Wednesday December 7, 21.0km/13.1mi

Lake Tahune Hut (24.7/970m) to Frenchmans Cap Carpark (45.7/390m) (TAS)

The group of 5 was still sleeping when I had packed up and left the hut at 7:15am. Hiking along the ridge today felt much different, with a very low cloud ceiling.

All the rocks and roots were just slightly slippery from the condensation and fog, I took my time. The occasional boardwalk helped.

I was exactly at the height of the cloud bottom, so it was a really unique perspective.

The view from Barron Pass felt more cozy than yesterday, ha!

I duplicated the photo I took yesterday of the lakes, to compare the two days. Still nice, but the lakes didn’t have a blue reflection today.

The morning was pretty uneventful, and eventually I descended back into the forest.

I knew I was getting very close to the car when I saw the set of stairs that led to the Franklin River swingbridge.

I got back to the car at 1:30pm, and drove to the cafe that I had seen on my way to the trail yesterday. The Hungry Wombat!

The bison burger tasted amazing, as food usually does after a few long days of hiking. Yes, that is my own personal bottle of ketchup. It only cost $2 at the grocery store and I’ve given up on these small-town cafes attempting to charge you for basic condiments. Ugh.

I spent a couple hours on the internet uploading photos and planning my next hikes. I’m trying to do my hikes in mostly good weather, which I can do by chasing weather around Tasmania, as it’s usually drier in the east. But as I work my way through my list of hikes, there are fewer remaining options to choose from. I still want to do Walls of Jerusalem, Mt Field, Western Arthur Traverse, and Freycinet Circuit. The first 3 are in the alpine, so I need clear weather to do them, especially the very exposed Western Arthur traverse. The weather forecast is for rain tonight and tomorrow morning (and maybe a small amount of snow up high), so I decided to head to Mt Field, which is the least committing of the three alpine options.

Mt Field is a 3-hour drive from the Hungry Wombat cafe, so I drove halfway today, and stayed at a free camping area called Bethune Park. The full moon rising over Meadowbank Lake was sweet.

Tomorrow, I’ll head to Mt. Field for a 2-day loop hike… unless the weather forecast changes again!

Tuesday December 6, 24.7km/15.4mi

Frenchmans Cap Carpark (0.0/390m) to Lake Tahune Hut (24.7/970m) (TAS)

I drove the 45 minutes to the trailhead, and started walking around 9am. The trailhead had a nice map, which showed the 22km hike to Frenchmans Cap, a summit with 1430m elevation. The hike is an out&back, so the Tahune Hut serves as a nice overnight spot to split up the 44km of hiking.

The weather today was surprisingly beautiful, I didn’t expect such blue skies and warm temperatures from the forecast.

The first 15km of this trail was very well built, thanks in part to a wealthy donor who wanted to protect it back in 2008.

I always love a good swingbridge. Plus the Franklin River was so wide, I can’t imagine another way across it.

I climbed up out of the river’s little valley, and had a nice hour walking in a mossy old forest.

The trail climbed over the shoulder of Mt Mullens, and from the highpoint I could see my objective far ahead, Frenchman’s Cap. It still had a tiny bit of snow on top!

As I hiked downhill toward the Loddon River, I had more views of the mountains surrounding Frenchmans Cap.

The plains were surprisingly not marshy, what a great trail.

At the lowest elevations near the Loddon River, the vegetation felt jungle-like.

Another swingbridge! The Loddon River appeared much deeper and more swampy that the previous river.

An hour later, I ran across two familiar faces! It took my brain awhile to register, since I wasn’t expecting to see anyone I know on this trail. I had met Matt and Owen a couple weeks ago, on the Overland Track. Small world!

The rest of the morning went by uneventfully, as I made my way thru plains and forests.

The first hut on the track was Vera Hut, about 15km from the trailhead. I think it sleeps 20 people.

Since it was almost 1pm, I decided this was a nice lunch spot. The posters explained the history of this hut, which took a few tries to get it built correctly, haha!

After lunch, I hiked another 6km to the next hut, Tahune Hut. The trail was quite a bit rougher with tons of roots, rocks, and little ladders like this one.

That’s definitely a creative solution to make a ladder! The first 15km took me 3.5 hours, the 6km to Tahune Hut took 2.5hours. Ouch. At least there were lots of cool tiny waterfalls along the climb up.

