Bicheno, Tasmania

After free camping for a few days we decided to head for a caravan park for a couple of nights.  We stayed in Bicheno on the east coast of Tasmania.  While we were there we made it to a few places, first to the nearby blowhole.  It was pretty spectacular at times. The boys all climbed closer for a better view.  I’m sure they ended up in a few tourist pictures as there were quite a few people coming and going and snapping pics of the area. Plenty of red-coloured rocks to climb on again. Another view… LadyBug is missing from the above pictures because just before we left to see the blowhole she had an awful fall on her bike.  We were all going to ride our bikes there but she was not up to riding after that experience, nor was she too interested in exploring like her brothers.  She got an awful scrape on her knee and another on her elbow, and didn’t want to put her pants and jumper on, so here she is with her blankets tied around her.  She managed to scratch up her left cheek, funny because a few months ago she did her right cheek.  She had been riding her bike around the caravan park and slid out on the gravel, some ladies brought her back to us while she screamed and screamed, not made any easier by the fact that TurboBug was already screaming over something or other.  I got a sympathetic pat on the shoulder from the grandmother-aged woman as she left.  I’m sure she remembers these days! That night we headed to the beach to see if we could see any fairy penguins as Sean had seen a sign earlier that there was a colony of them on this beach in town.  The rain started just as we were ready to leave but we took a chance and went anyway.  Luckily the rain was very light and spotty and didn’t ruin our explorations at all.  When we climbed out of the car at the beach we could hear the penguins nearby.  Mostly they were hiding in the bushes but we managed to spot a few.  There were no signs about the penguins and no other people around, but at a later spot we learned that you shouldn’t use flash photography or white torchlights as it can really disturb them.  So these may be my only penguin pictures of the trip! We walked down a path with our flashlights but the noise would stop when they heard us.  We held very still with our lights off and eventually they started their squawking again.  There were some very close to us and they were so loud!  What fun it was to see our first penguins in Tasmania, scrambling around in the dark with them all around us. The next day we walked up to the Whalers’ Lookout which promised a 360 degree view of Bicheno.  Not sure I agree with the description but we did get a good view of the area.  These are some islands we could see from one lookout on the hike.  The one in the middle of the picture is Alligator Island.  The information at the lookout said seals are sometimes spotted on this island and after some time we realised the dark spots we could see were moving!  Hard to see in the picture but there are a few there.  Must remember to bring my telescopic lens along on our hikes from now on! We took a picnic lunch with us and had a feast at the lookout while watching the waves.  We made our way to the next lookout on the trail and found a lovely view of the town.  If we hadn’t been camped on the other side of some trees we would have been able to see our caravan.  Everything was within walking distance of the caravan park which made for a lovely stay in this coastal town.  It was quite busy with tourists. The town oval is next to the coast, on the right in this picture.  How would that be to do your footy training so close to the ocean! Hmmm, don’t we look like tourists?!?  JitterBug was making his Yoda face in this picture. This caravan park had a playground and a few other kids were there, so our kids loved it here.