Walking on Freycinet Peninsular

Once the Australian walking bug had bitten me I wasn’t to be stopped anymore and headed off to my next hike just a few days after the last. I took the bus to the Freycinet national park and walked a circuit with two nights camping. The pictures of the first two days turned out to be a bit misty due to smoke from bushfires in the area.

Australia is big, Tasmania is small. After one hour of walking I ran into The Boys, two gentlemen I had met on the Overland Track. Apart from them I didn’t see many people, especially once I left the day use area. I ended up at Cooks Beach where there was only one other person, who I had a nice chat with and who shared some of his candy-snakes with me. Later, another couple joined us at the campsite, but it was still lonely enough.

The next day I refilled all my water containers because I wouldn’t have water for the next 30 hours. Unfortunately, there was a mountain to cross, and I’d rather haven’t had to carry the three extra kilos. But to cross it I had to. On top of the mountain I was panting like a hippo and met one of those annoying trail runners who disrespectfully run your multi-day walk in just one day and thus make it look EASY. But he was actually pretty nice. It took me 7 hours to reach the next campsite which was located at picturesque Wineglass Bay. At the campsite, there were a few anglers, but I found a lonely spot behind the foredune. I was joined by wallabies, all kinds of birds, and two possums who made a lot of noise at night when they played with my pots which I had left outside. Also, I found a biggish spider in my tent which I didn’t dare to catch and throw out because I didn’t know whether or not it could kill me. The idea to kill it first didn’t cross my mind at the time because it was too big not to be considered a sentient being. Someone told me later that these spiders aren’t able to kill people but their bites cause big ugly ulcers, so good call to leave it alone.

The last day the sky had cleared up and I could take the standard pictures of Tasmania’s East Coast signature view, the Wineglass Bay from Wineglass Bay Lookout. There, I ran into a group of guys I had shared a dorm with in Hobart.