Tasmania Day 17 - The East Coast

Today would be a day of driving.  We had to go from Derby all the way to Freycinet with a few stops in between. When we planned the itinerary we knew that we planned a lot today and probably weren't going to spend enough time at any one location.  But, looking back I think we did OK and don't think we really missed a lot.  Although, I am sure there are really nice areas that we didn't even know to go see.

In any case, the first stop along our drive was at the Bay of Fires.  This really is a pretty area and even though we only made a couple stops I think we saw a lot.











Contrary to what you might think, the Bay of Fires didn't get that name from the bright orange lichen on the rocks.  Instead, it was named by a ship caption in the late 1700's after all the fires of aboriginal people on the beaches.  Go figure.

We had another really nice lunch at a restaurant in the area.  I forget the name of this place but I enjoyed their marketing out front.



Luckily none of us had any "takeaway gas" that I know of...

Even though we had driven a long way and had obeyed Tim by keeping our eyes peeled, we didn't see any echidna along the road.  But, it was at some point after lunch while we were driving that Sheila made a weird noise and a message popped up on her screen that said something like "Tim dear, you have been driving for a long time and you must be tired.  Should I look for a place to pull over so you can rest?".

Well, maybe I exaggerated a little bit but a message actually did pop up about us driving for a long time and did we want to rest.  I had MUCH longer driving days than this and Sheila NEVER cared about MY well being.  So, now I knew for sure that she liked Tim better than me.  Jealous?  Yup, I was a bit.

We arrived at Freycinet around 4PM and after checking in at the lodge we made a bee-line for the lookout walk to get some exercise and enjoy the view.




But, there were lots of stairs between us and that view.


Once we got up there, the view was nice but it was also crowded so we didn't stick around too long. 


After returning to the lodge, we met for dinner as the sun was going down and I took one last picture for the day to remember the scene:


Once it got dark we did both a night drive and a night walk in the area.  We had heard that there was a possibility of seeing pygmy possum along the coast but no one at the lodge had any idea of where to look.  So, we just headed out on our own but we saw nothing but a few brushies.  We were home well before 10PM which was pretty early.

But there was some excitement today, because as I was putting on my sweats to go to bed a used band-aid popped out.  It's the one from the beginning of the trip that I used on my leech bite that I thought I left way back at Clarendon Cottages.  So, we didn't leave them with a souvenir after all which is nice.  And yes, I know what this little find says about the frequency of me washing those sweats on vacation...