13 July 2019
Bill and I headed off to walk to the Whalesong coffee shop this morning. It was 3.4 km to get there and a really great walk along beautiful beaches with some great cliff faces and rock formations. There were 2 other customers at the coffee shop when we arrived and they were from Hobart. Sandy Bay. First Tasmanians we’ve come across, although we saw about 4 Tassie vehicles across the Gibb. We chatted to them, and to the owner of the coffee shop for awhile. Turns out they had to shut down the lunch part of the cafe they used to operate there at Whalesong because they became too busy. They needed to either upgrade, or shutdown. I was surprised that there are that many people passing through what appears to be a fairly quiet area. I’m really glad that we have come up here this year, as once they finish sealing the road up to the Cape, the number of tourists will explode. Nothing has been done to get the small communities ready for the increase in visitor numbers either. In just the few days we have been at Pender Bay, we have seen the manager of the campsite smashing in extra tiny campsites the bush and then people are in them the same day. More and more people, however no extra amenities. I think it might be pretty nuts up here for a few years until extra infrastructure is built.
We got back to camp in time for a read and lunch, then we took the Ranger on it’s first ever beach drive. Bill thought that was pretty great. The usual swimming and frisbee and swimming followed by damper in the camp oven. It was Bill’s best one yet. You would never think that flour, water and some sultanas could taste so good.
I had a bit of a lesson in camp oven cooking tonight, prepping a roast beef and cooking it under Dad’s tutelage.
Travelling the Big Island 