Lauderdale Canal-Mays Beach Circuit 2016

Today we're walking the Lauderdale Canal and Mays Beach circuit southeast of Hobart. Lena is our leader.

The weather is overcast but it's not supposed to be cold. There is a forecast of a possible shower of rain, which means it will be dry.

We park down by the beach and head off south.

Present Day Lauderdale Canal

Delayed by WWI, the canal was finally started in 1924 but was abandoned when it proved all too hard

Gearing up

Tas waiting for the rest of us

Good advice

I suppose there was a jetty here in the past

As we were starting out, a yellow lab ran up and checked us out. Obviously it was looking for Bob, but Bob wasn't with us today. The lab didn't take our word for that and kept searching.

Looking for Bob

No luck so he chases a seagull instead

On we go leaving a disappointed dog behind. We're heading to near the end of the beach just below Richardsons Hill in the distance.

Single Hill across Frederick Henry Bay. We have walks there also

Lots of interesting cloud formations over the bay

Looking back down the beach

Keeping to the track and leaving the dunes, such as they are, alone

Mother Nature is pretty clever

It's school holidays so we have to push our way through the crowds on the beach

I find the cloud formations quite interesting, so you'll have to put up with a number of photos of them. Along the way, we pass a couple of boathouses.

Clouds

One of the boathouses

You didn't think you'd getaway without a photo of Mt. Wellington did you?

We approach the end of Roches Beach and start a little rock hopping.
Unfortunately, we seem to have passed our turnoff point where we should have gained access to the track around Mays Point.

On the rocks

We may have gone just a little too far

Seems we either go back or look for another access to the track we want.

You can see it in this photo, but there's a house on top so our track must be just below it. Getting there means a stiff climb over loose material. Just the thing to get the heart going!

As for losing the track, this is amateur stuff! I missed a track while leading in the Meehan Range and took the group WAY past our turnoff and had to wing it on the way back. I'm sure no one noticed.

Nearly to the top

Makes a change from beach walking

We all reach the track with a bit of help and set off towards Mays Beach

It's easy walking with a couple of views and some tight spots.

A good view of Seven Mile Beach in the distance on the left

The track gets very close to the edge in this spot

Soon we have sight of Mays Beach and Maydena Bay

Looks like a nice house on the other side of the bay

There's a bit of money around in this area. We'll see lots of private roads.

We're looking for a Morning Tea spot down on the beach.

We reach a made path leading to steps down to Mays Beach

We walk back a short distance to find a comfortable spot for Morning Tea

Another crowded beach. We saw two people

Morning Tea. Lots of seating available

We came around the top of the distant cliffs

Clouds. What can I say?

Someone else looking for Morning Tea

Tea finished we walk back along the beach and pick up our next track which leads up our last hill.

This track seems to have no name, but is public right of way.

Lena looks back to see if we've lost anyone

We reach the top and look back

Dodges Ferry and Seven Mile Beach lie in the other direction

Now we start down hill and the rest of the walk will be on the flat.

This is a private road which serves several homes

We come to a pedestrian gate along side an electric vehicle gate for residents and enter onto Forest Hill Road.

The is horse country and we soon encounter a local. If this is how they dress them in warm weather, I wonder what they wear in the winter?

We come to the junction with Woodlands Road and continue on.

This must be one of the oldest road signs in Tasmania

I'm sure the white arrow signs below are a big help finding people who may have lived here 50 or so years ago.

As I said, it's a long, flat walk past several new properties, so a bit of colour is a welcome sight.

On we go, almost making it back to South Arm Road before turning off onto Racecourse Flats.

The flats are an area of salt marsh that was used in the distant past for impromptu horse races. It also provides a good location for commercial radio broadcasting towers due to the nature of the soil.

A real trail name at last

Racecourse Flats

Typical salt marsh vegetation

 We pass through the flats and enter Lauderdale at Bayview Road, turning left. We're heading for Bayview Park and lunch.

Lunch finished, it's decided to walk up and around the top of the canal to extend the distance by that much more before we return to the cars.

We get a surprise when we head back to Bayview Road when we realize there's a major incident taking place right in front of us and the road was closed in both directions.

For security reasons I didn't take any photos, besides I was too far away. Traffic started to backup. Well, a bloke in a ute stopped, there was nothing coming the other way.

What was the cause of all this excitement? Seems a chicken escaped someone's yard and a man and woman were slowly and carefully trying to herd it back in. I'm pleased to say they finally succeeded and after the bloke in the ute woke up, traffic was flowing again and we could proceed on our way.

I'm glad we don't have this much excitement on all our walks.

We continued up to the top of the canal and walked back along a pleasant path.

Heading towards the top of the canal

Heading back to the cars

On the other side there was an older couple on that pontoon with, probably, their granddaughter who was controlling a model yacht. This is a popular spot for racing radio controlled sail boats. 

Lena pointed out the extraordinary number of limbs on this large gum

It's a good size, too

We reach the bottom of the canal. The cars are just behind me

A very pleasant walk. We had 14 walkers and covered 11.24km in 3:37hrs. The weather was very kind to us also.

A word to any new walkers. Never worry about holding us up and being at the back. We're not competitive and we're happy to stop for a breather (well, I am). I've spent most of my time at the back. Trust me, if you keep it up you will get better!

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