Binalong Bay - 11 September 2013

I just saw on the weather tonight that St Helens had the highest temperature in Tasmania today - 14 degrees. It showed snow on Mt Wellington in Hobart and no doubt it snowed in Cradle Mountain. It was sunny most of the day with a few clouds building up during the day. We were sitting on the deck in the afternoon with the sun shining just about everywhere but behind us where there were rain clouds, when it started to rain. It didn't last long though and it is supposed to be fine for the next couple of days.

We drove in to St Helens after breakfast this morning. We parked the car and walked up each side of the main street, before paying the Information Centre a visit to pick up some information on walks at Binalong Bay. I also asked at the Centre if the patchwork shop that I had visited the last time I was in St Helens was still open. Unfortunately it had closed so I missed out there. We then went to the IGA supermarket and bought enough groceries to last us till we leave here.

We have listened to a fair bit of Radio National while in Tasmania and they have interviewed a number of authors. Their books sound like they will be worth reading. One of them is by Ruth Ozeki, who is part Japanese and part American. She was at the Brisbane Writers Festival. Her book is called A Time for the Time Being. As part of the interview the recorded her reading part of her book, possibly at the Festival. She really got you in, just with her storytelling skills. Then another person they interview was Turia Pitt, who wrote the book called Everything to Live For. Turia is the ultra marathon runner who was caught in a bushfire in the Kimberleys, I think about 18 months or 2 years ago, with burns to 65% of her body. She sounds like a remarkable person, and the book is the story of what happened and her recovery. Her doctor said he had never had anyone with such deep burns to survive.

After an early lunch, we walked up the road from our cottage to walk the track to Snake Point. The beginning of the track involved rock hopping across rocks along the edge of the water. We took the easier option of sticking to the gravel road, joining the track further along. Along the coast in the Bay of Fires area a lot of the rocks are covered in red lichen.

We reached Snake Point and looked out to sea, to see if we could see any whales. Apparently a couple had been in the Bay yesterday, but we didn't see any. However, on the way back we did see a seal sunning himself on rocks and then taking a swim. He was a cutie.

Altogether we walked about 9 kms today which was good, seeing we hadn't done a good walk for the last couple of days. I was having withdrawal symptoms!