Ramblings: Waterfall Bay Tracks 2016

Thursday, 14 January 2016

Waterfall Bay Tracks 2016

Today brings us to the Tasman Peninsula to walk from Tasman Arch to Waterfall Bluff. We're led by Lyn and Brian.

It's not a brilliant day with overcast conditions and a few drops of rain, but we're heading south from Hobart and it's supposed to improve.

The driving trip down wasn't anything to remember fondly, however we did all arrive safely. We parked in the car park at Tasman Arch where we found Lyn and Brian. After braving all the tourists and having a look at the arch we continued on to Devils Kitchen which was calm and quiet. We then set off for Waterfall Bay.

Tasman Arch, the opening is over 60 metres high

To Devils Kitchen

South to Cape Huay

Devils Kitchen. Due to the depth, you can't see much

Looking down at Devils Kitchen

Looking south

Commercial fishing boat laying nets. This is 8x zoom

It's an easy walk to Waterfall Bay and if you're really lazy, there's a car park there. However, we're roughing it.

Moving on

Looking north

Cape Hauy, Candlestick Rock, Mitre Rock and the Lanterns

Morning Tea

Few tourists made it this far from the main features, so we decided to have Morning Tea here.

Some vandal was having a good day

I think this is Patersons Arch

This ant kept trying to get onto my boot...

...so I took his photo...

...and noticed something. If you look closely at his shiny bottom, you can see my crouching reflection!

Never thought I'd fit on an ants bum!

Moving on.

This is another area recovering from fire

Addie and I discussing how the various gum trees are recovering

Tea finished, we walk on to Waterfall Bay.

The small boat is full of dive tourists who are heading for the bay

Just a little bit of bush colour

Waterfall Bay. There is some water as we shall find out, but not much

The waterfalls take place along that dark section on the left, just above the white boat. It's around 300m drop, that's around 984 feet in the old money.

There are numerous openings around the cliffs

Brian told us the dive boats were heading for Cathedral Cave which is the largest sea cave system in Australia. If you want to watch a short video tour of the caves, Click here. This will take you to the Eaglehawk Dive Centre where you can chose between two videos, the highlights is about 4 minutes, the tour 7 minutes.

We shortly reach the car park where we enter the Tasman Coastal Track to Waterfall Bluff.

This is a nice bush track, leading uphill, but easy walking.

As you can see from the above, there used to be much larger trees here in the past. It was all logged so that most of the gums are just starting to develop some bulk.

Soon we reach a clear area and a small wooden bridge where Brian stops to give us some choices.

We can go straight on to Waterfall Bluff, or take a short detour

We chose the detour. That little bridge straddles Waterfall Creek which eventually reaches the 300m drop into the Tasman Sea. It's an easy walk down to Shower Falls and you could continue down to the top of the drop and complete a loop back to the main track. As there's little water, we don't do the loop.

Going down

Several have left their packs at the top

First view of Shower Falls

I ask for volunteers for the first photo and only one stepped forward.

I suppose if you were desperate, you could have a shower here.

Lyn, Ron, Irene and myself sharing a shower. Photo by Brian

It's very pretty here and supports many ferns.

We climb back up to the main track and continue on to Waterfall Bluff where there's an (unprotected) lookout.

This is looking north just before we get to the end of the track. That's Waterfall Bay below from the other side

Ron and I living on the edge. Photo by Brian

We reach the end and another lookout. Brian is keen for a group photo. Some of us have looked at the lookouts location and are somewhat less keen! However, we all manage it.

They're amused that I, who's usually behind the camera, am now in front. Photo by Brian

It's quite a drop behind us, and while everyone was getting into their places I tapped my stick on the ground and the hollow sound gave me no assurance at all!

Brian waited until we were finished before he told us about the tiger snake that used to live in a crack of the rock that those at the back are sitting on.

We returned to the clearing for lunch. This is also where the track to Fortescue Bay turns off for a 7 hour trek.

Lunch

I finished lunch and went exploring below the bridge where I found Camp Falls. You can't see it very well from the bridge, but it's worth the effort to have a look. Just be careful as the rock shelf is VERY slippery near the falls.

Camp Falls

It looks to me like an old track that might have run to Shower Falls in the past

Lunch finished we make our return to the cars at Tasman Arch.

A bit of bush colour

I think Tas is checking out a bird call in the bush

Thanks to Brian and Lyn it was a great walk and the weather got better and better as we went. It turned out to be longer in distance than I thought.

We had 12 walkers and covered 9.46km in 3:37hrs.