After waxing lyrical and even more lyrical, time after time, when sharing our Tasmanian adventures with you, I am now about to commit to a comment which I suspect will be, in the eyes of many, the ultimate in Tasmanian tourist heresy.
"The Bay of Fires is, in our collective view, grandly overrated!"
There, I've said it, and I suspect that I shall remain ever grateful that I've blocked critical comment from this blogsite! Travel trolls and Tassieophiles would be queueing to have a slice of me. I can see it now...."who the hell are you to contradict that travelling oracle the Lonely Planet which has named this region one of the 'world's hottest travel destinations'?"
Who indeed? Actually, one who has been there, done that, and made some critical observations. Let me share them and you be the judge.
But first a bit of background. The region known as The Bay of Fires extends along the north-eastern Tasmanian coast from Binalong Bay in the south northwards to Eddystone Point. And as you can see here Binalong Bay is a tad north of Georges Bay and St Helens.
This coastline was named by our old friend Captain Furneaux in 1773 in response to the myriad of Aboriginal camp fires he saw on the shore as he sailed north. Well, that's version one! Others posit, with but thin credibility in my view, that the bay is so named because of the lichen coloured rocks which are one of its predominant features. The debate rages on!
Every description I have read about this area talks of the orange coloured rocks, the long, white sandy beaches and the clear waters. Some, like 'East Coast Tasmania' bang on like this on their website: "Walk for miles along sugar-white sandy beaches, swim in the impossibly clear ocean, and feel like you’re the only person to have ever set foot here."
in both directions around this part of the bay and all were glowing orange even in this early light.
After this quick look at Binalong Bay we drove further east around Grants Point to do our first camp ground recce.
Even well before we actually arrived at the camp site the roads on which we found ourselves travelling were more than enough to dictate that
this was not going to be a place to which we hauled our van.
So, after this revelation and our first brush with the reality of campgrounds here, we decided to make the most of the morning and push on to The Gardens, a coastal area about 15 kilometres to the north and the point at which the coast road comes to an end. This road also took us past all the various camp grounds to which I have referred with the exception of Policemans Point which is much further to the north at the southern end of Ansons Bay.
The road out of Binalong Bay provided some delightful water views before, in this missive,
we have now fast forwarded to the approach to the holiday homes of The Gardens area.
Here we did find some indisputably pretty beaches,
and attractive secluded coves,
and notwithstanding my previous criticisms, I will concede this stretch of sand was one out of the box and anything but occupied, but this is not the area were the 'bay is on fire'.
Although we checked out the various camp grounds during today's trip, I did not bother to take photos, until, that is, we pulled in to see what was on offer at Swimcart Beach.
But first a bit of background. The region known as The Bay of Fires extends along the north-eastern Tasmanian coast from Binalong Bay in the south northwards to Eddystone Point. And as you can see here Binalong Bay is a tad north of Georges Bay and St Helens.
This coastline was named by our old friend Captain Furneaux in 1773 in response to the myriad of Aboriginal camp fires he saw on the shore as he sailed north. Well, that's version one! Others posit, with but thin credibility in my view, that the bay is so named because of the lichen coloured rocks which are one of its predominant features. The debate rages on!
Every description I have read about this area talks of the orange coloured rocks, the long, white sandy beaches and the clear waters. Some, like 'East Coast Tasmania' bang on like this on their website: "Walk for miles along sugar-white sandy beaches, swim in the impossibly clear ocean, and feel like you’re the only person to have ever set foot here."
'Sugar white'.....over the top....and as for being the only person to set foot here, dream on.....the place was crawling.
But enough of this carping. Fairness demands that I point out that the visual beauty of the Bay of Fires is, to a very large extent, weather dependent. As some of the comparative photos I intend to include to make my point will demonstrate, bright, sunny weather and/or just the right light can be critical to making the most of what can be seen. Sadly we had precious little of this during our stay, and I will be the first to admit that has coloured our judgement. But then we were not those to be making sweeping statements.
The second factor which compounded our disappointment relates to the camping areas. All our research, even before leaving the mainland, was consistent with the comment we read on 'Discover Tasmania', that, "The Bay of Fires Conservation Area offers beach-side camping and the elevated sites amongst the trees have amazing views of the coast and sea. There are camping grounds along a 13-kilometre section of road at the southern end of the conservation area, approached via St Helens."
Many other sources told of open spaces and idyllic surrounds.
Many other sources told of open spaces and idyllic surrounds.
