Three nights in Coles Bay has given us ample time to rest our saddle sore rears and explore Freycinet – and to do some much needed washing!

Coles Bay itself is tiny- three shops in the Main Street- a general store, a fish & chippery that doubles as an ice-cream parlour and a cafe. We are frequenting all three regularly- sometimes doing a ‘progressive meal’ having our seafood then moving next door for coffee- just as well we’re exercising lots!

The town is teaming with grey nomads and all the traffic that entails.

Eager to have a day without riding yesterday we started with a Wineglass Bay Cruise and walk. We opted for the Freycinet Discovery tour which had a much smaller boat and less people than the giant cruising catamarans (aka floating feedlots).

We were so pleased with our choice- turns out the tour operators were a couple just starting out in the area with their boat that they’d had purpose built. We were on their inaugural tour- which was very special. Wonderful personalised service and only three couples on the tour- all with a similar sense of fun. Turned out to be a fab day and really exciting to be part of their new beginning.

The cruise went from Coles Bay around the rugged (and turbulent) national park coastline dropping us off in the serene waters of Wineglass Bay (more like a lagoon). From there we did the 90 minute hike across to Hazards Beach where they picked us up again.

And today we approached the bay from above- riding up through the national park and then hiking the last couple of Km to the Wineglass Bay lookout. The climb up was hard on the lungs and the climb down hard on the knees- with terrain similar to the Grampians. But the views were definitely worth the climb!

Now back at our cabin getting our workhorse ready for the next leg to Swansea tomorrow- it’s amazing how much can explode out of your bags in three days- it’s like trying to get a genie back into the bottle!