Tasmania is a traveller’s paradise. Susan Elliott joins a guided walk along the Gulf of Fire – one of Australia’s most spectacular coastal drives.
Few things stop hikers from getting a fresh start on the boardwalk. In this case, the paper cubes are placed on top of the smallest stone in the path. This is Picasso perfection. Without over-examining this doll of wombat dung, it warmly signals that Tassie’s “bush bulldozer” is nearby.
I’m touring Tasmania’s Bay of Fire, Larapoona with Intrepid Travel. It’s a three-day experience for those with an adventurous nature but a soft heart. It’s for people who love the outdoors, but prefer being indoors for air conditioning.
Our tour begins in Launceston where a police officer and paramedic join our group. Fortunately, that’s not a concern, Ryan and Tam are training to walk the 96km Kokoda in Papua New Guinea. At least we don’t have to dial 000 quickly.
Betsy, 75, a seasoned traveler, came from New Zealand. Evie is our expedition photographer and Lauren and Scott are our unbiased guides who will explain the route, start gently, hit a bit harder in the middle but finish sweetly.
We start with a two-hour drive to St Helens, the largest town on Tasmania’s north-east coast and our base camp for the journey. It was wise advice to pack in advance for each season. The tip pays off on the first hike along Skeleton Bay to Dora Point in the Humbug Point Conservation Area. We are greeted by “liquid sun”, as I like it. Lauren calls it “wet air.” My new favorite, though, is “secret rain” because it somehow sneaks through everyone’s waterproofs and drenches us to the skin. What is not our spirit or the joy of traveling in one of the most beautiful regions of Australia. If I could bottle the raindrops rolling off my shirt, I would. And the weather too.
Bay of fire
The coastal heat hugs the Tasman Sea, then meets a forest of ferns, flowering paper fronds, bonsai, tea trees, gums and pines, but this rock ‘art’ (and a few inclines) takes our breath away. The Bay of Fires was named in 1773 by the English navigator Captain Tobias Furnaud. From HMS Adventure, he saw fires on the beach – the burning coals of the Palawa people of Tasmania. Two and a half centuries later, the coastline still shines, though today it’s thanks to huge granite boulders covered in burnt orange lichen. These rocks are 21st century lighthouses that illuminate the bay, and surrounded by dazzlingly white sand and ridiculously blue water at their base, it’s a hypnotizing sight.
One of the reasons, perhaps, why the Bay of Fire has been named Australia’s most beautiful beach for 2025.
Tasmania is a traveller’s paradise. When you don’t need to pack and enjoy a hot shower after a day of exploring, meals cooked by the chef and a soft bed after sunset.
Bee-eaters, egrets, green rosellas and a beautiful fairy knot fly around our faces, too shy for photos but happy to provide the birdsong for our beach symphony. Our wombat observation continues the trail, but remains on the wings of this desert stage.
Echidna! Finally, a bush character introduces himself!
On the drive home, Tassie’s magnificent monotreme puts on a road show. It hangs from the underground floor and looks like the blackened stump of a burnt grass tree. Tasmanian echidnas are quite large, with thicker and longer fur than their counterparts. They’re dark and shiny, which I think should be the name of the drink at the St Helens Panorama Hotel, a newly renovated property with views across George Bay, our post-tourist hangout.
St Helens is the fishing capital of Tasmania, but is also loved for its southern lobster and oysters.
At dinner, I order a dozen of them, fresh from the bay rental 65, a five-minute walk from the restaurant’s kitchen. They are full, creamy, sweet, salty and delicious.
Breakfast is also a holiday. Dukha is the sprinkling of avocado seeds on top of the dough. Chicken omelette with spinach and feta is the same. The Super Bowl — granola and fresh fruit with coconut and chia seeds — looks too photogenic to poke a hole in with a spoon. Against a backdrop of black caves for weeds and bones tiptoeing across the sand, it’s a beachy wake that makes us want to turn on.
But it’s day two of our tour, which is a big day, so more coffees are ordered and off we go.
