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Hike Number Three - Telegraph Saddle, Roaring Meg, Lighthouse, Waterloo bay Wilsons Promontory 14- 16 July 2004.
Day
One
Day Two
Day Three
Lessons
Having completed all of my previous Wilson's Promontory hikes during the summer months, I was looking forward to experiencing the prom in winter. I was also keen to explore the South Eastern side of the prom beyond the lighthouse.
A friend Peter Cuthbertson was also keen to visit the prom so we quickly established some dates and set about planning for the trip.
Over the previous months I had accumulated my first pack, a self inflating mattress and a couple of pairs of woollen socks (courtesy of the Katmandu sale) so I was also looking forward to putting them to the test. This would be the first hike I would go on where I didn't have to borrow a thing.
Pete had a GPS and programmed some way points on each day of the hike so we could keep track of our progress. I had never seen a GPS so this was a whole new experience for me.
The Sunday before we left we had a visit to the shops to buy most of food, with the exception of some fresh bread rolls, trail mix and some "5 minute rice" our shopping was complete. All we had to do was pack and we were ready to go.Click here for a list of what we took.
The weather forecast for the next 3 days looks horrid. Pete sent me an email with the following:
" This is a Meteogram for the Prom from today till Saturday.
The top graph is temp giving prediction (red) and range (grey) Looks like 11-12 most days.
The relative humidity (rain) is fairly high throughout the period.
The rainfall is mm/3 hours.. It appears rain for Wednesday into Thursday morning. A short break then more rain with a break during Thursday night. It shows some heavy rain (1-3mm/3 hours) after lunch Friday.
Wind speed up to 40Km/Hr during Wednesday, abating during the night, then slowly increasing again towards Friday lunch.
The graph not shown on the grab is wind direction, which shows West slowly turning to the north west.
GREAT weather for hiking. It looks as if it will be wet! "
I had to agree.
I awoke at 5.45am on Wednesday 14th July to the sound of light drizzle on the roof. I had breakfast and made some rolls for our lunch, packed everything into the car and was off to pick up Pete at 7am.
We encountered many rain patches as we made our way to Tidal River. At one point I remarked to Pete how I thought my car speedometer was a bit out. Pete turned on the GPS and placed it on the dash board and I could see that my speedo was in fact 10% slow. No wonder all of the cars and trucks were passing me.
The closer we got to the prom the heavier the rain seemed to fall. As we drove to the Ranger Station at Yanakie the lady ranger asked us what we were going to do. We replied that we were hiking to Waterloo bay via the lighthouse. She broke into great laughter and said you guys are mad, if you think the rain is bad here, wait till you get around to the lighthouse, because it's always worse around that side of the prom. She then directed us to go to the Rangers Station at Tidal River and check in.
We drove the remaining 20 minutes to tidal river without the rain easing any. We checked in at the rangers station (to the sounds of "you guys are crazy and more laughter") and then went to the kiosk to have a cappuccino before driving up to the Telegraph Saddle and commence our walk.
As we were sitting in the car eating our bread rolls at the Telegraph Saddle the rain seemed to get even heavier. At 10.50 we got out of the car had a quick "comfort stop" and donned our waterproofs and packs and we were on our way at 10.55 am. Within 20 meter's of leaving the car the rain stopped completely and that was the last we would see of the rain during daylight hours for the rest of the trip.
The first part of the walk descends from a height of 200m down to the valley floor in 2.4 km. After about 10 minutes of hiking we had to take off our waterproof jackets as it was getting steamy.
The vegetation is that of typical Australian Bush lots of eucalypts and when we get down to the valley floor we start to see some ti tree some ferns and black boys. There was the constant sound of running water on the side of the track as a result of the rain recent rain which I found to be quite soothing.
The track is actually a fire service trail and walking on the surface is very easy walking. It was just before reaching the Oberon Bay track junction that we saw the only other hikers for the day. A father and son returning from Roaring Meg and a couple returning from an overnight stay at the Lighthouse.
