Tassie day 8: East Coast

One of the “must visits” according to all books is the Freychinet National Park on the East Coast of Tasmania, so that was our destination for today. At least that was our plan. One stop completely changed the rest of our plans. Or maybe two stops.

Departing from Launceston and getting closer to the East coast we passed a lot of vineyards. After passing one after the other we could not resist this colorful one, the Gala Estate. So we pulled over for a tasting session, even though it had not even been lunch time yet. After all, we were almost out of wine, would be a shame to enjoy the beautiful landscape without a good glass of wine.

While tasting Pinot Gris, Riesling and Pinot Noir we got to know a bit more about the young history of it. The farm has been in the family since the first settlers arrived. When this family’s first child was born they planted the vineyard. This was in 2008 and they are now up to their 5th vintage. After trying several zips, we both preferred the whites over the red. Starting at $25 a bottle the wines are not cheap, but you only live once, right?

On the way out the owner recommend a very good ice-cream place, since the children also deserved some tasting time. Which was repeated by Kai and Luka over and over again, just in case we would forget that important fact. So when we passed the Pondering Frog we pulled over.

the-pondering-frog-tasmania — The ice cream place looked a bit dodgy from the outside, but was well worth it!

The home made ice cream was really worth stopping for. Luka choose the berry sundae and Kai the Banana split ice cream. It was so good that we even ended up stopping on the way back again for a breakfast ice cream!

The owner of the Pondering Frog should apply for a job at the tourist office, as he overloaded us of tips and tricks on what to do and where to stay. And who are we to go against the advise of a local?

So we first went to Bichero to do our grocery shopping and to look at the blowhole. We ended up staying here for a while, had a pick nick on the rocks and enjoyed looking at the force of mother nature and listen to the screams of the just arrived tourists getting wet.

bichero-blowhole — Kai got up close and personal with the blowhole

getting-a-bit-too-up-and-personal-with-the-blow-hole — Maybe a bit too close

Ask Kai or Luka what their favorite activity in Tasmania was it will without a doubt be the rock hopping along the coast here. There is a coastal path, but we took our own route to stay on the rocks. The kids were rock hopping all the way and had to wait for their slow parents to catch up with them.

bichero-coastal-walk — The kids were rock hopping all the way and had to wait for their slow parents to catch up with them.

The Frog man asked us if we needed facilities on a campsite, when we responded with a no he told us to go to Friendly Beaches. A free camping site from the National Parks just before the entrance of the Freycinet National park. We were more than pleasantly surprised by this campsite. Look at this entrance:

Then we were greeted by kangaroo’s at our site.

kangaroo-at-friendly-beaches — Every camp site has it own kangaroo here

Besides the stunning beach view and bushes that shelter from the wind there are two toilets that are the luxury version of the long drop toilet. It is the same principle, a toilet above a big hole, but you can actually flush it and can not look into the hole.

And as a bonus we also saw a wombat.