It felt like a relief to get up to Barron Pass, because it’s the same elevation as the hut, so theoretically there was no more elevation gain. It also had amazing views. To the south:

To the Southwest, over Lake Millicent and Lake Magdalen:

And to the west, looking at Frenchmans Cap:

The traverse of the ridge didn’t go as planned, since it wasn’t flat. There were lots of little 10m climbs up and down, which don’t show up on a contour map.

The trail stayed on the ridge for awhile.

Frenchmans Cap was slowly getting closer!

I arrived at Tahune Hut just after 4pm. It’s a relatively new hut, with modern insulated walls and windows, solar LED lights, and fancy long-drop toilets.

I ate some snacks, and dropped off most of my stuff on one of the bunks, since I’m staying here tonight. The summit was a short 1.5km from here, so I didn’t need much more than snacks and water.

I knew it would be steep, since I had to climb 400m in only 1.5km. So many stairs!

As I climbed higher, I could actually see Lake Tahune, which was not visible from the hut.

Up higher and higher, the trail was now mostly on rock.

This was one of the most ridiculous trail junctions I have ever seen. Summit? Straight up the rock face.

Yup, a short class 4 scrambling section was part of the trail. I had a ton of fun doing this, but I wouldn’t want to be there in bad weather.

I still couldn’t believe that I was getting such amazing weather.

There was still a tiny piece of a snow cornice from the previous winter!

The summit was just over the next rise….

The view from the summit! These were the same lakes I saw from Barron Pass earlier.

The view to the west, I think that glimmer of water in the distance is Macquarie Harbor. The ocean!

There weren’t any other people up there, so the selfie mode was employed. Since it was so warm and there wasn’t any wind, it was actually pretty easy this time.

I stayed on the summit for at least 45 minutes enjoying the views and the warm weather. The return trip down was a little faster, but because of the down scrambling and short technical sections it still took 40 minutes. I was back at the hut at 6:30pm, where there was a group of 5 making dinner. They were making some big elaborate meal with lots of ingredients, pots and pans, and seemed like it was taking forever. I made my one-pot meal in 10 minutes and then took it down to the lakeshore to enjoy the sunset.

Frenchmans Cap looked so tall from Lake Tahune, and I loved that I could see it from here. Apparently the mountain is often shrouded in clouds and fog, so I’m very happy I got a rare good weather day up here.

I finished my dinner and cleaned up and was in bed by 8:30 pm, tomorrow is going to be an easy day hiking back out 21km to the car.

Monday December 5, 0.0km/0.0mi

Hobart to (TAS) Lagoon near Bronte Park

I slept late at the hostel, which was a very nice old building with lots of fancy old pieces of French furniture. I bought a ticket to a local museum called MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art. It’s known for being a very quirky and untraditional art museum. I stopped to get gas on the way, and this seagull just sat on the hood and wouldn’t move. Eventually I sprayed the windshield and he departed.

I parked at the museum, and that’s where the normalness ended. The entrance was a confusing maze of stairs and ramps.

The entrance was a nondescript door at ground level, but the rest of it was underground. I checked my wet raincoat and umbrella, and downloaded their app that explains the exhibits.

After going down the stairs into the museum, I could see the cafe a few levels below me. I loved the name – “Void Bar”, Cocktails, Pizza, Emptiness.

The exhibits were all very unique, ranging from performance art, to interactive exhibits, to traditional Picasso sculptures.

This exhibit was for a mummy, and you had to walk on the stepping stones, or else fall into 2m/6.5ft of dark water!

This one was called the White House:

This one was a small maze with binary numbers everywhere and a surprise mirror ceiling at the finish.

A small library room full of blank white books and magazines was an exhibit.

So was a loud groaning tunnel with shifting lighting.

By 3pm, I had seen most everything, so I drove to a nearby fried chicken place for an early dinner. After doing some planning for the remainder of my Australia trip, I hit the road. I found a free campsite on google about 2 hours away, and only 45 minutes from where my hike tomorrow will start. I arrived to the campsite, which was at a boat ramp and fishing area near Bronte Park. It was very windy near the lake, so I rearranged the seating inside the car to sleep there instead. Tomorrow I will begin a short hike, a 2-day out & back hike to Frenchman’s Cap.