We made it to the Oberon Bay junction in 1 hour and 10 minutes a distance of 6.1 km. After a drink and some trail mix and the shedding of more layers of clothing (I was now down to shorts and a short sleeved shirt IN JULY….) . From here the track starts to climb and in the 1.3 km we walk from the Oberon Bay track junction to the Halfway Hut we rise 80 m.
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Half
Way Hut
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We decided to stop at the Halfway hut as I didn't when I was here earlier in the year and I wanted to have a look. After all it is only 40 m from the track although you can't see the hut from the track.
It is a great looking little stone hut with a wooden floor and with a supply of fresh rainwater from a tank on the side of the hut. I don't know if you are allowed to camp in it or not but Pete and I decided that if all went pear shaped with the weather (or my tent) we could always come back here and sit the weather out.
The surrounding campsites are typical of all of the prom sites I have seen so far with logs to sit on and a pit toilet.
From the halfway hut we spent the next 40 minutes and 1.7 km climbing to the top of Martins Hill (200m in height). This section really tested our fitness (or lack there of) and we needed a few breath breaks. The view to our right was fantastic looking out over Oberon Bay and back to the Telegraph Saddle in the distance.
At the Top of Martins Hill we stopped for a rest in a clearing which Pete said was used as a helipad. I half expected to see a food caravan selling coffee and ice creams. The view from here was terrific looking at some more mountains ( we would be climbing tomorrow) and down into some beautiful rainforest valleys.
We covered the remaining 2.8 kms to Roaring Meg in 45 minutes passing a road crew clearing some fallen trees lying over the track.
We had covered the 11.9 kms in 3 hours and 20 minutes giving us an average trip speed of 3.57 km per hour including stops.
We found a good campsite on the top level not far from the toilets. We had 2 main reasons for picking the top level.
Firstly, if it rained we felt the run off would certainly head straight down to the creek and under our tent if we were down at the creek.
Secondly, we were only here for one night and I didn't feel like carrying our packs down the steep slippery path to the creek only to come back up again in the morning. This decision was soon vindicated when we went for a walk down to the creek for some water (without packs) and I lost my footing and fell on my bum.
The water supply at Roaring Meg is the creek which is located some 50 below the main campsite. The water here is icy cold and like the rest of the prom water a bit orange in colour. It was probably ok to drink but we boiled it any way.
After pitching the tent and having a cup of soup Pete and I opted for a bit of a rest so we hopped into the tent and had a sleep for about an hour. During this time we didn't zip up the fly on the tent and we had a visit from some field mice who enjoyed some of our bread…
At about 5 O'clock we thought we had better get some dinner going so we wouldn't have to cook by torch or cyalume stick light. It was a great decision.
The menu consisted of Continental Pasta Alfredo and a Rice and banana custard with a little trail mix thrown in followed by coffee. After we did the dishes and stowed everything in the tent it was pretty dark 5.55pm.
Pete grabbed a cyalume stick from his pack to get ready for a game of cards. He snapped the stick but nothing happened. He got out another and snapped it but still nothing. Then another with the same result. We checked the use by date on the packaging and found it s use by date was 1999. Only four years out. We learned an important lesson. Check the use by dates on everything before leaving home…
We decided to shelve the card game and conserve the torch batteries in case we really needed them so we had a quick nightcap of Muscat and then went to sleep at 6.15pm.
It rained for most of the night and we kept hearing little visitors trying to get into the tent to get a t our food.
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Setting
up the tent at Roaring Meg
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Despite these distractions I had the best nights sleep on a hike yet. I was actually comfortable on my self inflatable mattress. I could not believe the difference between it and the closed cell foam mattress I had used in the past. I could get used to this sleeping out caper. My 5 degree rated sleeping bag was quite cosy and at no stage did I feel cold.
I awoke at 5.45am. The tent was still up and as far as I could tell had kept out all of the rain, my new pack was very comfortable to carry and fitted all of the gear I required, the self inflating mattress was fantastic and my sleeping bag was warm. So all of my gear had passed the test. I was feeling pretty pleased and was looking forward to being up and about and find out how my body felt.
