Walk

Day 11 - 13 July.  Coles Bay to Cooks Hut over the Hazards

We were up around 7am (as every good hobo should), packed up quickly and drove to Coles Bay.  We took some early light photos, then had breakfast at a local reserve and repacked for our next adventure.  We were on the way by 9.15am, checked in at the National Parks office for any relevant information and were walking by 10.05am.

A quick climb of 30 minutes took us up between two of the Hazards to the Wineglass Bay lookout where we admired the classic postcard vista in more subdued and overcast conditions.  A little scramble up the rocks at the side of the lookout gave us a better position for photos.  We set out again at 11am and in 25 minutes reached the white sands of Wineglass Bay.  We were certainly not alone, with several people along the beach and a porpoise breaking the water 50m off the beach.

We then headed along the track across the isthmus, stopping for morning tea beside a lagoon.  It was an overcast and cool day, but with plenty more bird life in the scrubby forest and higher trees.

The track hit Hazards Beach just after midday and we walked south for a kilometre before stopping for lunch.  My first experience of 'beachwalking', rather than bushwalking.  Oyster catchers and Pacific Gulls claimed their territory on the sand and in the water and a wombat at the southern end of the beach took no notice of us.

The track entered the bush again and by 2.30pm we had reached the dry Regatta Creek and the northern end of Cooks Beach.  The signage indicated another 30 minutes to Cooks Hut.  We reached the substantial stone hut (plus water tanks) with plenty of campsites in the surrounding scrub.  We chose a rise overlooking the beach and set up house.  Tea and in bed by 6pm with the gentle, lulling wash of the waves on the shore.  An inquisitive wallaby nosed into my annex several times until I brought all my gear (and scraps) into the tent and zipped it up.

Distance: 11km  Climb: 150m.

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We were up at 6.45am (temperature 2degC), breakfasted and away by 8.15am.  Our journey was the reverse of yesterday until where the track left Hazards Beach (no time for the 6 hour circuit via Mt Graham and Mt Freycinet, as we had an appointment in another part of the state).  Instead of retracing across the isthmus, we took a circular track to the northern end of Hazards Beach and on through the bush paralleling Great Oyster Bay.  It rose gently around the western flank of the western most Hazard and by 12.30pm we were back at the Walks Car Park.  So ended another unique adventure.

We called in at the Visitors Centre to pick up some photocopied geological notes of the area (written by Rupert's old Uni lecturer - small world again) and drove to the shops near yesterday's breakfast reserve.  Sausage rolls and sauce for lunch for me.

Heading north, we stopped at a point overlooking the Friendly Beaches, until a short, sharp rain shower sent us packing.  On up the east coast, we stopped at St Marys to buy a map, then at Fingal to ring our host and hostess for the evening, friends of Rupert's.  On through Mangana with its period church building and so to our night's stop.

Once again, civilisation is so sweet!  A shower; fresh, clean clothes; a real (as in, it was running around the paddock a couple of days ago) roast chicken dinner with Cascade beer and Wolf Blass Cabernet Merlot and fresh fruit and ice cream; and a soft mattress.

Distance: 11km  Climb: 50m.

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