And now, Part 2 of our epic Tuesday by Mr Smart.
We began the drive to Bicheno and soon found the freeway
leading out of Launceston. In only a few short minutes we had left the city
behind and were surrounded by rural countryside. We couldn’t get over how you
could live in the country and still be less than 5 minutes from a large town
like Launceston, not to mention such a natural wonder like Cataract Gorge.
We made our way along the winding road but soon had our
first low point for the trip. A little bird flew in ahead of us and landed
right in the middle of the road. With traffic behind and oncoming, there was no
chance to slow or swerve to avoid him. RIP little Starling.
Continuing on, we made the turn off to head up to Bicheno
and while it was mostly farmland in amongst the hills and trees, we did came
across a great view of Moulting Lagoon Game Reserve, so we pulled over to a really small
lookout spot. By one of those weird coincidences the universe throws at you, on
this otherwise really quiet road, two other cars stopped there at the same
time, and all of us popped out to take some snaps.
We arrived in Bicheno, passing through the town to the other
side where our B&B, Bicheno Ocean View Retreat, awaited. Our host Kath was nearby when we parked the car and
she showed us to our room and gave us the introduction. She also let us know
that whales had been sighted recently.
To say we had an amazing view just doesn’t do it justice. We
could see the whole coastline, with mountains to our north, beachfront
stretching down, and the wide open ocean directly in front. Just below us there
was a little paddock where sheep were roaming just before the rocky shoreline,
and our B&B’s property had a couple of ponds with resident ducks in
attendance.
While unpacking, I couldn’t help looking out to the ocean and was
soon rewarded with the tell-tale splashes that indicted whales at play. Despite
how far out they were, we could clearly see them jumping out of the water and
landing back with a great white splash. Efforts to photograph them proved
futile though, as they were quite a way out and moved fairly fast.
After the long walking exertions of early in the day, we
were both more than glad to see our place had a spa in the bathroom, and a good
long soak and spa did a lot to ease my sore and tired muscles.
We decided to head into Bicheno ahead of our penguin tour in
order to grab some dinner first. Jess had spied a place advertising wood fired
pizzas and it didn’t take much to convince me that could be our dinner. It was
pretty much just the mention of pizza that did it. We parked the car and walked into Pasini’s, thinking we
would have our choice of tables since it was only a third full. Instead we were
told that they were really under the pump since there was only three of them
and we could only order take away. When we asked if we could still sit at their
empty outside tables with our take away pizza, we were informed that we could
not. We did take a moment to peruse their menu but decided to see what else was
on offer in the town.
Walking through the town and see so many business, including
other restaurants, that had closed and were for sale, it amazed me that Pasini’s were happy to turn away paying customers. We passed a typical take
away shop, like you would see anywhere in Australia, city or country, and
checked out the French restaurant. In my mind, French restaurant is synonymous
with expensive, and this proved the case here too. Since we were after a simple
meal before our tour and not a dining experience, we made our way back to the
take away shop, Pork's Place, and ordered a couple of small pizzas.
The difference between Pork's Place and Pasini’s
couldn’t be more stark. This one was pretty much empty, whereas Pasini’s was
still quite busy despite being only a third full. Only one lady was behind the
counter here and I assumed she was the owner / operator. When she brought us
the meals, even though we were eating in, she put them in boxes to keep them
warm, brought us a set of cutlery to use as well as a pizza server each. I guess
part of me thinks she went to all this effort because it was quiet and we were
the only customers, but I was impressed none the less, especially after the
treatment at the other place. The pizzas themselves were really tasty,
generously piled with toppings, and Jess mentioned that it reminded her of
her Dad’s pizzas, high praise indeed!
As we left the pizza place I saw a couple of martins swoop
under the overhang. Returning to investigate I spied a little nest with a
number of hungry chicks sticking their beaks up to be fed by their mother.
Suitably nourished, Jess and I made our way back to the
penguin tour meeting point to wait for it to begin. We browsed the ship window,
reading an old newspaper article detailing how the tour began, and I got really
excited when it mentioned that having penguins stand on your feet during the
tour was a common occurrence. Sadly, the article was nearly ten years old, and
along with no photography, the tour operators discouraged any touching. Also
while waiting, I couldn’t resist buying one of the toy penguins they had for
sale, and Jess quickly coined the name Pengi.
The small tour bus pulled up and the group of us, nearly thirty in all,
piled on in an orderly manner. The trip was just 5 minutes down the road to the
hatchery, but they don’t like cars driving there themselves since the penguins
have been known to wander along the roads. We disembarked and passed over to
our guide for the evening while the driver returns to get ready for the next
group.
Our guide led us down path to the hatchery area, pausing
long enough to point out a penguin that had already made his way up to nearby
path, and into the station for our final instructions. He explained that since
penguins are unable to blink, flash photography was particularly damaging to
them including the possibility of blinding them. Touching was also frowned
upon, not least because the penguins have sharp beaks and can be quite vicious.
Suitably warned, we began the tour proper.