We arrived at St Helens eager to spend some time at one or more of the camping grounds in the area, but fortunately we were, by now, sufficiently savvy to take the decision to do a thorough recce before we left the comfort of our caravan park, a decision prompted in no small part by the numbers of campers we had seen milling in and about town during our first few days here.
This proved to be a very smart move. We checked every camp ground from south to north. Grants Lagoon, Jeanneret Beach, Swimcart Beach, Cosy Corner South, Cosy Corner North and Policemans Point were all subjected to close scrutiny.
All that had sites large enough to accommodate our rig were jam packed. There was no booking system, precious little site supervision that we could determine and in every campground we saw many groups had set up in such a way as to give themselves plenty of room to the detriment of all arriving later. Our abiding impression was one of noise, chaos, campsite clutter, self interest, limited facilities and 'the devil take the hindmost'.
We ultimately determined that the only possible chance we had of spending any time out here would be to just pull up at the entrance to one of the camps in which we would fit and hope that someone on a suitable site left that morning. Either that or actually tap a present resident on the shoulder and negotiate a site transfer at a later given time.
In two words........'too hard'!
Camping at the Bay of Fires was not to be. As it transpired this was not as annoying as it may have been. The weather turned, and we had noted that all of these grounds would be miserable in wet and windy conditions. We may have actually dodged a bullet.
So, after all this, what did we find? We actually made our first quick trip out to Binalong Bay and on to The Gardens on a fine, sunny morning.
The 10 kilometre trip out to Binalong Bay took us initially along the western shore of Georges Bay past the small group of homes perched above the road.
Once at our destination, we pulled up at a foreshore park
The 10 kilometre trip out to Binalong Bay took us initially along the western shore of Georges Bay past the small group of homes perched above the road.
Once at our destination, we pulled up at a foreshore park
which gave us access to a walkway and small viewing platform. From here we could see back towards a few of the many holiday and permanent homes which sprawl across the hillside above the bay, and I should comment at this stage that there would be many far worse places to live than here at Binalong Bay.
Our vantage point gave us an unimpeded view across this rocky pool (apart from our own shadows cast by the early morning sun). Even in this light the orange lichen stains on the rocks were clear to see.
At this point the entire shore is rocky,
Our vantage point gave us an unimpeded view across this rocky pool (apart from our own shadows cast by the early morning sun). Even in this light the orange lichen stains on the rocks were clear to see.
At this point the entire shore is rocky,
in both directions around this part of the bay and all were glowing orange even in this early light.
After this quick look at Binalong Bay we drove further east around Grants Point to do our first camp ground recce.
Even well before we actually arrived at the camp site the roads on which we found ourselves travelling were more than enough to dictate that
this was not going to be a place to which we hauled our van.
So, after this revelation and our first brush with the reality of campgrounds here, we decided to make the most of the morning and push on to The Gardens, a coastal area about 15 kilometres to the north and the point at which the coast road comes to an end. This road also took us past all the various camp grounds to which I have referred with the exception of Policemans Point which is much further to the north at the southern end of Ansons Bay.
The road out of Binalong Bay provided some delightful water views before, in this missive,
we have now fast forwarded to the approach to the holiday homes of The Gardens area.
Here we did find some indisputably pretty beaches,
and attractive secluded coves,
and notwithstanding my previous criticisms, I will concede this stretch of sand was one out of the box and anything but occupied, but this is not the area were the 'bay is on fire'.
Although we checked out the various camp grounds during today's trip, I did not bother to take photos, until, that is, we pulled in to see what was on offer at Swimcart Beach.
And here I will admit that the fine sands
were certainly whiter than most others we had encountered on the island, but if you look at the surface you will see why I have treated the claim that we would 'feel like the only person to have set foot here' with such scorn.
Apart from our day trip up to Eddystone Point, where the lighthouse, the nearby cottages and the surrounding coastline made the visit well worth while, this was the limit of our exploration of the delights of the Bay of Fires.
But as promised, and in the interest of balanced reporting, let me share a few Internet examples of what we had actually expected to find, beginning where we ourselves began today, at Binalong Bay.
This shot presented by 'flickr.com' shows the rocks of Binalong Bay in a vastly different light...literally,
as does this offering from 'Australian Traveller' of a beach scene which I suspect is near Cosy Corner.
Even good old 'wikipedia' provides images of the type we did not actually encounter, but then again we did not roam the beaches.
One thing this experience did leave us with was the resolve that, on our return to Tassie in our smaller, off road van, we would again visit the Bay of Fires, this time forewarned and much better equipped to make the most of it, notwithstanding the fact that we both still agree it could never be as good as the hype.
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