Walking - North East Tasmania & Beyond

[dayers]

I've just moved to St Helens from The Mainland & I'm interested in light weight walking Maria Island / Bay of Fires with others. Is there a Walking Club in NE Tasmania?

[Joe]

I lived in St Helens for a while a couple of years ago. There are some great walks to be done around that area. I was planning on doing Maria Island by mountain bike in a couple of weeks but have changed mind and decided to go with corvus on his walk instead. I will still be doing Maria first chance i get though.

As for walking groups I have no idea. There is a pretty strong orienteering group in the area, Rodger Harlow at the local primary school is a wealth of information on this and also has some great maps of orienteering trails in area. The Blue Tier is a greatly under-utilised area for walking. It has some of the greatest historic relics in tasmania (anchor stamper for a start) and also walks like the Blue Tier Giant, Harridge Falls, Crystal Creek etc are all spectacular. In the forestry reserve behind st helens itsself is a few sets of waterfalls. Leda falls being the prettiest I found. They are reached by driving to the start of the creek (more detail on my website) and then wading up the creek for about an hour. They can also be reached starting at the mini golf course and the old bloke who runs the course will give you directions. Flagstaff is a good walk in same sort of area, it can be driven with a little skill of a 4wd but the walk is pleasant.

Scream out if you are stuck for info on any walks in the area, I think I covered most of them in my time there and those i didnt are still on my todo list

Cheers
Joe

[dplanet]

Sorry for O/T

Is that Joe whom I met on the summit of Mt Jerusalem early this year? We had also met in Mersey, 2007... And again at Pool of Bethesda. Hope you had a great camping and fishing time. From memory, you and your friend had had no luck at Lake Fanny.

Regards, Dzung

[Joe]

nope...different joe sorry. Im not your average Joe....

[The Caveman]

G'day Dayers, depending on your interests (bush Vs beach, etc...) there are some cracking wanders up Mt Albert, Mt Victoria and out the back of the Moorina / Weldborough / Pyengana / Goshen areas for an easy day trip fron "Snellens" (sorry, local humour).

Others that come to mind, Mt Paris Dam (disused) and the upper Cascade valley and Mt William National Park.

Joe has covered some of the others I've mooched about on too.

There was a group of shack owners out near Binnalong that organised treks up the beaches and scrub from Ansons towards Musselroe Bay during their holidays, but I don't know of any formal process or association out there which you could tap into.

Harridge Falls is a great place to get into, and a relatively easy place to access from the Tasman Hwy. For me, it's all about fly fishing but sometimes I have an official "photographer" in tow to capture the scenery.

Good luck with it.

[pineapple]

I am also an ex-mainlander on the east coast. There is not a walking club that I know of; there are some keen walkers involved in the Friends of the Blue Tier who organise walks now & then and promote the concept of a long distance walking track from the Rattler Range or thereabouts to the Bay of Fires.
I joined the Launceston Walking Club soon after I got to Tassie - they generally have several walks a year in the north-east area so I just meet them at the start of the walk or somewhere convenient. Freycinet Circuit coming up June long weekend.
Also recommend for great day walks Mts Albert, Victoria & Saddleback; the Sphinx track or Stacks Bluff on the southern end of the Ben Lomond Plateaux (access from Storeys Creek) and Douglas-Apsley National Park.
Enjoy!