Binalong (Bay of Fires)

[Kyle]John and Shelly (owners of the Major Munchies cafe in St Helens) insisted that we just had to take Begonia around the corner to Binalong if the weather would allow it. We had one more day of winds from the south in the forecast, so we would be able to squeeze in one afternoon there. We were planning (hoping) for at least one anchorage in the "Bay of Fires" so we decided to follow the recomendation given and head for Binalong.

Waiting on traffic while departing St Helens, and near the main entrance: the pretty 'Little Elephant Rock'

Our departure from St Helens was fighting the flood this time, so we had a long time to chat with the extra friendly guy working Marine Rescue on the radio. Once we dispensed with the initial parts about what the bar camera at the jetty was showing, we switched to the short versions of each other’s stories. He seemed genuinely impressed by what we had done and said he hopes to be out there with us some day. For the moment, he’s living in a house on the beautiful shoreline we would be passing in an hour or so. The conversation reminded me of those rare times flying over remote areas in the middle of the night where pilots and air traffic controllers have no business to do and so spend a few minutes getting to know someone who is always right in their earphones, but about whom they know almost nothing. It helps pass the time and keep each other awake. Most of my favorite controllers have names like Cleveland Center or New York Approach. It’s kind of nice to find the occasional one called Kathleen or Daryl.

Our conversation tapered off when a deep draft monohull requested a guide into the harbor from sea (it is subject to a few shallow patches). Things were getting busy again. Back to business. We passed on our report of the bar when crossing it, and then it was "Contact Newark Tower, one one eight point seven..."

Binalong is a small town at the southern end of the 50km length of coastline know as the Bay of Fires. The "Bay of Fires" got is name from the early European explorers due to the many aboriginal fires seen on the beaches ashore, but it could have been named instead for the proliferation of all of the bright orange lichen covering the boulders just above the high tide line. We have been lucky enough to see lots of this in Tasmania's remote areas, where it never ceases to stun us, but the Bay of Fires is accessible by road and covers a large area, so it is understandably a must-see stop on any tours of the state as well as a popular destination and second home location.

Binalong Bay was only going to be calm until the next morning, so we wasted no time getting ashore for a look around. Most of the other popular parts of the Bay of Fires were out of walking distance, so we expected our excursion to be a relatively short one, since everything was pretty much right by Begonia.

Well, sort of. Once we got ashore, we quickly realized that the view from every direction was different from each boulder. There were plenty of pretty coves within the town itself, and we spent ages scrambling over them and admiring each new vista. We kept walking from one scene to the next until we made it to Skeleton Point, and beyond that until we had practically walked back to St Helens. We got as far as the entrance beacon for the harbor there and decided the only chance we had of getting home by dark was to take the direct route over the headland along a relatively boring dirt road with few distractions. By the time we got back to St Helens, the light was just amazing, so we re-explored all those coves we had started with. Ahh the beauty!

Bay of Fires from the trails around Binalong Bay and Skeleton Point