14 Freycinet, TAS - Day 1

We went north and headed towards the Freycinet Peninsula this morning. On our way, we stopped at the Kate's Berry Farm for a break. There is a small field in front of the cafĂ©, with strawberries and raspberry still bearing fruits. The crepe is better than the pancake, and my raspberry ice cream is yum. Next stop is the Freycinet Marine Farm. We had high hope for some great seafood; but their oysters are all opened and arranged on a plate and do not look too appetizing!  We decided to skip and went to the lodge for a proper lunch.

View of  Richardson's Beach from the balcony of our cabin
The lodge is inside the Freycinet National Park and we have five cabins with nice view of the beach – very nice and very pricey!  We had mussels and salad for a late lunch and the oysters are freshly opened. 
After lunch, we went to the Sleepy Bay Lookout.   Then I saw the tidal pools down on the beach and I could not resist the 10-minute walk down to check out the rocks.  There are not much in the water, quite a few limpets and something that look like star fish, but they have 8 or 10 points. Since we are doing the Penguin tour tonight, we went back for an early dinner.

Dinner was very good, but it took forever for the main course to come out. We had to drive about 30 minutes to the gathering point for the tour. It is bad enough to drive at dusk because all the animals would come out to feed and become prime candidates for roadkill, it also started to rain.  We encountered a couple of animals along the way and were able to slow down for them, but we also saw quite a few dead ones.  We were lucky that it was not raining when we got to the Penguin breeding ground. 
penguins returning from sea
Because it is the end of the mating season, most of the penguins have left. We only saw 4 coming back from a day of feeding and playing at sea. They walk the same path every night back to their nests. The guide then took us through the area where she knows there are penguins moulting. The poor things cannot go out to sea until they get a new coat of feathers, and so they lose weight and look miserable during this 15 days moulting period. But at the end of it, they will have a brand new coat to withstand the cold in the sea. 





baby penguins

 We also get to see a baby penguin, though it is almost full grown. I guess it is really hungry and the parents are not back yet, and so it comes out to check us out – a rather dangerous for this little guy.  No photography were allowed during the tour, but the company is kind enough to send us some of the following …









By the time we got back to the lodge, it was 11pm … time for bed after a long day.

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