15 January 2019
The day of the walk has finally arrived! Asking for a late (11am) check out, we needn’t have bothered. It was so warm so early, that sped up the packing up process!
Asking about whether we could leave the camper somewhere at the caravan park while we did the hike, the owners were very accommodating, letting us store it behind a house within the park right near reception at no cost, which I thought was very generous of them. I was happier with that than having it sit in a carpark for 4 days.
Heading to Port Arthur, Paul dropped us at the gate with our packs. Feeling loaded up like a pack horse, I was sure there must be something I could get rid of out of the pack!!
Having gone into Port Arthur the last 2 days, we ended up sitting in the cafe, with Paul doing some work & us all having lunch, before heading to the jetty at 2.15pm for the 2.30 boat.
Boarding the Pennicott Wilderness Journeys Boat at Port Arthur, it was off for a 1 hour cruise first that took us out to Arthurs Peak & Crescent Bay, giving us a great sneak peak of Tasman Island & Cape Pillar, before dropping us at Denmans Cove in the Tasman National Park, the start of the 3 Capes Track.
Our boat crew highly recommended a dip at Denmans Cove, but there was only one keen taker.
Surveyors Cove was our halfway stop, a pretty little cobblestone beach, with some pretty cool cairns. Love me a good rock cairn!
A short climb up and we were at our first lot of accommodation, Surveyors Hut.
It had been fairly warm, with 27 degrees being the high for the day, and very sunny, so after not having done a pack carry for over 12 months, & lugging around 17kgs, I was more than happy to take a load off!
We were on the second boat of the day, a lot of others were on the earlier boat, which departed Port Arthur at 11am.
Allocated Cabin 1 (which we will follow for the entirety of the walk), we were sharing with a family of 5, Pete, Jen, James, Will & Lucy (who is Max’s age). They seemed lovely.
6pm was the ranger (Nicco’s) talk, which went over a lot of safety things, as well as providing informative narrative about the next days walking. A perfect setting for it, looking out over Cape Raoul.
A bit of relaxing & then dinner. Not long after that started a spectacular lightning show that lit up the skies. I thought it was awesome until Paul pointed out that lightning is what is the cause of a lot of fires.... hmmm.. still loved the show!! Then the ranger mentioned the danger of fires.. I asked how often they have lightning like this and he said ‘never’... I asked what are the chances of fire and he replied ‘very real’... hmmm, still loved the show!
We were told that nobody could head off before 7am tomorrow as he’d have to wait for the all clear from an aerial crew checking for spot fires first.
Finally off to bed, I was surprised to discover it was 10pm. Dreading snorers, it was so quiet, it didn’t seem right. NO snorers, unheard of! Very happy camper!
Comments