Sunday 5 February to Wednesday 8 February 2023
We flew into Tasmania on Sunday afternoon and caught a bus to the Grand Chancellor hotel on the Hobart waterfront. At 7.30 on Monday morning, the Life’s an Adventure guides picked us up to take us to the Tasman Peninsular for our first day’s walking.
We were surprised to find there were only 4 in the guided group and 6 in the self guided group. The other couple were late arriving and eventually our guide Abbey got in contact with them to discover they both had Covid and would not be able to come. We now had a private guide for the next 3 days!
We had morning tea at the Tessellated Pavement near Eaglehawk Neck before driving to the start of the trail to Cape Raoul.
Nearly 5 and a half hours to complete the 16.5km track with over 600m elevation gain.
Day 2 and we decided to vary the normal itinerary and see a few more of the local highlights. The morning saw us hike to Warerfall Bluff with a fantastic view to the south.
Warren and I then walked back to Tasman Arch to meet Abbey for morning tea.
We then headed south past Port Arthur to walk the Crescent Bay trail. There was a strong, cold SW wind that made for difficult walking with little protection from the coastal heath.
We got Abbey to drop us at Port Arthur and we had a 2km warm down back to our accomodation at Stewart Bay Lodge. Another 16.5km today.
Our final day started with the tough hike out to Cape Hauy. 4.5 hours, nearly 10km, 500m elevation and thousands of steps. This is a busy track with some seriously steep stairs.
Next up was a helicopter flight over the final of the 3 capes – Cape Pillar and Tasman Island.
Perfect weather for the first flight for both of us luckily, although it didn’t stop the sweaty palms. It certainly is a spectacular coastline and a great way to finish the 3 capes.
The helicopter took off from McHenry distillery so we had a quick tour and gin tasting before the bus ride back to Hobart.
