The Port Davey and South Coast Track – Day 9

Day 9 – Surprise Bay to Cockle Creek
Walking difficulty: Hard (hilly and muddy)
Mud: Yes. Again.

We didn’t yet know it, but day 9 was to be our last day. We were planning on staying another night before making our way back to Hobart, but the how shower and non-hydrated meal was just too enticing.

Though we paid for our decision. It was a long, hard, hilly, muddy, root-filled day.

After leaving the wonderful Surprise Bay early, we soon made it to Granite Beach.

While it was something different to walk along, it wasn’t pleasant to do so.

There’s a cool waterfall thing though.

The rocky beach is but a warm up for the hilly slog ahead.

Then up the 450 meter hill. It was a hard walk, but the view is worth it!

The view is spectacular from the top.

After that, a bit further along the track. Up and down some more hills. We made it into South Cape Rivulet camp, where we stopped for lunch.

In a way, the South Cape Rivulet stretch, was the hardest. It was muddy, and full of roots. It wasn’t nice walking. You had to pick your way though a potentially ankle-breaking track and wade through pools of water and mud. The track was also pretty overgrown too, which made it very slow going.

I’ve heard that people take hours and hours and hours to do this stretch – especially when it’s raining – and now I understand why.

We were thinking about staying at South Cape Rivulet, but decided to move on.

That meant another beach, then up another hill to Coal Bluff.

When the day is nice, and you’ve slogged up a hill, the view is always worth it. That’s why you’re out there.

I assumed we’d be able to get a least a bar or two of mobile reception from Coal Bluff, but I was dead wrong. The mobile didn’t work until we were about 50 meters from Cockle Creek’s visitor centre.

We got to the final official camp on the track, about two or so hours walk from Cockle Creek. You can see Lions Rock from there. We decided to keep going, once again. So close, may as well make it home.

Two hours later, we finally staggered off the track, in time for dinner and a warm car ride back to Hobart.

Cockle Creek is lovely too.