A lot of what I’ve written duplicates other trip reports but I’ve added some observations that might help others in future.
Overall, the tracks are pretty well-defined now, I think they have been well-walked since Chapman’s day. We probably lost the trail 2 or 3 times ever day once we left Wilson’s bight, particularly in forests. But a bit of casting around usually found a marker tape, or spotted the pad in the distance. It helped enormously that we had excellent weather going over the SW range. Would have been more difficult in misty conditions, and definitely heed rwildman’s sage advice that the track goes straight over Every *&%$#! Summit rather than sensibly contouring around.
One of our crew really started to slow down on the 2nd day, and was very slow on the uphills for the next 4 days. This meant our travel times were much slower than Chapman, and probably slower than most parties considering doing this walk. We had lots of stops. Nevertheless, we made it! Our friend was actually unwell – he wasn’t hungry, the food made him faintly nauseous and he had little energy (possibly rotavirus?).
Day 1: Melaleuca to New Harbour. Easy 4hrs, fast good track from the airstrip to the lovely New Harbour beach. The track pops you out at a lagoon and there’s a campsite just south of that with good water. It’s quite sheltered and mossie-ridden, though, so we walked to the larger campsite at the other end. Water in the creek was OK when we were there, but there had been rain the day before.
Day 2. New Harbour to Wilsons Bight. We originally planned to split this over 2 days, but our flight was pushed back by a day due to weather, so we made up the time. A surprisingly long day!! It ended up taking us almost 7hrs, although we had some leisurely lunch stops.
Day 3. South Cape Range pt1. As we were moving slower than expected, we bypassed Mt Karamu and took the shortcut straight up onto the SW range. The track is well-defined and goes straight up the hill from the back of the campsite on the E side of the creek (we could see another track on the W side that looks OK as well). Steep, sustained scrubby climbing (with amazing views) got us up to the 600m knoll on the SW range, but it took us 5hrs to get up there. Realising that we were unlikely to get to Window Pane Bay the same day, and with the benefit of excellent weather, we loaded up on water and mentally prepared to camp high.
NB Chapman talks about tarns at the main summit with exposed camping. We found this tarn to be very meagre indeed. There was a much deeper and larger tarn shortly after the first knoll at GR247824 Lots of frogs and tadpoles and greenery, so we treated our water.
We carried on along the ridge, but we just ran out of oomph and called it at 4pm after 8hrs walking, and we camped in a saddle just below the climb up the main summit. GR 238836. We pitched tents on some grass and low scrub, and with little wind it was a very pleasant campsite – lovely sunset to the W and a stunning dawn over the eastern mountains – Arthurs, PB, Ironbounds, South Coast all laid out for us.
Dawn at high camp at 600m
Day 4. South Cape range pt 2. Up early and took us a solid 2hrs to climb the final bit to the summit – overhead scrub and our friend still badly slowed down by illness. But what a summit view!! The main summit plateau is only about 100m wide, and we all looked back as we crested it going “shame to be leaving those views behind”. Then we walked 100m to the northern end and went “holy crap!!”. Stayed there for an hour just soaking in the coast, the beaches, Port Davey and Bathurst, it was stunning. I recognise that there are probably people reading this post who have stood on the exact same spot and seen bugger all, as the weather is notoriously fickle. But if you get there on a good day, I would say it may well be the best summit view I have ever had in Tasmania.
looking back to SW cape
looking N from the summit
Descent from the summit took us a long time – temps probably hit 30C, and we were all feeling it. Our friend collapsed on the track, and we were really worried. But we got some hydralite into him and carried his pack down the hill for about 1km and into the blessed shade of the forest. Just after you enter the forest, you drop down steeply into a gully that crosses a creek GR231335 (approx). This was about 10 degrees cooler than the scorching air outside and the water was icy cold and delicious. Absolute lifesaver!! Our friend rallied magnificently, shouldered his pack and we carried on to Window Pane along a fairly well-marked forest trail. Pink tape was there when we needed it. Got to Window Pane at 5pm after a 9hr day and had a lovely swim.
