Sat, 29th Nov, 2014 Preservation Bay to Hall Point, Sulphur Creek

Lovely morning. Got ready to wave to the train driver when he toots his horn and take a picture but it must have been another chap, so just got the picture.

Packed up and drove a five kilometres to the next free camp at Hall Point, Sulphur Creek. There are few vans etc here already so found a spot against the trees but still with a view of the bay on the other side. A bit further away from the railway line. One lady said they came through at 3am last night – we didn’t hear it though which was good.

As we set up a chap drove in to chat about our Nova. He is going to order one. There is another Nova parked here too so we all went over to chat with them. It is a new one. Still love ours though.

There is a geological significance with the rocks on the point. A unique structural boundary between two major rocks of different ages, that also exhibit unusual weathering patterns. A past seashore of sandstones, mudstones with possible wormcasts and many variety of pebbles and cobbles indicating an active past shallow marine environment. Called an unconformity between some of Tasmania’s oldest rocks. This has been used for building materials.

The sea is clear and sky blue again. Even warm enough in the sun that I put on a singlet and shorts for our walk. Chatted with Alan, a local from Burnie, about this area and Burnie. He worked for the paper mill on one of the 9 paper machines in the plant. The pulp mill was right beside it. He worked till they closed the last machine down a few years ago. They couldn’t compete with overseas as their machines weren’t updated to compete. The woodchip piles are from the locally grown timber plantations and it is now exported to the paper mills overseas. The scarring on the face of one hill as we drive into Burnie was a quarry. We noticed a lot of twisted iron in the trees and he said they had a whirly whirly go through a couple of months back and cleaned up the loose rubbish in a chap’s yard. Now the fight on who is to remove it!!

He told us to look out for the penguin tracks up the beach and for the dead seal. We wandered down and checked out the tracks. Lots of them so will come back tonight for a look.

Poor seal didn’t look too good and won’t be smelling too good soon either.

Checked in one of the holes and found a baby.

Further round the rocks are like slate standing on end.

From the beach looking back the path to our van.

The bay we look at from our van.

Round to the point where the rock formation was.

Found a couple of pretty flowers.

Alan invited us over for drinks with his wife and friends and would give me advise on where to go etc. So headed over with our map and a drink for a lovely afternoon. The breeze got cooler so we just kept moving to stay in the sun.

Back to the van to make some dinner. Steve chatted with another Queensland couple who have been touring Tasmania for over a year now. They are into hiking and said we have to stay to hike through the snow etc!! Steve laughed.

8.30pm Rugged up and headed to the beach to wait for the penguins to arrive.  We sat behind the rocks so we wouldn’t scare them off. The sunlight was still bright so Steve went back to the van and made a cuppa.

9.30pm As he was walking back down he met two penguins on the path. They took off – we waddled faster – till they reached the little creek on the edge of the beach and fell in. One thought he could hide in the grass till Steve shone the torch on him then he waddled off.

10pm A few more penguins started to waddle in, they are so cute. They waddled up the beach to their burrows. They called out and the little babies cried back. We went for a walk up the beach to see if we could see them surf in. Found a few more and listened as they called to each other. We could hear them in their burrows beside our van.