http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/recreation/tracknotes/scoast.htm l
Up at 6am, easy when in Calgary it is 12 noon! Gorged on free continental breakfast. At 7:30am we rushed out of the Astor Hotel to the bus station and got onto the first of our two buses towards Cockle Creek. The teary banter between the two bus drivers (one was a trainee) and a surfer dude kept us howling for the first leg, then we changed over to a much smaller bus for the dirt road drive to Cockle Creek.
There was no one else on the bus going down that day, since most people hike out that end of the South Coast trail because they prefer to fly into Melaleuca and hike east to Cockle Creek. The bus driver Jim used to build boats in Dover, and he told us all sorts of stories about the area.
Arriving in Cockle Creek at around noon, we purchased a new map (since the map we had was ratty from study at home) and set off. We filled in the registration, and started hiking the first section. There were numerous day-trippers returning from a day at the beach at the end of the first leg. Along South Cape Bay we crossed over the first beach and then proceeded to do the "rocky" coastal section past Lion Rock, choosing to climb over huge rocks along the water rather than over the headland.
The second and third beach were fairly pleasant, and we proceeded to the eastern end of the final beach, crossing the South Cape Rivulet with some big jumps. The water was brackish because the rivulut flowed so flatly into the sea, and perhaps storms keep pushing salty sand up into the valley. We thought about proceeding, but the next section was going to be rather long, and the water situation was unknown since we had not yet talked to anyone. It was approximately 3:30pm perhaps, and we were not sure if we should proceed further. We had to climb through a fair amount of scratchy bramble to get to a camp site hidden in the woods. We tried three different ways to get to Blackhole Creek (looking at our GPS and the map) which we thought might hold better water, but each time the bush stopped us. That night, we heard the "thump thumps" of wallabies jumping around out tent.
The next morning we woke up very early, since we intended to do a good section of the trail. We cooked our breakfast with the brackish water we had filtered out of the rivulet, and set on the first big headwall crossing we had to do -- the South Cape Range. This has a maximum elevation of about 460 meters, but nothing along the Tasman coast is ever just up and down. The vegetation kept changing between various kinds as we continued along the trail. Sometimes it would be dry flatter bog areas, sometimes full on rain forest, other times dry and dusty euculyptus forest. Particular large grasses (ie. reaching over our heads) would tangle our feet up, and we started calling them "lassoo grass". In less treed areas, wombat poo could be found on many of the high spots of the trail (ie. on a rock here, on a piece of boardwalk there).
We climbed down the more grass covered eastern side of the ridge into Granite Beach area, where Sandstone Creek runs down some waterfalls into the sea. This was our first sign of good water. We had some hummus, and shivered a bit since the wind had picked up a bit. We filled up our water bags since some women told us that the water situation the other way was fairly bad too.
We crossed Granite Beach and then climbed over the headwall on the other side and came down to Surprise Bay. This was a truly lovely beach, and once again we were able to simply jump over the creek. In our map there were many notes saying "all routes involve wading in water", but obviously this was a dry spell. Along this beach we found our first sign of tiny little blue men-of-war that had washed onto the beach.
The sun came out fiercely as we climbed over the next headwall to about 100 meters. Then it put us onto the very windy Rocky Plains (a low shrub bog, which was very dry at this time). We decided to not go to Osmiridium Beach, but push on to camp at New River Lagoon, so that the next morning we would be able to do the boat right away.
By now we had been hiking perhaps 8 hours, and we were starting to tire, and getting low on water. The water situation was not clear for up ahead, but as we climbed down the last bit of Wierah Hill onto the first piece of beach, a couple going the other way pointed out a little creek running out of the cliff just right there. We fillled up completely with water, and then proceeded along the standard route towards camp.
This is deceptive on the map. First off, the river outflow has recently changed. It now floats out to sea right at the base of Wierah Hill, and there is a small lagoon at the base of Milford creek. This means that Milford creek is now quite brackish too, so we were thrilled to find water a few minutes earlier. After crossing Milford creek, the trail goes brutally up and down for approximately a kilometer though some of the scratchiest bush on the South Coast trail, before popping into a lovely sheltered spot right before the start of Prion Beach.
We stayed there at that site that night -- once again entirely alone in the campground -- and washed up naked in the water of New River Lagoon with only the black swans around us. We would have to do our first boat crossing the next morning, which scared us a bit, as there were no PFDs provided and Theo is not a fish in water :) (although Puffy is!).
