. I haven’t seen a Target, but Russ has seen a Bunnings, so his withdrawals have been curbed!
After setting up we wanted to have a look at the Bay of Fires Conservation Park, where we took another picnic lunch. We had fun driving into all the beaches, where people were setting up their sites in time to get the best spot for Easter. We are always looking for picnic tables – these are sadly lacking in Tassie. We follow signs to Day Use Areas where you come to the end of the road, then a walk to the beach. Tables would be fabulous. We set ourselves up on stools at Cosy Corner North, beside a river and with a view to the ocean. It was beautiful, although stools in the sand for a couple of hours, is a bit hard on old knees.
The coastline is absolutely stunning. Wherever you go we see massive boulders, with aqua coloured surf crashing over them, mountains in the background and white sand. Quite spectacular everywhere.
Yesterday we went to a place called The Gardens. This is still in The Bay of Fires Conservation Area and is on a point on the Bay of Fires. Activities much the same as the day before, but still wonderful views. The bush is low, dense, with a huge variety of plants, including Melaleucas, eucalypts, banksias and sheaoaks (all the female plants are in flower at the moment).
We splashed out and bought a cray for tea tonight, some champers – figured we had to sample the Tassie seafood. We were able to choose our own live cray, pay for it, then return 40 minutes later and collect it cooked. It was delicious and tonight I have all the legs etc. to pick at. Russ isn’t that keen on that part of it, so cheese and biscuits for him!
Today we drove to St Helens Conservation Area, which again, was beautiful, although there were very large sand dunes on the eastern side of the point. At St Helens Point, we could see St Helens Island.
We have had to book at Ulverstone over Easter, so we have two days to find somewhere between here and there. It is just a case of getting back towards Devonport now, sitting pretty over Easter and leaving for home on 29/3.