Tasmania: East Coast - Day 18

Left our camp at Whitewater wall/Bluestone Bay area and took an alternative 4wd track out to the main road. A little longer, but a pretty drive and worth doing the loop for the sake of it. We tried again to get a carpark at the head of the Wineglass Bay walk but even in the early morning we could see it was pointless. Even if we could park, Gran and Leah were going to have troubles with the 600 steep steps and the 1.5 hr walk.



Instead we headed out along a 4wd track out to Friendly Point. We found it to be a relatively long trip (30mins?) only to find a very wild beach blocked by a river so we couldn't really walk far along it. We stayed about 20 mins then doubled back. A campsite here is set back from the beach access and isn't too bad - the main advantage being that it is probably a quiet camp with few people staying here. Vehicle access to the beach is blocked by a locked gate but there wouldn't really be any point in wanting to drive on this beach.

Back onto the main road in Freycinet we headed up to the main track (bitumen) out to Friendly Beaches to find a slightly more protected beach, but lots of people. The camps her are ok and in calmer winds would probably be a good place to stay. We spent about an hour on the beach then drove out of Freycinet and continue north on the main road via Bicheno and St Helens and onto the Binalong Bay Road to Humbug Pt.

My research indicated that we should find good campsites at Moulting Bay - but we found it was the smelly end of the bay. The campground was certainly nice but crowded and not the kind of beach access I was hoping for. We spent quite a bit of time driving around and investigating all the campsites in the area right up to Dora Point, where we settled. The camps are very good and there is a beautiful swimming area for kids, especially at low tide when the water pools into rock pools. The water was very cool but we all swam. David collected mussels off the rocks and we cooked these for dinner in a tomato and chilli sauce!! Yum!