Hard Hiking

Day 25:
The second day of our Tasmania tour took us from Bicheno to Port Arthur outside of Hobart. The day itself started at a reasonable hour and we were soon on our way without any drama.

After a bit of driving we came to a park called Wineglass Bay. The bay was recently listed as one of the 10 best beaches in the world, and it certainly was nice. It is however, somewhat difficult to get to.

The tour bus arrived at a trailhead with a number of different trails leading off of it. The group split about evenly between the two most popular trails. The first was a trail that led up a large mountain that gave a superb overlook of the bay and the surrounding countryside. Jill and I opted for the second walk down to the bay itself.

The trailhead was located on the back side of a mountain pass from Wineglass Bay itself, near Great Oyster Bay. You hike up the hill side on a well maintained trail to the pass and stop at an amazing overlook where you get your first view of Wineglass Bay. From there, you trek down the other side of the pass on a steep and treacherous mountain path. The path consisted of stable stairs made out of the local granite, but it still made you wonder if you wanted to climb back up once you’d gotten down to the bay.

But we did eventually make it down and it was amazing. The sand was soft and clean, the water clear as air. I actually decided to take a dip (why else would you go to a beach?) and found that the water was about 10C! I tried to wait out the cold and let my body adjust, but after about 5 minutes my legs hurt so bad, that I just couldn’t take it any more. I did dip in and out for a while after this, but most of the day was just laying on the beach, working on our tans.

After about 90 minutes, it was time to hike back to the trailhead to meet the other group. Jill and I were relatively fast up, but it was very hard work. It’s been a long time since I’ve done a hike that went that steeply up a hill, and I’ve certainly never done it at the pace she and I ascended.

After meeting the group and having a pleasant lunch at Honeymoon Bay, we drove to Port Arthur directly. Port Arthur was one of the most notorious prisons in Australia and housed repeat and major offenders. With this kind of reputation and the deaths of thousands of prisoners while it was operating, Port Arthur has a very extensive ghost tour.

The ghost tour itself is good, if a little heavy on the paranormal. I’m a skeptic, so I was there mostly for the stories and the tour of the site at night. For that it was OK, but if you are a believer, than I’m sure it was very good.