Sunday December 4, 34.0km/21.1mi

Bare Knoll Campground (7.7/263m) to Fortescue Bay (41.7/7m) (TAS)

I had a great sleep in the little campground, and the possum didn’t bother me any further. I left my tent setup with my sleeping stuff inside it, as much of the hike today is an out&back hike, and I collected my tent when I came back thru. Most of the hiking today was easy, on trail like this:

Within 30 minutes I came to Munro Hut, one of the glamping huts for the hikers who pay $500AUS / $360 USD to do the “Three Capes Experience”.

Walking up to the hut I realized it was an entire campus, of bunkhouses, kitchen room, bathrooms, decks, ranger buildings, and more.

The inside was very fancy too.

The view from the deck was spectacular, I think that’s Cape Hauy in the distance.

I talked to the ranger at the hut, and she was very friendly and helpful. I refilled my water bottle and kept moving. A few minutes down the track I noticed the first random and bizarre item, a board that said “lunchtime”. Weird.

The benches were unusual too, they appeared more artistic than functional.

The track was built to a very high standard, and I was very impressed by the attention to detail. There was an arrangement of stones leading up to the boardwalk.

And then Tasmania’s longest boardwalk started. I think I was walking on wood for at least 20 minutes. The views to the south were pretty great too.

A few more bizarre items appeared, a round bench with a sculpture, the message “my blood runs cold” on the boards, and “eye see bright” in tile.

As I got closer to the end of the peninsula, I could start to see Tasman Island, and “the blade” rock formation.

The Blade, which I would be hiking on shortly:

I loved seeing all the detached rock pillars. Reminded me of Acadia NP!

Looking back towards the bluff I had just hiked across:

I came to a trail junction and turned to hike the Blade, a 10-minute side trip. It was steeper than I expected, with dozens of stairs.

The exposure on the end of the Blade was unreal. The sea was 100m/330ft below me.

A wider view of Tasman Island and the Blade:

I found a nice sitting rock on the Blade!

Looking ahead to Cape Pillar:

Impressive sea cliffs in every direction:

I hiked 10 more minutes over to Cape Pillar, and had a nice chat with a couple from the Sydney area (I think?). We talked about lots of different trails, including his plans to hike the PCT in 2024. It was a great spot to discuss the outdoors, ha!

I could hear sounds coming from waaay below, apparently there are fur seal colonies on the rocks down there.

The trail ended at the Cape Pillar lookout, so the next 3 hours I backtracked to my tent. I caught a glimpse of a neat feature called “the chasm” which I had missed on the way earlier.

I went by Munro Hut again, and decided to have lunch there since it was after 12pm. I ate outside on the nice tables.

The inside dining area was super fancy, but too warm to eat in there.

Just after leaving the hut, I saw my first Tasmanian snake! There are only 3 species of snake living in Tassie, so I assume this one was a Tiger Snake.

When I reached the Bare Knoll Campsite again, it was a quick task to pack up my tent. Now with a heavier pack, I hiked by Retakunna Hut.

There wasn’t anybody there yet, as all the glampers were still out walking. I saw a couple of furry friends nearby.

As I climbed up and over Mt Fortescue, the forest became very mossy and green.

It was like a rainforest!

There were more of those random bizarre objects, in this case a giant copper-clad chair.

As I got closer to Cape Hauy, the trail emerged from the forest at a lookout. Looking ahead:

And just underneath me was an arch in the rock!

Soon I was at the turnoff to Cape Hauy, a 1.6km out&back. This short trail was surprisingly hilly.

It descended and re-climbed three times, with lots of stairs.

Cape Hauy!

A family just happened to be there when I arrived, and we exchanged photography services.

The hike back to the junction was just as slow and hilly, though I got some interesting views of Fortescue Bay (where I will finish).

And 30 minutes later, I passed the finish marker!

Strangely, it was still another kilometer to the actual finish, and these signs kept counting down the distance.

I was reunited with the car at 6pm. After signing out of the trail register and eating some snacks, I started driving the 1.5 hours back to Hobart.

I had checked the weather forecast earlier, and tomorrow is a rainy day. I’ll spend tonight in a hostel called Montecute, and do some touristy things around Hobart tomorrow. A day off from hiking!

