Freycinet Peninsula

Gates Bluff

Wednesday 5 September to
Friday 7 September 07

The route for this walk was modified after looking at a map marked with the way Andreas Hack planned to walk through the bush near the Hazards Lagoon. We adopted a variation on this by leaving the Isthmus Track about 400 metres from Wineglass Bay and after a short bit of bush came out at the side of Hazards Lagoon, which was mostly dry at this point. The conditions were so good and pleasant that we walked along the sandy shore line eventually coming to a section filled with plenty of water, crossed a small bush patch to reach a very pleasant small lagoon. Beyond this an attempt to make a direct line for Lagunta Creek was quickly reversed and we cut across to the beach a bit over 100 metres north of the creek outlet. The flowers from here through to Cooks were splendid, especially
the Thryptomene. Unfortunately the dunes of Cooks Beach are being undermined by the sea.

We left the track just north of Eastern Creek and picked up a reasonable bit of easy ground, crossed Callitris Creek then sidled round to Gates Bluff. In general the vegetation seemed considerably denser than our last visit 7 years ago. It was also harder to locate our old camp site; in fact we couldn't find it, but did manage to get a nice sheltered and level spot. A good route out via a ridge onto the Mt Graham area took us through some lovely forest with lots of bird life. As usual the walk along Wineglass beach was hard work.


The weather for the three days was fine and sunny and modestly warm. The flora on the sandy first kilometre of track between Cooks and East Freycinet Saddle was superb and is hard to better anywhere.

Click to view photos of the walk

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