Bicheno

We left Hobart on Thursday 20^th December, but we didn’t leave until nearly midday as we stayed at the great apartment in Seven Mile Beach until we had to check out.  The kids played Wii while Liz and Mike packed the car again, ready to head to Bicheno.  We drove to Bicheno, and then, once we were all setup in the caravan park, we had a quick drive around the town to see the blowhole and what else was in the area.

The Bicheno Blowhole

Friday was going to be great weather, so we headed to Freycinet National Park.  After a short look at the visitor information centre, we went to the wineglass bay lookout walk.  We walked up to the wineglass bay lookout and it was a very busy bushwalk.  There were lots of other people doing the lookout walk and the lookout platform was really busy.  Nonetheless, the beautiful views over Wineglass Bay were worth the walk.

Josh, Sam and Natalie with Wineglass Bay in the background

Wineglass Bay, Freycinet National Park

Once we were back at the car, we headed to Cape Tourville Lighthouse and walked to the lookout.  The ocean was so still and it was a beautiful view over the Freycinet coastline.  It was time for lunch, so we headed to Richardson’s Beach for a picnic lunch overlooking Coles Bay.

Overlooking the ocean at Cape Tourville

Sam and Natalie at Cape Tourville

The kids enjoying the sand at Richardson's Beach

On the way back to Bicheno, we turned off and drove to Friendly Beaches for a look at the Northern End of Freycinet National Park.  The Orange lichen growing on the granite rocks are definitely a beautiful aspect of this part of coastline.  We had fun climbing over the rocks and exploring rockpools at Friendly Beaches.

The beautiful coastline of Freycinet National Park

The kids in front of some of the Orange rocks in the area

That night, after dinner, we walked along the beach and found plenty of Penguin burrows and more rocks to climb on.  Once it was getting dark enough to think about bed (which wasn’t until after 8pm, and it is still light until well after 9pm this far south), we retired back to the tent.

On Saturday the 22^nd, we spent the whole day around Bicheno.  The kids had made lots of new ‘friends’ at the caravan park playground (just across from our tent) and so they spent a bit of time playing with them throughout the day.  However, we also got out and about and did lots of things around town.  We walked through the shops looking for Christmas presents or other bargains.  We climbed up the two lookouts in town – The Rock lookout and Whalers lookout.  Both of these lookouts gave a great view over the town and surrounding coastline.  We walked along the beach and then walked over to Diamond Island (which you can only walk to on low tide), and we saw some penguins hiding in their burrows on the island.  We scrambled around the rocks and tried to walk around the whole island, but some nesting Albatross didn’t want us around their newborn chick, so we didn’t quite make it all the way around, but it was great fun exploring the island.

At the top of Rock Lookout in Bicheno

Walking over to Diamond Island

Mike, Sam and Josh rock hopping on Diamond Island

Overlooking Bicheno from the Whalers Lookout

Bicheno is a lovely spot to explore and see the beautiful coastline around this area.  The water isn’t warm enough to comfortably swim, so we didn’t get any swimming in, but there were plenty of other things that we got to do while we were there.