I'm in Swansea!

I didn't set an alarm this morning and instead was woken up by the sound of a revving Harley Davidson. There's apparently a Harley Davidson 'festival' this coming weekend and everywhere I've been there has been motorcyclists.

I eventually struggled out of bed just after 8am. I had no idea where to get breakfast, but I did know that I needed some caffeine to spark me awake. Just down the road from my motel there was a cafe where I got a flat white. The breakfast options were a bit naff so I didn't bother.

Over my drink I sort of planned my day. I also got a bit spooked out overhearing a conversation about snakes biting and killing pet dogs! I quickly checked the section in the Lonely Planet Guide about venomous creatures. Apparently there are three types of poisonous snake and a few types of lethal spider in Tasmania. Great.

Now that I was awake (and knew vaguely what to do in the event of a snake bite) I got in my little Nissan and hit the road to Bicheno, about 50kms up the coast. On the way I popped into a bakery for a sausage roll – my breakfast!

Bicheno is more small town Oz. It has coastal walk, bleached white sand beaches and a blow hole. I did some parts of the coastal walk, but didn't like the bits where you had to walk through ankle high grass. No snakes thankfully.

The blow hole was quite cool, but difficult to take any pictures of – it was unpredictable as to when it would 'blow'.

Now it was time to hit up the first winery of my trip. On the way back to Swansea there is the Freycinet vineyard which does good sparkling wines. Unfortunately when I turned up the sparkling wine wasn't available for tasting. Instead I tried a couple of their whites – a riesling and a chardonnay, and two of their pinot noirs. None really took my fancy so I ended up buying the sparking wine. Not cheap though at $50!

I hadn't had any lunch so before I went back to my motel I went to Kate's Berry Farm. I had an amazing slice of 'Humbled Berry Pie' with cream and ice cream. Really good stuff.

A couple of hours later it was time for dinner!

I walked down the road to the Barkmill Tavern. I had the 'Barkmill special pizza' a salad and a couple of 'pots' of Cascade Draught. It was quite interesting watching people come in for a meal and then walk out with a bottle of wine from the bottle shop. People who bought white wine would buy it before their meal, and get it chilled whilst they ate.