They call it the jewel of the Tasmanian east coast: Wineglass Bay on the Freycinet peninsula is a perfectly shaped crescent beach with crystal clear water right next to The Hazards (four spectacular granite peaks) – one of the most photographed beaches in the world. A top tourist attraction in Tasmania.
Wary of the crowds, we’d been avoiding the area over the Christmas season and school holidays that had just finished. Maybe now was the time to visit. But we didn’t factor in all the other travellers, who had similar thoughts. So, it was still high season. A stressed out vibe, hectic driving, mad parking. People competing for caravan sites. The access road to the national park was in very bad condition with large potholes. The large carpark of the visitors centre busy like a shopping centre.
On our first day, we went on a short walk to a lighthouse. On the picture below, you can see the white sands of Wineglass Bay on the horizon like a line between the two peaks. We were hesitant to go on the main walk: Wineglass Bay Lookout. The weather forecast for the next day (our last in the region) was all-day rain.
This is the view of the Hazards from the Coles Bay esplanade.
One day later, it looked like this:
Should we go or not? On the positive side, there would be less people. On the negative, we might get soaked. But we could rely an the everchanging nature of Tasmanian weather. There might be sun. And it wasn’t windy – a big plus. So we went. The carpark was only half full. The hike up the steep mountain side was beautiful in a non-postcard way. Dramatic reveals of rock formations by the shifting clouds, wet shining gums and their fragrance, glorious boulders stacked by giants. Only faint glimpses of the famous beach far down below.
And it rained, stopped, started again, and rained harder. We made it up to the lookout (1.5 hours return) together with a lot of other wet and bedraggled hikers. On the way down, I could feel the water seeping through my layers and inside my jeans. We were wet!
We had to change everything. Here you can see us back at our campsite. Whenever our laundry got a little dry, the next rain shower soaked it again. All day and into the night – as the forecast had said.
Liz Mike Travels 