Madge Malloys, Coles Bay

This wife and husband run restaurant catches a significant amount of the fish themselves that they have on the menu.

Barb is very friendly and accommodating and makes you feel like you are part of the family as she rushes around but not getting flustered.

We started with the Oysters and the Seafood chowder.  The Oysters are freshly shucked upon ordering them which is nice.  The Seafood chowder was nice although it was a little disappointing to see it padded out with a pre-frozen seafood mix and a little too much potato in my opinion.

I then had the Wild Perch special which was beautifully presented, all-be-it with garnishing that was a little antiquated.  This unfortunately was far too strong on the ginger.  Jane had a lovely Trout that was very delicately flavoured.

For dessert I had a lovely Chocolate Mud cake and Jane had Cassata that she enjoyed although the almond was a little liquid.

Coles Bay round trip via Bicheno, St Marys, Campbell Town

After breakfast in our apartment (and seeing a micro-lite fly overhead) we headed North along the coast and further up the Tasman Highway.  Our first stop was in Bicheno which is a lovely sea-side town where we saw the blowhole - although it was more of a squirt on a day with very little surf.

We then travelled further up the Tasman Highway and turned off to drive inland through Elephant Pass to the quiet town of St Marys.  This was a beautiful drive through the hills and with the windows down on the car we could smell the eucalyptus and hear the birds in the trees.  We contemplated stopping at  the Mt Elephant Pancakes shop just east of St Marys but decided it was a little early for lunch (approximately 11am), and  instead opted for an ice coffee at the Purple Possum Wholefoods and Cafe in St Marys that was excellent.  The staff running the shop were also very relaxed and friendly.

From St Marys we headed further inland on the Esk Highway and filled up the car in Avoca.  The service station consisted of really old petrol pumps and the owner came out and filled the car and had a chat.  He was very friendly and gave us directions on how to get back to Coles Bay which was via Campbell Town.

Campbell Town was bigger than we expected and an excellent stopping point for lunch at Cafe 100 where I had a decent sized burger and Jane had an excellent antipasto platter she thoroughly enjoyed.  This was the hottest part of the day and a dry 28˚ Celcius heat.

From Campbell Town we took the B34 which meant we were heading  towards the coast again and stopped off at Lake Leake (because we could).  The water here actually looked a little swampy but the area was very peaceful.

We eventually connected back with the Tasman Highway and stopped at four vineyards along the way back to Coles Bay; one of which there was a sign outside saying “Honk for attention” and the driveway was more apt for a 4WD.  We must have travelled 200-300km today but it was enjoyable.

From Hobart to Coles Bay

We got a rental car in Hobart and headed up the East coast towards Coles Bay on the Freycinet Peninsula along the Tasman Highway with the help of our trusty GPS.  It is worth noting though that once out of Hobart, that many of the smaller roads in towns up the East Coast were not covered by the TomTom maps.  This wasn’t a problem due to how few streets there are in some of these towns but does make the GPS a little less useful.

Along the way we stopped at Spring Beach which is just out of Orford which was a beautiful beach busy with families today.  Actually, on either side of the shot taken here it was a lot emptier on the beach.  The temperature at this point was about 24˚ Celcius and it was about 11am.

Our next stop was about 10km south of Swansea at Spiky Bridge, a convict built construction.  One look at the bridge and it’s not hard to see where the name came from.  We were initially looking at heading down to the beach on the other side of the road but the temperature was getting a bit too warm.

We stopped a few kilometres up the road at Kate’s Berry Farm. Whilst the cakes and jams looked nice (and I think I saw some ice-cream too), there were literally only two punnets of raspberries and one punnet of strawberries to be seen and it appeared to be a tourist trap with a lovely building and outlook so we escaped.  There were lots of other tourists there on a bus that weren’t so lucky.

Nine Mile Beach just North of Swansea was our next stop along the way, and this beach had significantly more drift wood on the shore than Spiky Beach and did not appear to be as friendly for swimming at but was nice all the same.  It would however be nice if some of these beaches had some sun shelter.

Coles Bay (or to be more accurate Swanwick), our destination was basically at the end of Nine Mile Beach, however there is a little stretch of water at the end without a bridge which means that a 60km (or thereabouts) long drive is required to drive around the bay.  The view from our unit at Freycinet Beach Holiday Apartments is absolutely beautiful and it is lovely listening to the waves arriving on the shore.

For lunch we went to the Freycinet Bakery Cafe in Coles Bay and I had a Curried Scallop Pie which was okay (but the scallops, as expected in a pie, were overdone) and Jane had a Seafood chowder that she enjoyed.  I then went to the Bottle Store at the back of the local Bar and bought a couple of local wines to enjoy over the next couple of days.  We also bought a couple of other bits and pieces at the local store for breakfast and snacks and then returned to our apartment to find a Snake on the driveway.  Thankfully the snake moved and we were able to park the car but it was a little scary.  Unsure of the protocol re snakes, we have been reading a few little bits in some of our guidebooks but without the Internet readily on hand it’s a little hard. Apparently there are four Snake varieties in Tasmania and all are venomous so we are keeping our distance! It does look like he might live in our garden though.