Swansea - St. Helens

 

After leaving Swansea we headed north to St. Helens via Bicheno. Bicheno is a pretty little town with a nice beach walk (including a small blow-hole) and the mandatory “best bakery” in town. Both didn’t disappoint.

As we headed north along the west coast, we did notice how dry and brown the landscape is compared to the rest of Tassie – I am told this is because all the rain is dumped on the west coast and high central plateau and the east is in a rain shadow. The other unique feature of the east coast is the beautiful long white sandy beaches.

As we had some time to kill before checking in at our apartment in St. Helens we headed out to the Bay of Fires to do some sightseeing. I thought it ws called the Bay of Fires due to the bright orange algae covering the rocks, but the bay was given its name in 1773 by Captain Tobias Furneaux in Adventure who saw the fires of Aboriginal people on the beaches.

After we got back to St. Helens we checked into our apartment – I mention this because I have a story to tell. We were in Room 2 on the first floor and as soon as we we got out of the lift we knew the name of the lassie in Room 1 – it was Lisa - Mona Lisa. You could hear her moaning loudly from twenty meters away. This was accompanied by the sound of the bedhead banging against our common wall? Not sure what they were up to - Tai Chi maybe?? Anyway, it all very exciting – almost had to buy a pie and a newspaper. Must have been fun because they were at it again an hour later.

A very short video is HERE