Saturday December 3, 7.7km/4.8mi

Cockle Creek to Fortescue Bay (0.0/7m) to Bare Knoll Campground (7.7/263m) (TAS)

I packed up my tent and was standing in the parking lot by 8am, hoping to hitch a ride. In one hour, I saw only 1 car, and they were arriving not departing. I began to directly approach people I saw walking around, asking for a ride. A few said they would give me a ride if I was still there in the afternoon, when they returned from their hike. So I started walking down the dirt road, hoping to catch more traffic. After I had passed a couple of campgrounds, I saw a few more vehicles and one of them stopped to give me a ride. Sweet! I rode with them for an hour to the town of Geeveston, about halfway to Hobart. From Geeveston I could catch a bus to Hobart for $7, so while I waited for the bus I occupied myself by doing their short “platypus walk”.

I didn’t see any platypus (platypii?), but I did find a bakery with a really good cinnamon bun, and that’s pretty close. The bus took an hour and I made it into Hobart at 2pm, and I walked directly to a car rental place I had researched beforehand. Most of their cars were already reserved, but there were a few manuals available. The manager was rather apologetic that was a Hyundai, since they reverse the controls for the turn signals and wipers. But I got a good price, and I’ll have a really clean windshield every time I want to make a turn. Ha!

Driving on the other side of the car didn’t seem that awkward, and shifting with my left hand was fine. But that turn signal required some thought!

I picked up a few groceries, and then drove the 1.5 hours to Fortescue Bay. The map at the trailhead showed a good overview of my hike. It’s pretty short, basically 41km/25mi and 1.5 days.

I signed the trail register, and noticed that a couple people had started this hike yesterday, so I might run into them on the track.

I started hiking kinda late at 7pm, but it was only 7.7km to Bare Knoll campsite.

The trail was pretty nondescript, and the distance went by quickly.

This first part of the trail was a standard wilderness track, with some roots and rocks. Tomorrow’s section of the trail will be much nicer, as it was purpose-built to handle 50 hikers per day, who pay $500AUD to have a 3-night glamping trip with fancy huts and perfectly manicured trail.

The occasional boardwalk over the potentially wet areas was a nice feature.

At 8:30pm, I came to the turn off for my campsite. It was only 100 meters down the side trail.

The forest here is very rocky and uneven, so they build tent platforms to make camping possible.

Many people do not have free-standing tents (meaning they need to be staked in to be setup), and their solution to that problem was quite innovative. There are chains spaced at regular intervals across the wooden platforms, and the chains are adjustable length, so you just clip them to the corners of your tent.

A little while after sunset (8:45pm), I heard a noise in the tree above me and my headlamp showed it was a brushtail possum!

It was a long day of hitchhiking, bus riding, food resupplying, driving, and then finally hiking for 1.5 hours. But tomorrow will be worth it!

Tomorrow I will hike to Cape Pillar (on an out-and-back trail), pack up my camp, and then hike to Cape Hauy (refer to map above).

Friday December 2, 30.2km/18.8mi

Osmiridium Campsite (58.1/8m) to Cockle Creek (88.0/3m) (TAS) +0.3 campsite

I had a great camping spot in the trees, and woke up to a condensation-free tent and the sound of the ocean in the distance. I got moving after 7:30am, and much of the morning was on overgrown forested trail.

Sometimes it was a nice trail.

The short beach sections were definitely the highlight of the day, the first one was Surprise Bay, a short 1km beach. There were a couple spots to weave thru some big rocks, which was fun.

I had to time the waves just right to get thru this gap in the rocks. Exciting!

The beach was easy walking, and the waves were extra-large today.

I was back in the forest for a couple kilometers, before dropping down to another beach.

This one was Granite Beach, slightly longer than the previous beach.

It started off sandy…

And the last half of the beach was these big smooth rocks that were challenging to walk on. They were cantaloupe-sized wet stones, and sometimes would shift under my feet.

The exit to the beach was marked by a nice 10m waterfall, which also made a perfect water source.

I refilled my bottle at the bottom of the falls, getting kinda wet in the process. A few minutes later, I discovered the trail went across the stream at the top too. That would’ve been much easier. Oops. For the next 2 hours, I hiked uphill on an insanely muddy trail. I was too focused on not falling to take any photos, except in this one short stretch of boardwalk.

On the descent, the muddy trail added a new challenge of being weirdly channelized. It was hard to walk in such a narrow trench.

Thankfully, towards the end of the descent was a rather long stretch of boardwalk. It felt good to just walk and stretch my legs, without having to focus on each step.

