BICHENO to ST HELENS

11^th February, 2014

On the move again – not far today.  The small coastal village of Bicheno is only 30 klms up the road but if we keep running into these pesky bike riders it will take us all day.

Wayne tries to negotiate his way around some bike riders as we leave the campground

We are following Wayne today and not far along the road a kamikaze wallaby bounds across the road in front of us leaving no time to brake.  We can’t believe it!  This is the second kangaroo/wallaby that we have hit in two years.  Luckily for us there was no damage to Mitzi this time.  Unfortunately the wallaby was not quite so lucky.  We book into a caravan park in Bicheno and Wayne catches up on all his emails at the free wifi hot spot at the roundabout in the middle of town.  Bicheno is a cute seaside village with a unique rocky coastline.

Rocky cove at Bicheno

The huge boulders along the shore are covered in an orange algae which really makes for stunning scenery.

Orange coloured algae at Bicheno

The water is crystal clear and beds of kelp grow close to shore.

Kelp growing along the rocks

In some places along the Tasmanian coast the kelp is harvested and dried on racks for commercial use.

Mmmmmm ..... yum......... kelp ..... !!!

We continue north along the coast through pine forests growing down to the water’s edge in some places and check into the Big 4 Caravan Park at St Helens for a couple of nights.  Wayne’s Real Estate Agent has express posted the Contract of Sale to the Post Office in St Helens for him to sign and return so we set up the vans and head into town to pick it up.  We check out the dragon (which commemorates the involvement of the Chinese tin miners in the area) outside the Information Centre and get some tourist info while we are there.

Wayne is more interested in getting those Contract of Sale documents
out of the Xpress Post package than posing with this dragon

The following day we take a drive north of St Helens and check out the free camp spots along the Bay of Fires before heading inland to see St Columba Falls.  It was lunchtime when we spotted the Pub in the Paddock sign

Wayne looks for that perfect photo at the Pub in the Paddock

and couldn’t resist the opportunity to see a genuine beer drinking pig and have a home cooked meal.  The pub was a wonderful heritage building

The Pub in the Paddock

with the dining room and bar set around a large fireplace.  It would be really cozy having a meal there in the middle of winter.  We have a lovely meal of pie, chips and gravy before venturing out to the nearby paddock where Pinky the Pig - was fast asleep in her box (probably flaked out from over indulging last night). 

Pinky is asleep in the shed behind the fence

Pinky follows on in the grand old tradition of beer drinking set down by her predecessor Priscilla who has sadly passed on to that lovely green meadow in the sky.  We hop in the Prado and not far down the road Wayne stops to let a wandering echidna cross the road.

Mr or Mrs Echidna - just out for an afternoon stroll

Now it’s not often one sees an echidna when driving along but this little guy was quite happy to amble along on the grass beside the road while we happily clicked away taking photos.  A few kilometres further on we arrived at the parking area for St Columba Falls and walk down the track and through a grove of Tree Ferns (Man Ferns are what they are called in Tasmania)

Wayne and Wok walk through the Tree Ferns

until we come to a lookout area at the base of the falls.

Wayne and Wok at the base of St Columba Falls

The water was running fairly strongly over the falls in two places but judging by the logs scattered across the rocks it must have a pretty impressive run of water during the late winter and early spring.

St Columba Falls

We slowly make our tortoise like way back up the track while Wayne (the hare) bounds to the top and waits patiently.  At least we made it under our own steam and didn’t need a rescue party.  On the way back to St Helens we stop at the Holy Cow Cafe

Holy Cow Cafe

for some cheese tasting.  There were only a few cheeses on offer and while Wayne and Robyn did the tasting Wok took it easy on the verandah.

Wayne churns butter while Wok takes it easy

It looked like Wok had settled in for the duration so Wayne tried his hand at churning butter.  We’d had a full day touring around the St Helens area and were pretty tired when we got back to camp.  Tomorrow we will be heading inland and saying goodbye to the east coast … we’ve enjoyed the journey!