Drive to Coles Bay

 10th Feb 2023

It is time to leave St Helens and make our way to our next destination, Coles Bay. It is another shortish drive, but speed limits and conditions suggest it will take around 2.5 hours. The tourist guides recommend moving away from the coast at the St Mary's turnoff to go up unto the hills to take in this little village and the scenic dive through Elephant Pass back to the coastline.

Not long after leaving St Helens, we drive through a couple of heavy rain squalls. We are soon in Scamander, a pretty little coastal town before reaching the St Mary's turnoff and heading up into the hills. It is raining heavily in St Mary's (I am sure it is scenic in sunlight), so we continue through town and to Elephant Pass to take us back to the coast road. We start seeing signs the the road is closed at Elephant Pass and sure enough, after travelling some distance down this road, we had to turn around and backtrack to the turnoff just past Scamander.

Finally back on the coast road, we drive on to Bicheno, where a comfort stop is in order. We did a bit of quick shopping for provisions, had a quick look around and moved on. There were not a lot of attractive lunch options in Bicheno so we decided to continue on to Coles Bay and have lunch there.

We checked in to the Freycinet BIG 4 Caravan Park at around 1.30pm, and settled into our cabin (below)


The cabin is very comfortable with 2 bedrooms and a kitchen/dining area. 

The other facilities associated with the park are great. There is a mini mart, a cafe/bakery, a tavern and a fish and chip cafe. We were pretty  hungry by now and went to the Iluka Tavern for a large hamburger with trimmings. There is clearly no chip shortage at Coles Bay.

The park is located across the road from Muirs Beach, right on the bay.


                                                                  Muirs Beach

After far too much food for lunch, we decided on an afternoon walk to explore the "township"area. We walked past a pretty new looking wharf and large aluminium catamaran that does daily cruises to Wineglass Bay. A bit further down the road there is a row of cafes, a supermarket and a boat ramp. It appears to be the centre of town.

Back to our cabin for a bit more settling in and a rest, we decide on a pizza from the bakery for dinner, get a bottle of red from the tavern and had a quiet dinner at home.


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