UnspecifiedCredit: Sally Cope
Susan Gough Henly walks for days to find the home fires burning.
Set on a hilltop with views across powdery white beaches and orange lichen-covered boulders, the Bay of Fires Lodge is 40 metres above the crystal-clear aquamarine waters of the Tasman Sea.
It is surrounded by 14,000 hectares of Mount William National Park on the north-eastern tip of Tasmania. Two hours' drive along country roads from Launceston Airport, it is hardly the most convenient place to locate something so special but that is a part of its appeal.
"It's the place that's amazing . . . I have just built a couple of sheds in a fantastic location," says architect Ken Latona. "They encourage people to look outward, not inward. My idea is to take stuff away and give people the essentials. Then their lights go on."
While you would be hard pressed to find anyone who would describe the Bay of Fires Lodge as mere sheds, Latona has managed to create something breathtaking with the simplest of ingredients and then make people walk for two days along sandy beaches and over rocky headlands just to cross the threshold. Clearly this is no ordinary hotel.
The Bay of Fires Lodge can be experienced only as part of a four-day walk. A maximum of 10 walkers and two young local guides start at Boulder Point with views north to the Bass Strait islands which are all that is left of the land bridge that used to connect Tasmania to the mainland.
It is hardly the most convenient place to locate something so special but that is a part of its appeal.
The local Aborigines kept fires burning as they hunted shellfish up and down the coast. English explorer Tobias Furneaux gave the region its name way back in 1773 when he sighted the whole coastline dotted with bonfires.
The lodge defines environmental sustainability. Roof-water collection, grey-water treatment systems, composting toilets and solar power are all there but the building achieves its greatness through its subtle design elements.
The architect spent months studying local vegetation and drainage patterns and how the sun and wind crossed the site. But he says the hardest part of the process was deciding exactly where to build. "I felt I had a very high responsibility when putting a building in that landscape."
Rather than creating a long structure across the beachfront so that every room gets a view, as is traditionally done in luxury accommodation, he turned the building north towards the sun and placed just one narrow end towards the water. But what an end. A magnificently simple deck embraces the sea, the sky and the beach.
He lifted the roof behind the deck to let the sun right into the living area, where people are encouraged to spend time. From the sky, this roof looks like a bird wing, emblematic of how lightly the building touches the landscape. All the Tasmanian hardwood and plantation pine were either lifted in by helicopter or hand-carried to the site. Only two trees were cut down for the two long timber-and-glass pavilions.
"I see the lodge as a temple to the land and water. And it is an integral part of the walk. People walk right on up into the building." Indeed, the lodge and the walking form a sort of symbiotic relationship, according to Latona.
"Walking slows people down so they can begin to understand the place. It also helps them connect with each other over a few days. Walking is a filter. It ensures you can't just drive in, drop your bags and demand service. Instead, you are given an opportunity to rediscover yourself and a sense of place."
It takes about four hours to walk the first day's nine kilometres along wide beaches of fine white sand, with lots of time to stop and explore treasures along the way. We spot a pod of dolphins in the waves as we are about to head over the dunes to spend our first night at the simple standing camp, with timber floors, canvas roof and twin-share bunk beds.
Our guides, Wendy Henderson and Graeme Pennicott, prepare a delectable meal of antipasto, barbecued steak, salads and couscous, Tasmanian wines and mouth-watering local fudge as we catch the last rays of the sun.
The next day we see bush wallabies camouflaged in the heath land above the beach, ford a crystal-clear creek as it enters the ocean, stroll along one creamy sand beach after another, picnic beside translucent pools surrounded by large pink boulders underneath the historic Eddystone Lighthouse, scramble over mountains of shells, or middens, that are the only remains of the Aboriginal presence in the area, and swim in the impossibly blue waters of the Tasman Sea.
It isn't until we are within 100 metres of the lodge and we hear the clapping and cheering of walkers who have arrived the day before that we even know we have reached our destination after the second day's 14-kilometre walk.
Henderson shows us our rooms, crafted out of rich timber with one wall of glass shutters, and explains how to use the pumps for our three-minute showers, before preparing the evening meal in the large open-plan living and kitchen area.
Two elements in the lodge speak volumes for Latona's philosophy. Firstly, the walkway between the living-room shed and bedroom shed is open to the gash of sky - to keep guests connected to where they are. Secondly, there are no mirrors for preening.
The Bay of Fires Lodge offers a powerful immersion-based experience in this remarkable place. People actually enjoy pumping their own shower and seeing how it works. The guides are a powerful part of the equation: good fun, well meaning, knowledgeable and capable.
After we spend another day and night at the lodge, kayaking in nearby Ansons Bay, looking for echidna and wombats in the dunes, swimming and sunbaking on the beach or just meditating on the deck, we, like so many others before us, start to think of the lodge and the landscape as the home we wished we had.
Susan Gough Henly travelled courtesy of Bay of Fires Walk.
FAST FACTS
Getting there
Virgin Blue has direct return flights to Launceston starting at $140 from Melbourne and $278 from Sydney. Jetstar also has direct return flights, starting at $158 from Melbourne and $278 from Sydney. Prices include tax.
Staying there
The four-day, three-night Bay of Fires walk is $1900 a person, including guides, meals and accommodation. See www.bayoffires.com.au, phone (03) 6392 2211.
Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter
Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.