South Coast Track

[roysta]

A couple of things about this walk.
Melaleuca to Cockle Creek is the most common direction, right?
Also, would getting a Tasair flight from Hobart to Melaleuca be a fair way to begin then get the Evans Coaches/Tassielink bus connections from Cockle Creek-Geeveston-Hobart?
Thanks for confirmation or otherwise.

Roy

[whiskeylover]

Yes, and yes. Flying in to Melaleuca is good because if the plane is delayed due to bad weather you are still in civilisation, rather than waiting at Melaleuca to be flown out when there is a good day. The guy from Evans Coaches is quite flexible, so if you come out and he is not there you can call him and he's not too far away, and if there's only a few of you he might bring the car rather than bus. He will take you all the way back to Cambridge. You need to be prepared to be flexible in what day you will come out as there are a number of river crossings that can be impassable, so you have to wait for them to go back down before crossing. It is suprising how quickly they rise after a little rain. The Ironbounds also could be tricky in really bad weather. Good luck, it's a great little walk.

[Vern]

Also, walking in that direction means you have the wind behind you most of the time. A minor matter but makes the trip more enjoyable.

[kramster]

There are two companies that provide flights to Melaleuca
- Par Avion (http://www.paravion.com.au/bushwalker.html) and
- TasAir (http://www.tasair.com.au/charter_and_other/bushwalking.html)

Prices are pretty similar - I think TasAir also sometimes can drop-off to Cox-Bight (if you want to miss Melaleuca and a couple of hours walk).

When we went (about 3.5 yrs ago), we flew with Par Avion, and went from Melaleuca to Cockle Creek (convincing my wife that to get out, she would have to walk )

[Singe]

OTOH, walking Cockle Creek to Melaleuca gives you a more gentle warm-up before you hit the Ironbounds and means you go up the muddy and difficult Eastern side rather than coming down. I built an extra day into my itinerary in case I was held up by high rivers etc, which I didn't need, so I spent an extra night at Cox's Bight.

[Liamy77]

some folk with lots of time join the port davey track and you could get supplies dropped in instead.... i dont know about the busses as we got a mate to pick us up at loone river (we went out via pb and pindars peak to the old youth hostel before it burnt down) my info is old as it was a long time since i did it now....