It wasn't light until 7.15am being mid winter so we had a leisurely breakfast of my home made muesli, a bread roll and a coffee. When we were packing up the tent there was a heap of mouse droppings over the fly of the tent. So they were certainly trying to get in to our food.
The morning was quite cool and a bit overcast so we threw on a couple of extra layers but it wasn't long before I was back in shorts and T shirt.
Day twos walking started with a 6.2 km stretch to the lighthouse turnoff which took us 1 hour and 40 minutes.
During this section we travelled along the fire trail to it's conclusion. This marks the end of the road for the lighthouse keepers and even they have to walk the rest of the way on foot.
The landscape ranged from typical Aussie bush to a small rainforest. On the way we saw a wallaby hopping through the bush. Some of the tops of the surrounding hills were covered in a thick mist and we thought it may turn out to be a bit wet after all.
The last section takes us through a bush track and offers plenty of ocean views and some glimpses of the lighthouse sitting majestically on a rocky outcrop.
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A
view of the lighthouse from the lighthouse track
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The steep track winding it's way up to the lighthouse |
We got to the lighthouse turnoff and we had to decide if we were going to go to the lighthouse or to keep going the remaining 9.5 kms to Waterloo bay. The lighthouse although only a kilometre away has a very steep climb (45 degrees) over a 600m.
We decided to go to the lighthouse which in retrospect was a mistake (given our lack of condition). We clamored up to the lighthouse with our heavy packs and after filling our drink bottles from the rain water tank, we sat at the base of the lighthouse and didn't move for 15 mins. One of the lighthouse keepers came over for a chat.
They were into their last few months of their contract and were enjoying the quiet. It seems the accommodation bookings at the lighthouse are heavily booked and there are few days where there were no bookings. Reading between the lines I think this was taking it's toll on the couple and they were looking forward to winding down a bit.
Pete asked where the best place to boil our billy was and she very kindly offered to boil the kettle for us. She said that this was something they didn't normally do as it can get out of hand and they weren't expecting anyone else that day. So we had a nice cup of coffee and a frankfurt and a bread roll.
She also said the next part of the walk was fairly easy and would take us about 2 and a half to three hours. She said there were some nice drinking spots along the way and the middle section involved a bit of a climb.
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Some
magnificent boulders near the lighthouse path
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With this information we replenished our water supply and headed back down the steep track with Pete taking a few pictures along the way. We felt 3 hours would be great and this would leave us time for a paddle in the surf at Waterloo Bay.
I was looking forward to this section of the prom as it was new to me. Over the next 9 kms we were surprised that there were so many fallen trees across the track. There must have been at least a dozen or so and some of these were in hairy places and we took it very gingerly with our heavy packs.
We were finding some of the hills a little hard to get up our lack of condition and the trip to the lighthouse had taken a bit more out of us than we had thought. We reached a nice little creek in about an hour and twenty minutes in what the lighthouse keeper had said would take us 45 minutes. We thought at this point we were looking at more than 3 hours….
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A
terrific little creek we stopped at well behind schedule
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After this stop the next 3km were pretty much all up hill and we had plenty of breath breaks. We came across plenty of little creeks and the vegetation changed from bush to rain forest and back again. We stopped along the way to look back towards the lighthouse and we could clearly see the track going up to the lighthouse from this point.
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Looking
back toward the lighthouse. Notice the steep path that wrecked our
legs for the day.
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The sun stayed out for the entire afternoon and was perfect for a July hike. So much for the doom and despair from the rangers the previous day. We were having the last laugh..
The Next section was all downhill and reasonably steep too. We were glad we were tackling this in the anti clock wise direction and not the other way around. At one point I came across a wet pack which had fallen out of someone's pack and it contained a couple of cyalume sticks, matches, etc. We were going to have light tonight…
Eventually we reached the beach of waterloo bay where we had to walk the entire length on quite soft sand (just the thing our legs didn't need. Waterloo bay is a beautiful wide white sanded beach and it wouldn't have taken much to stop for a quick paddle but we still had 3 kms to go to Little Waterloo Bay and we didn't have a great deal of light left. I also new that if we stopped now we wouldn't get going again.
