South Coast Track, Tasmania

 

After my brief foray onto the South Coast Track last April I had not expected to return and do the full hike. I think it was falling over in South Cape Rivulet and then all the mud that put me off. but thanks to Annette and Ian's kindness in enabling me to leave my car at the track finish I was able to make another attempt, and this turned out to be a wonderful hike.

 February 16. The flight from Hobart to Melaleuca (six passengers in an eight seater) was spectacular, seemingly passing over the mountains at the same altitude I would be at when I stand on top, and I recognised both Hartz Peak and Adamsons. The airstrip was a patch of sandy ground in a button grass valley and I did not linger as I felt four days of relative inactivity was quite enough, and it was already mid afternoon.

The trail crossed the valley, often on boards and with the strong crosswind some of this walking felt like a balancing act; I was glad when the wind swung around to become a tailwind. I saw masses of fairies aprons. After a while the trail was alongside the.New Harbour range and passed Freney Lagoon. Then fairly suddenly I heard a loud din and I was at the beach. I had arrived at the real start of the hike. It was a wide beach with mountains looming above and backed by chalky stones and scrub.

As I walked the beach I could see high Eric Bluff behind and Pt Eric ahead. Gulls and oystercatchers. The path crossed Point Eric inland, lovely sassafras in the forest, and emerged at a large campsite by the beach on the far side. This was me for the night, and it started to rain lightly. 13 kms

February 17. It was a noisy night with wind, rain and surf but quite well moonlit and I looked out at my sea view often. The morning started with a beach walk (at high tide) then crossed a bluff, another beach and a climb through a button grass valley onto the Red Points range; it was windy on the way up and completely still on the other side. The views towards the Ironbound range were great and the valleys were pretty in their yellows and greens with a variety of white-flowering bushes.

I paddled through a couple of creeks in my waterproof boots. So far they really are waterproof. The path was often white stones and I could see it stretching ahead over the hills. I dumped my pack and made the detour to Louisa Bay which had a lovely beach and islands, interesting bushy formations and was sunny so I lounged on the dunes.

Heading back it was really windy and stayed like that to Louisa River. I had to cross this river and it was one I had worried about but it was shallow and no problem. As I arrived at the campsite the first thing I saw was a spotted tailed quoll. I chose a nice spot by the river. 23 kms

February 18. This was a hard day. As I packed up during a break in the rain I heard two thunderclaps but nothing more. I started with the long climb from the river (the water level was noticeably higher after a night of rain) up onto the Ironbounds. It was raining and this soon turned to sleet. Then the rain died away and the surrounding mountains were visible with their peaks in cloud, very atmospheric and remote. I got glimpses of the coastline north. The trail was a mixture of boardwalk, steps and rough path, mostly not too steep. After a bit there was hail. The wind was roaring away and in unsheltered stretches it was so strong it was hard to stand. Near the top I could see the coastline in both directions, very indented with a fringe of white surf. I didn’t actually realise when I had reached the top until I noticed I had started descending. The descent began innocuously enough with boardwalk and newish steps.

 Once I was into the rainforest things changed completely: the trail became a series of waterfalls interspersed with patches of mud, big steps to negotiate, tree roots to balance on or step over, branches to pass under and all on steep terrain. It was extremely slow going. My boots ceased to be dry after stepping through so many shin deep pools. The weather would look as though it was improving and then the rain would return. I crossed a couple of waterfalls with no problem. Then after hours of this I started to hear a loud noise that could have been the wind or even the surf - I expected to reach the coast at some point - but I rounded a bend to see a thundering creek, more like a waterfall, flowing turbulently over smooth rock with no obvious way across. I had no idea what to do, then I noticed some big branches hanging across the rock and I bashed my way up to them through dense ferns and crossed hanging onto them. That was enough scary stuff for one day. I trundled on, crossing several more creeks and was delighted when the trail became a lot smoother and I had a view of a rocky bay through a gap in the trees. It seemed far below but the descent was imperceptible and I was soon at Little Deadmans Bay campsite.

A pink-breasted robin was flitting about. It was sunny but then the rain came, then it cleared, then it rained. The bay had a pebbly beach and islands offshore. In the evening a spotted tailed quoll came and lurked around the tents, and it was a nuisance in the night. 14 kms

February 19. I woke to a beautiful sunny day and had breakfast on the beach. It was a perfect temperature for hiking and I walked with Jason over a bluff, along Turua Beach, more forest and out onto Prion Beach for 4 kms of firm sand.

