The Two Capes Hike

Monday, 30 November 2020

Although I'm not a huge fan of rogaining, the one Jon and I did last December in St Helens was a bit of a revelation. Before that I wouldn't have thought that I could possibly cover so many kilometres in one day. Together we walked and ran about 50k before going to bed just after midnight then the next morning we got up and walked another 16. 

Since then Clare and Jon and I have planned and executed (and also, due to various reasons,  cancelled) a number of epic hikes. Clare and I did a 37k walk at Freycinet in July, and yesterday, while Jon and the kids were doing another rogaine at South Arm, Clare and I did the an el-cheapo version of the 3 Capes Hike. We were basically going to do 2/3rds of the route of the fantastic 3 night walk that we both did a few years ago with kids.

As it was so long, I wanted to get an early start so I forced us to drive down the afternoon before and pay for non-tent style accommodation.  In retaliation Clare forced us to stay in a cabin for which its greatest attribute was that it housed a cheese grater.  Fancy huh? Actually if it had been so fancy as to contain a couch as well, we could have sat there and admired its steely shininess all night.  

Anyway, after a night spent tossing and turning (I have a bad habit of lying awake fretting about adventures the night before actually doing them - in fact I may as well have been in a tent after all), we got up at 6, made ourselves lunch (using a plate as a chopping board because.. well you can guess) and were heading off from Fortescue Bay in the light drizzle by 7:30. We weren't the only ones starting out with grand plans - about half an hour in we overtook a group also heading to Cape Pillar. Wisely they were just doing the out-and-back route, as opposed to our out-and-back-and-then-around route.

The first hour and a half is spent on the old Cape Pillar track, which is really pretty, particularly in spring with all the flowers. After a delightful 10km we arrived at the first of the huts whereupon we chatted with the nice ranger (who was happy for us to fill our water bottles), and admired the view from the deck. 

From there it was out and back to Cape Pillar - 6kms each way from the hut.  It was typical Tasmanian spring weather - occasionally windy, sometimes sunny, sometimes rainy - we must have put our rain jackets on and off about 50 times during the day.

 It was pretty nice when we got to Cape Pillar - so after admiring the stunning view we enjoyed some lunch in the sun before returning to the hut to refil our water again.  We passed lots of people on day 3 of their hike also making it to Cape Pillar.  In fact during the day we passed people on the 2nd, 3rd and final day of their respective trips.  It certainly seems to attract a mixed bunch of decrepit old hands, fit teenagers, families and hiking newbies. It's fantastic that the provision of such nice accomodation makes the trip so accessible (at least physically if not financially) for so many people.

With half of the journey done we then faced our highest climb - the ascent of Mount Fortescue.

I'm not sure how it gets to be a mountain as it's really not that high, and without big heavy hiking packs it only takes about 20 minutes to hike up. After that we had a delightful 5k lope down the hill to the intersection of the shot but steep out-and-back track to Cape Huay.  With 30+ k under our belts the relentless steps were starting to get a bit tiring but we toughed it out and got some spectacular views from the end.

Thankfully from back at the junction it was another mostly-downhill section to the finish. By this time Clare's toes were getting pretty sore, and my knee was a bit niggly so it was a bit of a relief to be in the final stretch.   We arrived back at the beautiful Fortescue Bay beach and had just enough the energy to walk another 500 metres to make sure the total trip was over 40km.

 So we did it! yay us. We both agreed that apart from our annoying injuries (Clare's toes, and my knee), we felt pretty good considering! I am a bit sore today but otherwise fine.  What's next?

Oh - and while we did our hike, Jett and his team-mate covered almost 30k on foot, Zali did about 20k,  and Jon and his partner did 71 (but they were on bikes).That's a lot of kilometres between us in one day!