We camped on the beach as it was very calm and clear. I was lying in my tent with the door open looking out at the Milky Way when I saw a large quoll slinking along the beach and heading to the tents to check them out! It was a pretty special moment, but make sure your food is secured.
Day 5. Window Pane to Noyhener. Staked track wasn’t hard to follow, except when we crossed a creek in the forest. Just after you climb very steeply up from the creek, the old track carries on straight ahead and is very obvious. It has some crossed sticks on it which some of us completely failed to notice. The new track turns sharp right here and is marked with tape and a bottle. Go that way!! If you run out of tape, you’re on the wrong track.
When we got to Faults Bay, we followed what was probably Chapman’s original track and then it petered out before we got down to the rocks. We backtracked and found a much better track winding through the forest, marked with pink tape and lots of sawed branches. Follow this, and just keep looking for the tape. This led us down to Noyhener without any drama. This was fortunate, as it was high tide when we arrived. When we looked back along the coast where Chapman advises “just hop along the rocks for 500m”, it was abundantly clear that this would have been impossible at high tide!!
Interestingly, there’s a study of wave erosion on SW beaches and Noyhener and Window Pane receive some of the highest wave energy of any beaches in the Southern hemisphere. Hence the enormous sand dunes.
Day 6. Noyhener to Horseshoe inlet. Got a bit of bad weather today, but visibility was OK. The start of the track is clearly marked with buoys and is a well-defined pad. This heads off north in a very clear way after about 1km, but it’s a trap!! As you pass the scrub-filled gully on your right, you can clearly see a track a few hundred meters away heading east towards the SW range. The track you are on continues north, but you need to turn off down that gully and bash across. There are 2 white stones on the ground marking the turnoff, but the pad is very unclear in the initial scrub. Just keep heading towards that visible track. The map diagram below shows our GPS track where A = the turnoff you should take, B is the point where you realise you are on a track heading north and should turn around, C is the short scrub bash and D is the clear track you want to be on. See also rwildman’s excellent description of this trap.
GPS ref for the turnoff is -43.400913,146.002077
track turnoff with GPS track in purple
After that there’s a clear track all the way across the SW and Pascoe ranges, good water at Hannant Creek. There was little bit of uncertainty descending off the SW range just where it drops off steeply, and the main track is about 100m right of where you think it should be (we could see traces of an older track at this first point). rwildman has an excellent diagram in his post
We got to Horseshoe inlet at about 5pm, and the tide was high. There is good water where the track crosses a creek about 200m before you reach the shore of the inlet. There was no wind, so we ended up camping on the green mossy ground at the shore – Our tents were pitched less than a metre from the water, squeezed into that little strip of green between the water and the trees It was all very peaceful. Different story if the wind had been up....
Idyllic campsite, if a little cramped....
tides at Horseshoe inlet
Day 7. Horseshoe inlet to Melaleuca
We knew that low tide was 09:30 the next morning, so we had a leisurely start. The water had dropped a lot, and we waded barefoot about 500m along to Horseshoe creek. One of our crew had the secret knowledge from a previous trip, and we waded along a sandbar to cross Horseshoe creek, with the water only reaching our knees. The creek scoops out a lot of sand at its mouth to leave deep water, but if you go out far enough, the semicircular sandbar just under the surface provides easy crossing. You need good light for this, as you want to see where the sandbar is, and probably low tide as well. I used an Android app called Tide Prediction (developer Muchoviento.net), which works offline. Just enter Bramble Cove for the tidal station, (just N of Horseshoe inlet). Note that the tides at Bramble Cove are weird...... I assume because Bathurst Harbour is a large shallow body of water, so sometimes there is only one low tide each day.
crossing the bar
Check before you go, and if you can plan your trip to cross Horseshoe creek at a proper low tide, then see the crappy MS Paint diagram below for where the sandbar is. Hope this helps!
After that it was just the muddy slog back along Port Davey track to Melaleuca and a massive stash of wine and snacks we had left on the shelves in the hut at the airstrip!
