Freycinet Winter Hike - Day 1

Wednesday, 26 July 2017

I originally planned an overnight hiking trip for the school holidays because I was a bit worried that the kids would spend the entire fortnight on the couch surrounded in devices. As it turned out they did sit on the couch surrounded in devices but they also dragged themselves away to go for a few runs, attend waterpolo training and to participate in some orienteering events - so they weren’t completely inactive which was good.   By the time the final weekend rolled around it didn't take too much cajoling to get them packed and ready to go.

Being winter, and Tasmania,  the place least likely to get snow was the Freycinet Peninsula, and due to some track work, the only way to avoid having to walk the most boring section twice, was to take the water taxi to Cooks Beach, then hike our way back from there.   That would make a nice 24k hike over two days with an optional 6k trip to Bryan’s Beach on the first day. 

Clare was always going to be part of our crew and at the last minute Clare’s sister-in-law Jo, her friend Suse and two of their children joined the gang which was great. Also great was Jo’s idea to run down to Cook’s beach on the first day. I immediately signed myself up to join her as it’s a lovely run of 14k and our packs for could come on the boat with the rest of the crew. As the boat was $45 per adult it was also a nice way to save some money! 

As we were driving up to Coles bay the captain of the water-taxi rang up to say it was quite windy and would everyone who was coming on the boat be able to disembark in rough conditions? Also they might get a bit wet he said.  Knowing that I’d be staying firmly on land I assured the captain they’d all be perfectly fine and they wouldn’t mind getting wet.  Heh Heh.

As soon as we arrived in Coles Bay Jo and I drove around to the national park so we could get a slight head start on the boat people.  We didn’t see them but they would have zoomed past us just a few minutes after we parked I think.

Our run was great. It took us about 95 minutes of moving time and we had about 15 minutes of breaks and photo-stops on the way down.  I haven’t been on the section between Hazards Beach and Cooks Beach for many years - and it was really lovely. 

 As we arrived at Cooks Beach we saw the conditions that the boat people would have had to disembark in just an hour or so before we go there.    

In fact the conditions were so different to the photos on the official Aqua-Taxi brochure that it reminded me of our ice-fishing experience in Norway where the brochure showed a guy sitting comfortably in the sun, his haul of fish beside him, while the reality was more like sitting in a wind tunnel with someone feeding hailstones into the fan.

Brochure - note toe-deep water, ramp on sand..

Reality - note the distance the ramp is from shore and how high Clare has had to roll her trousers!

Out of interest, this is what Jett looked like last time we took the Freycinet Aqua Taxi.. I think he enjoyed it a lot more this time.

When Jo and I caught up with the gang later in the day they described the landing as somewhat ‘dramatic’. They had to walk on a floating gangplank that ended in thigh deep water surrounded by breaking waves.  Not only was the gangplank floating in the lumpy swell, but they had to bring their heavy hiking packs ashore too, so balancing was a challenge!   Jon and Clare also had to do a second trip to get Jo and my packs off the boat.  

Jon hauling my pack and his pack to the campsite. 

When Jo and I reached the campsite it was evident that the boat people had recovered enough to put up all the tents, have lunch and then head off to Bryan’s Beach, so we had a quick break then walked the delightful 3k track to meet up with them.  These photos are from Zali's phone.

Bryan’s beach was lovely - we spent time there admiring the views across to Schouten Island before heading back to Cooks Beach.  

By the time we got back to camp it was starting to get dark so we cooked up a delicious dinner of re-heated vegetarian curries (only made possible by arriving on a boat!), and had a delicious meringue dessert made by Suse and her daughter Chloe.    These photos of the campsite are from the next morning.

 Then it was off to bed to listen to the wind, waves, and Clare’s gentle snoring until we fell asleep. Actually I’m just joking about Clare’s snoring, we didn’t hear any snoring, but Clare is beginning to think she is allergic to her own sleeping bag as she has snored herself awake the last few times she’s used it. We think more testing in controlled conditions is required.

Anyway, it was a great day and a perfect start to our winter hike.