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A
view back down the beach at Waterloo Bay. Only 2 kms to go...
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We got to the end of the beach and we only had 1 km left. We had to cross the small river by rock hopping and then up and over a small headland. We started going up hill again and boy did we feel it. We eventually came to a clearing and we found the Little Waterloo bay camp site
There were 3 couples already here so we selected a good little campsite near the northern end close to the beach and away from everyone else. The campsite is tucked in behind a sand dune and provided us with excellent protection from the wind when it blew later in the evening.
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| Our Campsite at Little Waterloo Bay | The Creek at Little Waterloo Bay. Our Campsite is 30m past the sign |
I wish we had a video of Pete and I sitting down on a log trying to cook our dinner. We were like a couple of old men. My legs felt like jelly and the back of my calves were very sore (mostly from the downhill section and walking in the soft sand toward the end of the days walk. We had a good drink of water and then had some soup and two minute noodles followed by a coffee. Dinner consisted of Pasta Carbonara and another rice & banana custard. The later cooked in the dark. We ate our dinner by the light of the cyalume stick we had found and we were visited by a very large possum doing the nightly rounds of the camp I suspect.
After doing the dishes we hit the hay and had the rest of the muscat and drifted off to a very fulfilling sleep.
Pete had been a bit cold the previous night so he boiled the billy just before bed and filled up his aluminium water bottle, placed a pair of socks over it and placed it in his sleeping bag for warmth. Amazingly it was still quite warm the next morning.
I awoke at 6am after a pretty good nights sleep ( I just love the mattress). The day was crystal clear and looked like being the warmest day yet.Pete and I were keen to get away reasonably early to try to surprise our sons by being at school at 3.30 to pick them up. So after breakfast we packed up, took a few photos of the beach and were on our way at 8.40am .
We climbed back over the headland to Waterloo Bay and then found the track which would take us back to the Oberon Bay Junction.
The first part of this track was along a boardwalk heading up through a river valley. After the boardwalk stopped the track was pretty wet with water flowing freely on occasions. Unfortunately my shoes weren't waterproof so my feet did get a bit wet.
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The
Waterloo Bay Walking Track. This was once covered by sea, turning
the southern section (to the left) into an island.
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The track gently climbs up to rocky Saddle to a height of 70m. Even at this height we were at times walking on pure sand. I can imagine this area down to Oberon Bay being covered by sea and the southern section of the park being an island.
From Rocky Saddle the track gently descends through Ti Tree and we came across a mother and her 2 daughters out for a day hike.
We reached the Oberon Bay Junction at 10.15 where we had a drink and a piece of chocolate. From here we were on familiar territory and we new we had about 2 km or reasonably flat walking but the last 3 kms were straight up the hill to the Telegraph saddle car park 200m up.
Pete and I were certainly starting to struggle (we still had far too much on our back, and we hadn't recovered from the previous days walking). We had plenty of small stops to get our breathe back. At one point we were leaning against a rock when Pete said he would check the GPS. We both thought we had another 1 and a half kilometres to go. Pete said according to the GPS we were only 400m from the carpark.
We suddenly found a burst of energy and we took off covering those last 400m in no time. We actually covered the last 6.1 kms in 1:45 giving us an average speed of 3.49 kmh which we were both pretty pleased at.
After loading the gear into the car we headed backdown to Tidal River to report back in , grab a coffee and a large bottle of cold water and took off back to Melbourne where we got back in time to meet our boys at school.
What a great way to spend a few winters days. I can't wait to go back to the prom.
- Always check the use by date on cyalume sticks
- We don't' need to take bread rolls with us (Pitta bread will do)
- If you are going to take frankfurts, salami, and cheese eat them. They are heavy suckers.
- I need to get fitter to be able to go a little faster up the hills, to be less sore and to improve my enjoyment of the walk.
- CDMA phones have a much better coverage than digital phones
- I need to get a pair of waterproof hiking boots.
- I think I will test dehydrated bananas as they are lighter and have no skin to carry back out as rubbish
All Photo's On This Page Were Taken By Peter Cuthbertson