I love the views of the southern ocean, the photos don’t really capture the enormous size of the waves crashing on the cliffs.

I emerged onto South Cape Beach, a very short 500m beach that started with a shallow river crossing.

The second half of the beach had some rocks, but those were easily avoided.

This little viewpoint was a nice surprise, I climbed up 100m to a clifftop, and saw this behind me. The beach I had just hiked:

After 30 minutes in the forest, I was on the final beach of the trail, Lion Roch Beach. It’s only 7km from the finish and a carpark, so I saw a few dayhikers out enjoying the sand (but not the water – too dangerous).

Leaving a beach always means a staircase to get up on top of the dunes and cliffs.

My favorite section of the day was the short walk along the top of the seaside cliff. Apparently they can spontaneously collapse, which was alarming.

Cairns!

The trail wrapped around the edge, I could feel the mist from the waves crashing violently below.

The last 7km were on an easy trail that went thru unremarkable forest and meadow. I enjoyed the flat, wide, smooth trail, and had a good 5km/hour pace going. This guy slowed me down, since he didn’t stop eating or move out of the way for a few minutes.

The nice boardwalk continued almost to the end.

The finishing trail register! I signed out, and searched the book for other hikers who finished today, to potentially get a ride out with them. But nobody today, darn.

I finished at 6pm and got my finish photo! It was a nice 4-day hike, I’m not sure who established the “6-8 day” guideline.

Southwest National Park is a world heritage area. And Cockle Creek is the “end of the road”, since this is the furthest south you can drive in Australia.

As I was walking over to the free campground to setup my tent for the night, I passed this seal pretty far up the beach.

The camping options weren’t great, as they were either in grassy meadows (wet), or in spots that were rutted from cars’ tires. I settled for a flat spot that will surely be dewy and damp in the morning.

Tomorrow I will hitchhike back to Hobart, which is a 2-hour drive. This is literally the end of the road, so it sees very little traffic. Should be interesting!

Thursday December 1, 28.2km/17.5mi

Louisa River Campsite (30.2/41m) to Osmiridium Campsite (58.1/8m) (TAS) +0.3 campsite

I left camp at 7:45am, a little later than usual to give the morning fog time to burn off. Everyone else has already left camp it seemed. The first few minutes of the day were on a nice flat section of trail, giving me a preview of the big climb ahead, up the Ironbound Range.

And then, for the next 2 hours, I climbed up….

Up….

Occasionally I would turn around to see how far up I had come.

Still going uphill. It got pretty rocky near the top.

I got one final look behind me, before I lost the view.

The top ridgeline was a more gradual uphill, traversing a wet area on some old boardwalk.

I kept pausing to watch the clouds swirl around the ridges below me.

The top section was mostly boardwalk, which was a nice change from the thousands of stairs I had just climbed.

Finally, at 10am, I was on the summit! I had climbed 900m/2950ft over 5km/3mi, so it was quite steep. The view behind me:

And ahead of me:

I had caught up to John, Murray, and Sean, they started the descent just before me.

And now the trail started going back down the other side, initially on a nice boardwalk.

More boardwalk descent.

After a short while, the trail dropped into a wet gully. The boardwalk disappeared and everything was a wet muddy mess.

Sometimes there were wet slabs of rock to walk and scramble down.

Eventually, after 2 hours of descending, I made it to the bottom. I enjoyed a brief walk thru a flat forest.

It was after 12pm, so I stopped for lunch as soon as I was a suitable spot. This was a campsite at Little Deadmans Bay.

I always enjoy watching the waves crash on the rocks.

I had passed 2 other groups on the downhill section, and I was hoping to see them again. But after 30 minutes, it was time to move on. After crossing a very short rocky beach, I was back in the meadows.

My favorite parts of the day were the beach walks. First on Turua Beach:

It even had a short rocky section, which was fun to taunt the ocean from.

There was a short section of forested hiking, and then back on the beach! Prion Beach was longer, and I strolled down it for an hour.

These massive seaweed clumps were washed up everywhere.

It’s a long beach.

Eventually I left the beach by scrambling thru the sand dunes, and I stood on the shore of a lagoon behind the beach. I saw where the trail resumed on the other side of the lagoon.

It was time to paddle!

