Bay of Fires Sizzles! (Tasmania)

The Bay of Fires (Northeast Tasmania, Australia) is famous for its beautiful beaches with very white sand, clear waters, and photogenic bright orange / red granite rocks (caused by lichen). You would think the name is for obvious reasons, but we found out it was actually named by sea explorers (Capt. Tobias Furneaux in 1773) because of the glow from Aboriginal fires that lined the bay.

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We nearly skipped it!

When making plans to visit the eastern coast of Tasmania we had only one full day to explore the northeast section, then the next day to explore Coles Bay & Wineglass Bay before returning to our home exchange in Hobart. So, when several people mentioned that we’d see similar rocks and beaches without driving the extra hour or so north we thought we’d just skip it. Once we reached Binalong Bay (drove east from the Georgetown / Beechford area) we loved it and decided we had time to start north along the road to Bay of Fires and just turn around if we’d seen enough. It is so fantastic we just kept driving north to the “end” at The Gardens. Well worth the time! Walking on and among the huge orange coated granite rocks with the waves and sounds of the Tasman Sea and the contrast of pristine beaches is super impressive!

You’ll feel you have it to yourself

Somehow, even well known hot spots for tourists just don’t seem crowded. It’s truly amazing. At most, you’ll pass by or share an area with a few equally mesmerized people. It’s simply wonderful. One particularly sweet beach we had to share with three seabirds. 🙂

Click any photo to view them all larger.

[ngg_images source=”galleries” container_ids=”160″ display_type=”photocrati-nextgen_pro_mosaic” row_height=”180″ margins=”5″ last_row=”justify” lazy_load_enable=”1″ lazy_load_initial=”35″ lazy_load_batch=”15″ captions_enabled=”1″ captions_display_sharing=”1″ captions_display_title=”1″ captions_display_description=”1″ captions_animation=”plain” slug=”tasmania-bay-of-fires” order_by=”alttext” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”10000″]Tasmania: Bay of Fires Trip Date: March 2017 

We’re midway through this 5 month journey down under, so more stories and photos from New Zealand, Australia and Fiji are coming along as we slow down enough to post!

Stories so far on this journey:

New Zealand, Australia & Fiji plans! (If YOU have suggestions for the rest of our trip, please comment!)

Tips to Organize Multiple Home Exchanges

7 Things we LOVED about Sydney (and 5 things that surprised us)

Tongariro Crossing – 12 miles, 7 hours, 1 life experience OR All Doom, no gloom