DiNo's Travels Around Australia - 2014/2015/16/17: Day 48

Another sunny morning with a forecast 21 degrees for our destination today, St Helens, 76km from Bicheno.

The road today followed the coastline all the way, passing through smaller towns like Scamanda and Beaumaris. We caught glimpses all the way of white surf rolling from a turquoise sea onto white sand or alternatively onto small, rock strewn headlands. Lagoon Beach and Denison Beach (refer Day 47), were typical. There was no wind so the sea was placid. There were numerous saltwater lagoons, hiding behind what were quite small sand dunes, but the tide was out and the lagoons did not look the most inviting.

We came across a large vineyard on the way and it was wearing its autumn colours. It was the biggest vineyard we have seen so far in Tasmania.

160415 A vineyard near Falmouth

160415 More of the vineyard

160415 Still more of the vineyard

160415 This was the end of the vineyard but land was
cleared for more plantings

St Helens is the largest town on Tasmania's north-east coast and just a few kilometres away from Binalong Bay and the southern end of the beautiful beaches of the Bay of Fires. We will visit these over the next day or so.

St Helens is the state's second largest fishing port, renowned for its catches of deep sea fish and lobster and a popular destination for recreational fishing.

160415 The harbour at St Helens

We had a leisurely lunch at the caravan park and then did the customary shopping in town. We could not avoid the establishment which was parading behind a red door.

160415 We wondered what could be going on behind the Red Door

The prawns were from Queensland and what a puny lot they were so we gave them a miss. The lobsters were huge, much bigger than the ones we had seen in WA. Mind you they did have some smaller ones in the mix. The lobsters will be on their way to China tomorrow. At $114/kg, the bigger one in the photo is worth $456 so we gave them a miss too. Now as for the oysters..........