The next morning we were up before sunrise again, and onto the boats at first light in calm water. We had to paddle an aluminum boat across with our gear, drop the gear off, tie up a second boat to our boat with oars, row back to the side we started on, leave a boat and oars, and row back. The three crossings of the boats were really fun, and good practice for something we would do a few days later :-) We then crossed over a dune onto Prion Beach, took off our boots, and walked barefoot for nearly 4km on the hard packed sand at the surf line!!!! It was slightly windy, but just gorgeous walking. At the eastern end of the beach we found an excellent water source, and about 50m up the trail a place where one tent could be set up very nicely right next to the trail. We climbed up onto Menzies Bluff and followed the newer track which is set much closer to the cliff edge, so that we can still hear the surf continually.
We hiked on to Tuara Beach in Deadmans Bay, and then did the muddy section afterwards to get to the camp site where we saw a few tents, people just getting up around 10:30am (we had been at it for 4 hrs by now!). We had to take a bit of a break there for a snack, and perform some minor surgery on Theo's feet. The sand had agitated a piece of his foot and it needed to be shaved down a bit and given some drugs. But then we were able to leave again at a bit after 11am, to climb over what many consider the most challenging part of the South Coast Track -- the 950m Ironbound mountain range.
Crossing this mountain range often stops people for a full day or more, going either way, since it should not be crossed in bad weather. 100km per hour windows and blowing snow are common. Luckily for us, today was turning out to be a scorcher. We are very glad we did not have to climb it the other way around. From the campground, the trail heads west along a new route through some lovely dry eucalyptus forest, and then starts to climb up through some beautiful rain forest. Green wet moss everywhere, slippery rocks, up and up and up, roots and mud and trees everywhere on the trail. There were many birds in the air. As we climbed higher we crossed paths with two solo hikers, one of which was surprised that we "had started so late". Hah. We were doubling up, not starting late :)
Nearing the top, the rain forest gives way to cloud forest, with all sorts of things just growing on anything. Really beautiful. Then it tops out without any trees, and we could see our entire route forwards and backwards! 40km ahead of us and 40km behind us! This was an alpine environment, rich with new plants and bushes and many orchids! This alpine environment is different that what we are used to, as it never gets a solid snow cover in the winter, yet is subject to wet and freezing temperatures. We stayed for a little while in the winds eating some hummus, but the day was dragging on, so we started down the other side which is much drier, and essentially a staircase right back to 24 meter elevation!
At Lousa River we crossed the river and found a spot on the other side. All to ourselves, again! We washed clothes and ourselves in the river, which was nice tasting. It was also very full of tanins (as almost all the rivers in Tasmania are -- ie. it looks like tea, even after filtering). That dusk, as we were hanging out in the tent, a spotted quoll came and ran around our campsite. We had no idea such an animal even existed (but people told us what it was later).
The next morning we left a little bit later, since we only had to go to Point Eric. The trail crossed a few creek gullies over mostly flattish moorland type terrain, lightly treed. We did have to cross the Red Point Hills, but they are only about 230 meters, so it wasn't such a big deal. It was a hotter day, but also windier, and we could tell that perhaps the Ironbounds was not as good a climb for people today (compared to what we had experienced the day before).
We entered onto the Cox Blight beaches, and found a nice spot that two hikers suggested to us earlier in the day (away from the main campsite). We had a sea view right out of the tent, yet we were sheltered from the wind on the correct sides, and the sun would just barely hit us with filtered light, and we had a lovely place to set up our stove on a sandy step and dangle our feet into the sand. We got fresh water from Goring Creek, but wandered further down the beach to Bell Creek lagoon to wash up. The marsh flies were pretty bad in the sun, but once one got into the shade they would leave us alone. It was just a lovely place to be! We actually read our books a bit, having arrived at camp early for a change!
We got up the next morning fairly early, on Nadine's birthday, since we wanted to make it to Melaleuca to get our food bag (which had been flown in by Tassair, we hoped!), and then continue on our next "hike" on the same day, if things worked out. It was a singnificantly cooler day, and the wind from the west had a chill to it. There was cloud laying over the land. We did the small "lassoo grass" cross-over of Eric Point and then got onto the western Cox Blight beach, and continued hiking around Freney Lagoon and onto the low shrub and grass trails (some boardwalked) towards Melaleuca. We arrived there around 11am, and inside the airstrip shed were were THRILLED to find our food bags and the fuel we had ordered! We repacked the food bags, put the fuel into the fuel bottle. Theo washed out the plastic bottle we had supplied for fuel and rinsed it very well, and put as much of the wine as he could into it! The remaining wine we gave to some people who were waiting for a small plane to arrive for them, and they were happy to take our garbage out for us, as well as the empty glass wine bottle! This was all working better than we had planned!
We ran over to the ranger hut to double check some information from the wardens (who were not very useful, but they had an old copy of John Chapman's book that could help us). We copied down some information for some hikes ahead. We had just hiked the South Coast Track in 4 nights, with none of the promised rain nor mud, and with a fresh bag of gummy bears in our hands, we immediately set out on our next hike........
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