Julien DIOT: Globeblogger in Outdoor Sports
Julien DIOT: Globeblogger in Outdoor Sports

30km around Wine Glass Bay

Wine-glass-bay_Freycinet-Peninsula_lookout_worldtour-outdoorexperienceOnce I landed to Launceston Airport, Sophie (an English girl I travelled with exactly 51 weeks ago along the Australian West Coast) takes me in her car with my MTB. But she’s not alone. Jessie and Eliane are travelling with her too.
With Sophie and her two friends, we celebrate our reunion. I have a good feeling with Jessie and Eliane and when these three fantastic girls suggest me to travel (my MTB in the boot) with them to Freycinet Peninsula and Wine Glass Bay the next day, I accept with pleasure!
After a few hours drive from Launceston to St Helens, we take our lunch break on a paradisiacal beach : white sand and clear water and orange rocks. But there is something even better: Tasmania is so far away from the rest of world than you don’t have as many tourists as the mainland of Australia. We are almost alone.

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We will end the day to Coles Bay just before it gets dark. Right after diner Eliane (truly sporty) asked me if I would like to join her tomorrow for a 30km walk around Wine Glass Bay. First stunned by her purpose, I accept to take up the challenge. Sophie and Jess join us to Wine Glass Bay lookout before we leave them to continue our long day walk. They must bring back the car to Hobart today. We are not sad to split up since us, globetrotters, perfectly know we will meet again somewhere else in the world.

Wine-glass-bay-summit_Freycinet-Peninsula_worldtour-outdoorexperienceOur real journey around Wine Glass Bay starts now on a technical track. I feel cold and the sky is cloudy mainly in reason of a few bushfires running all day and night long around Coles Bay but after a climb, I’m glad it’s not warmer. However it will be hard to get nice shots with this grey light. Luckily our eyes can perceive the beauty of this place to be indelibly printed in ours memories.

Wine-glass-bay-beach_Freycinet-Peninsula_worldtour-outdoorexperienceWine Glass Bay Beach fills us with wonder: the deep blue colour of the ocean is breaking on the white sand. However we will be gob-smacked three hours later from the second peak of Wine Glass Bay dominating the place where we stop to take our lunch. The 360° view is amazing especially as the grey sky is giving way to a blue one, the sun raises drawing the mountain’s shadows. Behind us (South of Wine Glass Bay) is Shouten Island and its orange/pink cliffs. This wonderful island looks like a starfish from the highest summit of Wine Glass Bay. Unfortunately we can’t reach it today.

After a long way down through the bush we arrived on a southwest-facing beach: Cooks Beach. Unlike the previous one this beach leaves us speechless. On the right-hand side orange boulders go down in the crystal ocean while on the left-hand side pure white sand does the same. The sky is completely clear and the sunshine caresses our skin with its heat. Nobody else is here and after four hours walking, we deserve a swim even though the water is cool. Nonetheless we still have 10km to walk. I guess we will be back to the car park a little bit after the sunset.

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Wine-glass-bay_Freycinet-Peninsula_cooks-beach_worldtour-outdoorexperienceWine-glass-bay_shell-alive_worldtour-outdoorexperienceWe come back on the track inside the forest for an hour before to walk along Hazards Beach for 30minutes where two persons were enjoying the quietness of this place. For the first time, we discovered many beautiful shells still alive and with Eliane we’ll throw them back to the sea. We will end our walk by an ultimate two hours climb to Wine Glass Bay lookout where we were eight hours earlier (we missed the track along the western side of Wine Glass bay) before to head down the car park. Hopefully, someone will take us and drive back to the guesthouse! Fortunately we won’t have to wait too long. Eliane gave a call to her friend: a Finnish girl she met on her journey to Cradle Mountain who is in Coles Bay too.

It was a great day and it’s with a cider followed by a chunky potatoes bowl that we celebrate this epic bushwalk around Wine Glass Bay!

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