Treasures of Tasmania
An hour’s drive down a dirt road, our first stop is the Eddystone Point Lighthouse, a 35m-tall pillar of pink granite that towers over the orange granite rocks below. Wind gusts of 50km/h and 68km/h definitely made the sea carnage factor off this dangerous spot. We top up and, with the wind at our backs, begin the 6km walk along Eddiston Beach. We are carried by the wind, but not the wind.
Bones, winking like squeaky toys, are our companions this morning. Pacific gulls fly silently like stealth bombers, while sandpipers scurry along the shore, dodging beach breaks and plucking worms from their burrows. The sands are similar to Mongolian runs, sand with minerals washed from the rocks. Strands of beaded seaweed known as Neptune’s necklaces are woven into works of art by the waves on our coastal path.
Next come the shell pots, which are the equivalent of brown sand. The bay is lined with meters deep, old houses of giant cockles and molluscs.
We wade through them, sometimes ankle deep, to collect souvenirs (you’re allowed to take shells) and stop to watch the waves.
Finally, we cross the mountains to the fire road and walk 5 km back to our bus. Away from the coast it is windy and hot. I spend most of my time wiping the sand from my eyes, ears and nose, only to smell the scent of wildflowers, as fragrant as Chanel No. 5. This is another Tasmanian gem that I would like to bottle.
All in all, the second day is a 12km walk, with most of us taking around 25,000 steps. I have never been so happy to see the stairs leading up to my hotel room.
Lauren is a born storyteller. His best story is about William Swallow, a convict in Tasmania’s first and toughest prison town, Sarah Island. Swallow became quite the fugitive artist and eventually returned to England, where he became the last person to be tried for piracy. This proves that Tasmania has long been a very wild place.
The third day of our walk in Mount William National Park holds fresh hope for wombat sightings. With close to a million brown marsupials on Australia’s South Island – twice the human population of Tasmania – you’d think it would be hard for them to escape. We arrive at Stumpy’s Bay, where, unfortunately, the name has nothing to do with wombats. Instead, it is named for the rocky outcroppings on the beach. Still, there are fresh paw prints in the sand as I put one willing foot in front of the other and remember the hiker’s mantra to look up, back, and around. The best view is at your feet.
It’s a 6km loop, finishing with hot coffee and homemade truffles from St Helens Bakery.
Fresh local food is a bonus on the trip. Breakfast and dinner are cooked by chefs at the hotel or from local restaurants, and we choose our own lunch.
A highlight that many of us order three days in a row is the Lifebuoy Café veggie wrap, filled with chickpeas and lentils, spinach, halloumi, house pickled onions, dukkah, sweet chili and hummus.
Everyone, between mouths, tries to say that this is their best package!
Little Blue Lake
“It’s going to be a bit embarrassing if it’s not blue,” says Scott on his way back to Launceston.
He is talking about the Little Blue Lake. Fortunately, we see it at the Endurance tin mine site from the 1870s to 1980s in full sun, which makes it look very blue. Really disturbing blue. The color is caused by suspended white clay particles and other minerals that make it look great, but also mean you want to photograph more than just swimming.
Our final stop for gelato is in Derby. Once home to one of the largest and richest tin mines in the world, the town is now a popular mountain biking destination. This is the sweet finish that was promised to us on the first day.
The bus is the only place I can go with Betsy, who speeds up on trips, often stopping hundreds of meters ahead of us. “I’m a solo person,” he tells me. “My nature is to be alone. But I like it now that I am 75 years old and I don’t have the responsibility to think about where I go and what I eat.
“This trip was absolutely wonderful. We had rain, sunshine, wind, sand on our faces and all the beach elements. It’s great for the body and the mind.”
Ryan and Tam are happy too. They covered 40 kilometers in three days, which is half the length of the Kokoda Trail. me I feel encouraged. Hiking in the desert will do that.
Finally, I see a wombat! It is tiny, maybe 20 cm long, and has the most beautiful dark pink nose. It is on the shelf in the gift shop at Launceston Airport and is priced at $35. I call it Helen (for St Helens) and make a silent promise to return. I wish I had those raindrops, that air and the perfume of the flowers in a bottle, it would have held me until then.
Book your trip to the Bay of Fire
Intrepid Travel hosts small group tours from Launceston on selected Saturdays between October and April. There are direct flights to Launceston from Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Bay of Fires tours start at $1,680.