I was definitely not excited about the next bit. We got to New River lagoon - behind the lagoon were great views of Precipitous Bluff and other peaks - and located just one rowboat on our side, which meant we would have to cross three times.

Luckily for me Jason had done this before. The first crossing was the worst as for a long time it didn’t seem like we were moving, and the wind and current were a nuisance, but by the third trip we went better. I could never have done this alone. Sitting in the rowboat in the middle of the lagoon it seemed enormous. We walked on in the forest to the next creek, above the river with views over it.

The creek had an unusually elaborate bridge, and we had lunch there (watched a spotted tailed quoll run over the bridge), then walked through more forest with window views over the coast, and across one of the lovely valleys to Osmiridium beach campsite. We saw two snakes, one of which didn’t want to leave the path. The campsite was among the trees but the nearby ocean was loud. This was another beautiful beach. 16 kms

February 20. There were little brown rails wandering around the campsite and honeyeaters chirping. I set out with the sky full of black clouds, but as I walked to Surprise Bay the sun was trying to come out. I saw a wallaby. The trail went into forest with amazingly huge girthed trees and blechnum (ferns). I came onto Surprise Beach - there were cockatoos in the trees by the beach and I saw a solitary hooded plover - walked along the sand and waded the shallow rivulet to the steps leading up from the beach.

These steps were the furthest point of my hike here last year. The conditions were rather different today: still and warm. The climb from Surprise Bay was steep and led to a good view over the bay.

The trail then followed a sort of ledge on the hillside and became quite faint; at this point I realised I wasn’t on the trail any more and I had to bush bash back to it, cutting my arms badly on the prolific cutting grass. When I reached Granite Bay I had a nice surprise: there was plenty of sand to walk on almost the whole stretch of beach and I only had a little boulder hopping. The creek at the far end was easy to cross. I sat and had a snack above the beach then headed off towards the mud. 

The climb off the beach was long and looking back I got fantastic views over the morning’s beaches and all the islands off shore.

On some of the boggy bits there were dozens of fairies aprons.

Soon I was starting on the mud; at least this time I was prepared for it so it wasn’t the bad shock it had been in April. I took it steadily and rarely went in the mud up to my gaiters. I don’t think it was as bad as last time but it seemed to go on for longer. (In general things were drier than last time and the creek I had slept near was completely dry.) Although I was deep in the forest I could tell the sun was shining. I loved the total silence in the forest. Quite suddenly, four hours after leaving Granite, I popped out of the forest onto boardwalk among tea tree and a bush I’ve been seeing everywhere. This was a great relief. I still had several hills to climb in drier forest (lovely banksias) and I was tired, but it was good to have the hard parts of the hike over. It was several more kms to South Cape Rivulet and I had no choice but to continue as there was no water available until there. With great delight I eventually heard the sound of the surf and then I was at the beach. The part of the rivulet that has to be crossed had a tiny amount of water compared to April, shin deep, only a few paces and calm (as it was low tide).

I waded across to the campsite and took a spot on the beach. The sky was blue and all looked idyllic, then within an hour it was pouring. This was not the best time to discover that I had left my tent pegs behind this morning. I improvised, but camping on sand is risky at the best of times and I couldn’t find any rocks for stability. It should have been a miserable night: my tent collapsed repeatedly and it leaked under the fly so my sleeping bag was soaked. I put on my rain gear, got into the sleeping bag and slept well, after realising I would have to sleep with the tent held up by just one pole. It rained heavily off and on with a strong wind. Since I had to go outside several times in the night to adjust the tent and I was camped on sand that became wet, I brought a lot of wet sand into the tent and into my sleeping bag. Dinner was the packet of Oreos that I had brought as my reward for having a good attitude towards the mud; they weren’t meant to replace dinner but it was too hard to even prepare cold food in a collapsed wet tent. 18 kms 

February 21. When the rain stopped briefly I packed up and left. It soon started again as I went through more forest, came to a cute little beach, more forest then a longer beach leading to Coal Bluff. The ocean facing viewpoints in the bush showed a view of nothing much due to the rain. It was incredibly windy and I didn’t like the idea of the cliff edge walk along the bluff but it was ok, blowing onshore, and the view towards South Cape was good. The sun would come out and next minute it was raining heavily. One time it hailed. I stopped by a creek in the forest for a very late breakfast of coffee and Nutella wraps with sand as everything in my pack was sandy. I saw a lyrebird. The last few kms were unremarkable apart from the weather changing so often. My car was almost alone in the large car park although I had taken the last space when I dropped it off. 12 kms