St Helens

We awoke to glorious sunshine and warmer temperatures than we have been used to in Tasmania - it actually was shorts and T shorts weather. Great!! After breakfast we set off to drive along the Bay of Fires as far as the road allowed. We ended up in a place called The Gardens, which consisted of a few houses next to the sea. We walked along the coast partly along the white fine sandy beach and at times traversing rocky boulders. All very beautiful. We turned back and retraced our steps after 30 minutes or so, although could have walked a lot further. We then drove onto a local vineyard called Priory Ridge - about 3km outside of St Helens. We sat in the sunshine tasting 4 different wines made on site - 2 white and 2 reds. There were other groups there, mostly picnicking whilst drinking wine from the vineyard. We ate cheese and biscuits whilst drinking wine and chatting to the owners. Our favourite wine was the sauvignon blanc (quite different to the NZ Marlborough wines which Karen loves to drink). At 40 dollars a bottle much more expensive than wines we generally drink - but we bought some to take away.
We then carried on until we reached gravel tracks which would take us through Mt William National Park eventually ending up at Eddystone Point lighthouse. As we drove we passed through temperate rainforest along about 50km of gravel track before reaching the lighthouse. Once there we walked along pathways through rocks and were greeted with the most amazing sight of red rocks and pools of seawater. Absolutely stunning!!
We carried on driving along gravel tracks to Gladstone returning to base via a twisty road passing through the forested hill sides. At one point a very large white tailed eagle flew across our path into the trees, but we were not able to capture it on camera. We stopped off to have a quick look at the blue lake which gains its colour from the result of mine working in the area. Tin mining in particular.Read more