Like the Bibbulmun Track, they provide boats for hikers to get across the ocean inlets. Unlike the Bibbulmun, these weren’t lightweight canoes. These were solid aluminum heavy rowboats that were nearly impossible to push into the water. With 2 people, I’m sure it’s much easier, but I couldn’t sit there for a day and wait for someone to show up. Eventually I devised a system to drag the boat down to the water. I took all the paddles out of the storage box, and removed the oar part so it’s just the round handles. I put all 8 oars underneath as rollers, and pushed the boat into the water. The actual rowing across was easy, and only took 5 minutes.

I had to leave a boat on each side, so I towed the 2nd boat back to my starting shore, tied it up, and paddled back a final time to my ending shore. I made sure to only barely pull the boats out of the water, so other people don’t have the same struggle. Definitely the crux of the hike. All those shenanigans took 45 minutes, and it felt nice to be hiking again.

The trail felt rather brushy and unmaintained for the next 30 minutes, so I was quite surprised to see a new metal bridge.

After crossing the bridge, the PUDs ended and the trail became nicer. I could see ahead to Osmiridium Bay.

Which means I was almost at camp!

I turned down the 300m side trail to Osmiridium Campsite, and it felt good to sit after a long day.

Eventually I convinced my legs to stand up, and walk down to the beach. It was an easy 5 minute walk, and I’m glad I got to experience this neat little beach.

There was nobody at the campsite or the beach, I had it all to myself. I like the remoteness of this trail, it’s so much quieter than the Overland Track. I think I’ve seen 7 people so far in 3 days. Tomorrow is the last day, and it will be interesting to see what else the South Coast has to show.

Wednesday November 30, 18.5km/11.5mi

Freney Lagoon Campsite (11.7/6m) to Louisa River Campsite (30.2/41m) (TAS)

It rained overnight, but had stopped by the time I started packing up at 6:30am. Thanks to my nice camping spot in the trees, my tent was barely wet. I stepped out onto the foggy morning beach.

Within 20 minutes, I came to Point Eric, a treed peninsula on the beach where most of the other people had camped last night. There was even a trail register to sign!

When I stepped back on the beach on the other side of the peninsula, I had to time my steps more carefully. Even though it was low tide, the beach was much smaller here, and I carefully avoided the waves.

I was on the beach for probably an hour, and even though it didn’t rain, the clouds looks tempted to drop some water.

I left the beach using a brand new set of stairs, and briefly returned to the forest.

Every time the trail enters /exits the beach, there is a post with a trail marker, but also a huge buoy that is much more visible.

As I walked the last section of beach for today, the sun was trying to break out of the clouds. It was neat hiking in the only ray of sunshine in the area.

When I left the beach the final time today, there was a pile of trash people had made from stuff that has washed up from the ocean. Most of it was plastic bottles, which are a completely unnecessary form of trash. Gross.

The walk thru the grasslands was a mix of muddy trail and boardwalks.

The rays of sunshine are still following me, ha!

There was a small 200m climb to a hilltop, and I had a neat view behind me.

Ahead of me looked cloudy, and I was hoping that mountain would be cloud-free by the time I got there this afternoon, since the trail goes over it.

There were dozens of these caterpillars on the trail all morning.

I started to descend, and it started to sprinkle a little bit, but I was too distracted by the views to care.

Still going downhill…

I stopped at a creek to refill my water bottle, and I noticed how yellow the water was. It looked like a weak tea! I think it’s all the tannins from the leaves and grass, and it tasted fine.

It’s still better than the water down low, which is potentially salty from the ocean tides. I had to cross 3 unbridged streams today, all of which had ropes for a handline.

The water in the first two was mid-shin deep, so they were pretty easy. I walked for another couple hours on easy undulating trail, keeping an eye on that mountain in the clouds.

It looked like the clouds were starting to lift…

The last unbridged stream crossing of the Louisa River was almost knee deep, which made keeping my pants dry a little more challenging. I caught up to another group, Sean, John, & Murray, whom had rode in the plane with me yesterday. They setup camp at the Louisa River Campsite, and I paused to assess my options. It was only 2pm, so usually I would keep walking, but Ironbound Mountain (900m elevation) requires clear weather to hike over. I turned on my inReach and downloaded an updated forecast…low clouds and 50% rain. It felt so strange to setup camp at 2:30pm but that’s what I did! Tomorrow should be dry and clear weather.

