Spring & Wineglass Bay

Spring is finally here! Well, almost. It's getting a lot nicer, besides the heaps of rain and wind. The other day I was walking in the CBD (Central Business District), about to cross the road and the wind pushed me half way into the street!

Luckily the weather was fairly nice this past weekend for a spontaneous camping trip to Wineglass Bay, or Freycinet National Park, about 2 hours from Hobart. I went with a whole group of study abroaders from Colorado. We left Friday night, so we didn't get into the park until it was dark out. After searching for about 20 minutes for a hidden road to the Coles Bay campsites we set up our tents right next to the beach and immediately started a fire. It was an awesome night. The stars down under are absolutely mind blowing. Since I'm on a fairly unpopulated island in the southern hemisphere, not only was the sky completely different, but it was brighter than I have ever seen before. Plus, we could see the Milky Way! I wish I got a photo of the stars, but I'll definitely be camping again so just hold on a bit longer. :)

The beach by our original campsite

After a fun night we woke up to a cloudy day, and were soon told by the ranger that where we had set up camp is a sacred Aboriginal spot. So we respectively picked up our tents and moved away from the beach. I feel lucky to have spent the night there, though. Despite the clouds and chilly weather, a few of the boys and I decided to adventure out for a walk. After looking at a map of Freycinet, we decided to check out "The Nuggets" first. It was an easy walk path along some really gorgeous cliffs. The cloudy day made the whole walk even more dramatic, you could barely make out the sea from the sky and the waves were pretty intense.

The Nuggets!

A view of the cliffs

Craaash!

After that refreshing walk, we headed back to camp to warm up, grill some food, and take a nap. I had forgotten how relaxing camping is. You never worry about time or tasks, the only thing that matters is lighting the fire and cooking your food -- and who doesn't love playing with some fire! We didn't stay up too late the second night, we had a longer walk planned for Sunday. When we woke up, the weather was absolutely perfect for a hike. We packed up camp and headed down the road to do the 4 hour Wineglass Bay walk. The half to the viewing point was a piece of cake, we finished that in less than an hour. Then we headed down to the beach...way down. I thought we were never going to hit sea level, but once I heard some waves I ran the rest of the way down. As soon as I turned the corner and stepped onto the beach I was greeted by some wild wallabies. They are so friendly and cuuute! Soon enough the rest of the group caught up to me and we sought out a spot to eat our lunch. The orange rocks were perfect, besides the scavenging sea gulls. After lunch we played some foot tag on the beach and some of them went swimming, but the water was wayyy too cold for me.

Amazing view of Wineglass Bay!

Group shot!

Hellllo beach :)

Wallabies!

Such cool rocks!

The hike back was a little rough...going down was a piece of cake, but it was quite the climb on the way back. Eventually we made it back to the car and headed back to Hobart in hopes of making it back while the sun was still up. Luckily, we had just gained an hour of daylight that day from Daylight Savings, so it was a successful mission.

I'm excited to go back again this weekend. :) That's the good thing about being a "floater".. you get lots of chances to go places. This weekend we'll be camping right on the beach at the Bay of Fires. I've heard it's really nice, and this time I'll be with my ladies so that should be fun.