Almost right outside the station were a couple of penguins
which elicited shouts of glee from the tour members, though our guide seemed
non-plussed by them. The reason why was soon apparent as he guided us to what
he described as one of three paths the penguins took as they returned from the
sea back to their nests. Up this path were walking a group of a dozen or so
penguins that had no issue walking pass the group of gawking humans that were
only a few metres away. Our guide then showed us the group waiting down at the
beach, and described how they would leave the sea and wait at this meeting
point, in this case a group of rocks. Once enough of them were grouped up, they
made the trip from the rocks, across the beach and up to their nests. Just as
he pointed them out to us, the next group had decided that there were enough of
them, so we watched as they waddled their way across the beach and up the path.
Soon after the second group made the crossing from the rocks
in the beach to the nest, we spied another group swimming in from the sea and
making their way to the meeting point at the rocks. It was fascinating to watch
the different groups in the different stages of crossing: from sea to rocks,
from rocks to path and from the path to their nests.
We must have been standing between one of the penguins and
his nest since he stood there in front of us, preening and clearing the salt
from his body by shaking his head, while waiting for us to leave. This didn’t
stop the second group of penguins coming up and barging past time, resulting in
some very angry squawks back and forth. Soon enough we moved on, no doubt to
the penguins relief so that he could return home.
Along the path we continued, the guide quickly pointing out
penguins that had ventured up to it and suggesting we use the opposite side
while passing them. In this place, penguins have right of way. He also showed
us the way to tell the difference between the chicks and the adults since they
were pretty much the same size. The chicks tended to have the soft, fluffy down
still on their body, though there were a couple without any down that he
assured us were still chicks.
Continuing on around the tour we saw two other pathways that
the penguins took to reach their nests. One in particular was pointed out to us
because it involved the penguins having to navigate over a boulder and a drop
of at least a metre. Our guide recounted to us how surprisingly agile the
penguins were, but more than a few ended up belly flopping on the drop, but
soon jumped up again to continue their march. Sadly our timing was a little off
as no groups were in the process of crossing the boulder, but we did watch them
make their way across the sand to their pathway.
The last sights we were privileged to see were a number of
artificial nests that had been created to help increase breeding numbers. Our
guide was able to open the roofs of these hutches and show us the mother and
chick waiting inside. It was amazing how fearless all of the penguins were.
While they generally kept their distance, moving off the pathways as we
approached, there was no panicked fleeing. This was especially true of the ones
in the hutch whose home we were invading, as they just ignored this group of
humans that were staring at them from just a couple of metres away and
continued as they were.
Soon enough our tour was over, so we all thanked our guide
for an unforgettable experience and made our way back up to the bus. There we
were lucky to get one more experience as a group of penguins had made their way
up to the car park, nearly a kilometre from the shore. It was now perfectly
clear why they didn’t want anyone driving and parking there themselves. Waving
goodbye to these little guys, who soon disappeared into the bush as the bus
started up, we boarded and returned to our origin.
The drive back to our B&B proved quite exciting as we
shared our experiences. Also, after an hour of searching for white patches in the
dark that turned out to be waddling penguins, any white shape on the road could
have been another penguin that we would have to swerve around. Luckily they
ended up being just sign posts.
Driving up the driveway to our B&B, the headlights
surprised groups of rabbits and wallabies that had ventured onto the property.
They certainly added to our wildlife adventure for the night, but paled in
comparison to the penguins who were the star of the trip so far. For anyone visiting Tasmania, I would thoroughly recommend a
trip to Bicheno to see the penguins with Bicheno Penguin Tours.So just to detail the full food list for me, today's food and exercise were:
- Breakfast wasCuccina's Eggs Royal, two slices of multigrain toast topped with two poached eggs, smoked salmon and a very nice Hollandaise sauce. I also had their large Combo Juice which is fresh made orange, apple, carrot, pineapple and ginger juice.
- Exercise was traipsing up and down Cataract Gorge for the better part of three hours including a gajillion photo stops and a lot of huffing and puffing on the Zig Zag Track. I was really stoked though at how quickly I recovered each time we rested before attacking the next section of elevation.
- Morning snack was a slighty unripe banana and a whole heap of water!
- Lunch was a single Coles dolmades, half a dried apricot, two Brazil nuts, two hazelnuts, two pecan nut halves and four almonds and some swigs of Mr Smart's Coke Zero.
- Afternoon snack was half a navel orange.
- Dinner was two slices of Pork's Supreme Pizza and two slices of Pork's BBQ Chicken Pizza and a large vanilla thickshake.
The Collection and The Lover by Harold Pinter
Sometimes Gladness by Bruce Dawe
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (my copy got lost somewhere along the line)
Deranged Marriage by Sushi Das
Memoirs of a Fat Bastard by Chris Gibson
The second-hand books Mr Smart bought were:
Summertide by Charles Sheffield
Divergence by Charles Sheffield
Out of the Dark by David Weber
The penguin tour really was truly amazing. I learned a fair bit about penguins including that shaking their heads when wet isn't just to dry off, they have little desalination plants in their heads and are shaking excess salt out of their bodies! We really saw so many animals today, it was really wonderful.
Hope everyone is enjoying reading about our trip, we are certainly very much enjoying having it! Sorry we're a bit behind on the blog but we are trying to fit it in amongst all the cool things we are doing!
Jess
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