Tuesday November 29, 11.7km/7.3mi

Melaleuca Airstrip (0.0/6m) to Freney Lagoon Campsite (11.7/6m) (TAS)

I left the hostel at 7:30am, and took a taxi to the small airport in Cambridge 20 minutes away. The airport has the usual General Aviation companies and flight schools, and Par Avion, who provide transport to the start of the South Coast Track.

I talked to the woman at the front desk, and she said they had a spot available today, or Friday. I chose today, as the good weather window is Wednesday thru Saturday. She seemed surprised that I could be ready so quickly, as most people book these plans months in advance. After promising I would definitely be ready by 1:30pm, I walked down the road to the grocery store to get some final supplies. This is the plane I’ll be riding in, it fits 6 people total.

I bought some food at Woolworths, a map at a camping store, and had lunch at KFC. I was back at Par Avion at noon, and sat in their waiting room for 2 hours, talking with the other passengers as they slowly arrived. After some safety briefings and backpack weighing (mine’s 12kg), we boarded the plane at 2:30pm.

It was a cozy ride, with 6 of us and huge backpacks.

It was a 45 minute ride to Melaleuca, a small airstrip on the south coast. It was fun to see Hobart as we flew over.

The plane stayed low in elevation, to remain under the cloud ceiling. I think they did this to follow VFR rules. Further along, we flew over some mountains and it was like looking at a live map.

We landed at 3:30pm, and I got to check out the controls as I was leaving the plane.

Everyone removed their backpacks, the pilots gave us fuel from the local storage cabinet (it’s not allowed to fly), and off I went!

The first task was to sign the trail register and fill water bottles, which took a few minutes with the queue of people.

Another group and I exchanged photography services at the starting sign. Time to hike!

The trail immediately crossed the runway, a short strip of gravel. In the distance is our plane departing.

Within 5 minutes, it was time for the waterproof socks. It’s wet here.

After a kilometer, I came to an old shed. An old miner named Deny King used to mine tin here, and he built an engine shed to service his equipment. He also built the airstrip we just landed on, making this hike possible.

I walked thru coastal plains for about 2 hours, mostly on boardwalks. It was enjoyable and went by quickly.

The scattered clouds were making some interesting dark/light patterns on the surrounding mountains.

As the trail wrapped around a mountain, I could see the ocean coming into view. Freney Lagoon is on the left.

The walk along the ocean was nice, and it was low tide.

I had plenty of flat, wide beach to walk on.

After a kilometer on the beach, I had to cross a stream, where the lagoon emptied into the ocean.

It was just over ankle depth.

It was 6:30pm, so I decided to setup camp at one of the many little spots tucked into the trees off the beach.

There was even a little stone bench seat to watch the ocean.

As I was making dinner, a group of women walked by, aiming to camp a little further on.

They seemed surprised that there were more campsites than their map showed, haha. I had an easy hiking day, but I’ve heard the next 3 days will be harder, with more mud and a big 900m climb. It’s hard to believe I was in Hobart this morning without definite plans, and now I’m on the South Coast Track!

Monday November 28, 0km/0mi

Cynthia Bay Campground to Hobart City (TAS)

I didn’t do much today, it was a lazy morning, and I showered and checked-out at 11am from the bunkhouse. I spent the next 3 hours in the cafe, enjoying pizza and a couple Pale Ales, and hanging out with the same group from last night. They are a fun bunch! I boarded my shuttle bus just after 2pm, and napped for most of the ride. I arrived to my hostel, Narrara Backpackers, just after 5pm.

I took some time to take inventory of my gear and food, and made a shopping list. I like to combine everything into one trip, it’s too far (1.5km) to keep walking back and forth. I went downtown to a seafood restaurant, and saw some interesting buildings along the way.

The waterfront area, of course, had the best seafood restaurants.

I devoured an amazing seafood platter, with some good fish and calamari…but the scallops were the best I’ve ever had. Fish Frenzy was a great little seafood place! I strolled over to Woolworths (grocery store) and saw the city’s Christmas decorations along the main street.

By the time I finished my shopping, it was 8pm and threatening to rain soon. So instead of walking back, I tried a new e-scooter service called Beam. I downloaded the app, and rented a scooter, dropping it off directly in front of my hostel. I arrived in half the time, and it was only $5…seems decent. Tomorrow I am planning on trying to book a flight to the start of the South Coast Track, as the weather for that part of the island looks great for 4 out of the next 5 days …which is rare. Fingers crossed!