Anniversary Bay, Rocky Cape National Park (quite a few pics)

[Davo1]

Anniversary Bay from Sisters Beach via Broadview Hill and return via Banksia Grove and wet cave.
I had never been to Anniversary Bay and we have been doing a few mountain walks lately so the wife suggested we do a quick coastal walk to Anniversary Bay.
Sure why not, sounds good.
Well when we arrived at Sisters Beach the smoke was still hanging around from the Montumana fires and it was nostril burning thick. We sat around for a while contemplating whether to actually set off. After a period we said to heck with it and decided to at least slug it out to the top of the hill and see what eventuates from there.
By the time we made it to the top the smoke had cleared and you wouldn’t have even known there had been any fires around apart from the willowy smoke in the distance and a helicopter water bombing the Eastern front of what is left of the fires. Let’s hope the wind doesn’t pick up again this week and start all over again.
We made a quick trip up Broadview Hill and got a few pics along with watching the chopper for a while.
The trip to Anniversary Bay was rather quick as we decided to give Doone Falls a miss as we felt there wouldn’t be much water at the moment. When we reached the beach there was three kayakers already there, they had paddled around from Sisters Beach and were enjoying a leisurely stroll up the beach. We decided to have a break along with a nice cup of coffee. As we headed off towards the other end of the beach we happened to notice the tide had come in and one of the kayaks was heading off back to Sisters Beach of its own accord. Off with the pack, off with the boots, socks etc and away we go as it didn’t look that deep, hmmm, I misjudged that, considering I still had pockets full of gear I thought uh uh better stop. Returned to the beach, pulled the other two kayaks up out of harms and contemplated paddling out to get the disappearing culprit. Common sense prevailed as you can be rest assured it would be two kayaks and a silly old fart that would need rescuing if I tried that. At that opportune moment I happened to spy the owners of the kayaks coming back from the other end of the beach, with a couple of good hollers with a tail wind and together with frantic arm waving etc they managed to see something was amiss and hurried back. The owner set off to retrieve the escaped kayak and luckily it had been blown by the wind onto a rock outcrop not all that far from land so he didn’t have too much trouble in retrieving it.
Well that seemed to make the rest of the trip rather mundane until I looked at the cliff face at the end of the beach and realised that we had to make our way around it, the kayaks were soon forgotten.........

[Davo1]

A few more pics.
Better make this the last.
Cheers

[taswegian]

Great spot Davo1.
That is quite a special little part of Tasmania tucked in amongst the 'civilised' parts of our great little island.
One can temporarily forget just how close the developed area is.

[Davo1]

Yes, sure is a great spot Taswegian.
A little bit of this and a little bit of that, a real mixed bag and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Have to spend more time there next time around.

[johnw]

Nice report and pics Davo, with a good story. Having just recently returned from a trip to southern Tassie I was astonished at how dry things are. I walked the same Rocky Cape circuit in winter 2009 when it was very wet, unlike recently. Yes the walk has a lot of interest and, for somewhere close to civilisation, has a remote feel to it. We took the side trip to Doone Falls, which is well worth the effort if it is flowing well. It looked like this at that time:

[Davo1]

Johnw,
Dry, you sure got that right. I've got cracks in the ground here that I've nearly gotta build bridges for the horses to get over them.
That pic of yours of Doone Falls sure shows plenty of water, thanks for that.
The wife has been out there about 5 times and nearly everytime it has been but just a trickle.
We'll make sure next time we go back for a visit that it is after some good rains.
Ciao.