North Queensland wildlife and the environment
Cockle Creek is famously the end of the road, the furthest south you can drive in any Australian state. The road from Hobart is sealed as far as Ida Bay just south of Lune River. From there it is gravel, in good condition at first but dwindling as you pass through smaller and smaller places. Moss Glen may count as a village but most of them are just cleared camping spots with a composting dunny but no other facilities. And finally there’s Cockle Creek. Why would anyone go there?
This, the last day, is the biggest (hardest) day of the walk, according to the rangers. The distance is not quite as great as on Day 3 but there are lots of steps: 800 up and over Mt Fortescue, then 2200 out to Cape Hauy and back, and some more on the last section which trends gently down to Fortescue Bay. The ranger told us to expect to take three hours to the Cape Hauy track junction, one hour each way on the Cape, and one more down to the Bay.
Most of us were up early on Day 3 of the four-day Three Capes walk because it is the longest, distance-wise, at 19 km. It’s not as hard as it sounds, however, because the first 16 km were an out-and-back walk from Munro Hut to the tip of Cape Pillar, carrying only a day-pack.
Day 2 on the track is more strenuous than Day 1 (previous post), proceeding from Surveyors Hut (130 metres altitude) to Munro Hut (240 m) by way of Arthurs Peak and Crescent Mountain (300 m), a total of 11 km which should take 4 to 4.5 hours according to the track notes.
Most of the route lies close to the cliff tops and the spectacular views present plenty of excuses to stop and rest for a few minutes. My camera will do most of the talking.
We didn’t see a lot of wildlife (it was the end of summer and the country was very dry) but wallabies grazed around the huts at dusk and dawn.
I was very lucky to revisit Tasmania in the second half of March to walk the famous Three Capes Track on the Tasman Peninsula, and in perfect weather. It’s a four-day, three-night hike, 48 km altogether, and the scenery is magnificent so I will spread my report over several posts. This one comprises a quick overview and Day 1.
The Three Capes Track was developed around 2012 as a major tourism project of the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service. It attracted some controversy at the time but that settled down as people voted with their feet: there’s a limit of 48 people per day, the number of beds in the huts, and it is nearly fully booked in the peak season.
The PWS site is informative and includes a good map if you’re not sure where we are. I will save nearly all my discussion of the practicalities for my last post.
The official starting point of the walk is an office in the Port Arthur visitor centre, the convict heritage site on the Tasman Peninsula. Walkers can drive down but I took a dedicated bus service from the Hobart docks. Its 7.30 departure in the last weeks of daylight saving meant that I saw the sun rise while waiting to board.
Signing in at Port Arthur entitles walkers to the freedom of the old penal colony (for two years, incidentally). It is beautiful and historic, however brutal its history, so most walkers take time to see it before boarding the small boat that takes them (us) across to Denmans Cove, the beginning of the hike.
