South Coast Track - Day 2

Point Eric to Louisa River

The track from Point Eric to Louisa River is an easy, if longish, day. The days starts with an easy walk along the beaches of Cox Bight and then you turn left (North East) towards the Red Point Hills and the only significant climb for the day. In our case there was a lot of duckboard allowing us to keep our feet dry.

One of the features of this day is great views. Great views of both where you have come from and where you are going. Once you pass over the Red Point Hills you can clearly see what is in store for Day 3 with the climb over the Ironbound Range. In the photo above you can clearly see the trees that hide the Louisa River campsite and you can also see the Ironbound Range. If you look closely you can see the start of the steep track up the Ironbound Range just to the left of centre of the photo.

Day 2 - Hill Profile

This day’s walk is dominated by the crossing of the Red Point Hills at a height of 246m.

Breakfast at Point Eric

We had all purchased Radix meals for breakfast and dinner. What I didn't realise was that Radix meals are all vegetarian. So, with a combination of walking all day and eating only vegetarian, it was pretty much a certainty that everyone would head for the toilet as soon as they woke up.

John showing us his breakfast

Since we all had, more or less, the same meals there was a certain amount of discussion about which were best and worst. From memory the chocolate breakfast was a mid ranker.

This is a view of Cox Bight from the Point Eric Campground

The track from Cox Bight to Louisa River starts with a walk along the Bight. This photo is looking back to Point Eric, from where we started.

A quick photo stop to get photos of Point Eric.

Here, you can see Paul filling his water bottle from the stream running across the beach. Generally, the water was very good and we only filtered the water once on the walk.

We are not alone

We walked across a few beaches and could see that others had been there. In this case it looks like a pademelon or wallaby had been there before us.

New Harbour Range

This is looking back to our camp at Point Eric and in the background is the New Harbour Range.

This rock spike was quite picturesque. The intersting thing is that the seagull on top of the rock stood there, unmoved, the entire time we had it in view, which must have been 10-15 minutes.

Same rock spike and same seagull, this time with the ocean waves in the background. The surf was quite strong and pretty noisy.

I didn't know what these were, but they were quite pretty and stood out in the bush. Having researched it they are probably Billardiera longiflora which is a species of flowering plant in the family Pittosporaceae and is endemic to Tasmania.

And yes the sea gull was still on top.

Having a creek flowing across a beach was a common sight for us on the walk.

We have now left the beach and have turned North East towards the Red Point Hills, which you can see in the background of this photo.

Louisa River Track

On this day, at various points, we had good views back over the track we had walked or good views forward over the tracks we will walk. In this case we are looking along the track back towards Cox's Bight with The New Harbour Range in the background.

Climbing the Red Point Hills

As we gained height on the Red Point Hills we had good views back. You can see the beach at Cox's Bight and the New Harbour Range in the background.

Having Crossed the Red Point Hills

Once we had crossed the Red Point Hills we had a good view of tomorrow's walk because now we are looking forward and the Spica Hills are in the mid ground and the much larger Ironbound Range is in the background.

The Spica Hills and Ironbound Range

The Spica Hills with Ironbound Range in background. You can also see our track snaking around the middle of the photo.

It was a warm and dry day and the walking was pretty straight forward.

Crossing Louisa Creek

On this walk you cross Louisa Creek and walk a few more kms to the Louisa Rver and camp. This is David Crossing the Louisa Creek. Note how much tannin is in the water. While the tannins in the water make it aesthetically displeasing, tannins do not pose a health risk.

Spica Hills and the Ironbound Range

The low mountains in the foreground are the Spica Hills. The track winds around the end of the hills with no significant height increase. In the background, you have the much more impressive Ironbound Range. It was the next morning's objective to drag our packs and ourselves over this imposing range of mountains.

John taking in the Spica Hills and the Ironbound Range in the background.

You can see the track reasonably clearly in this photo. The track winds around the southern (right) side of the Spica Hills without gaining much elevantion. You can see the gap, betweeen the two hills, through which we walked.

The Ironbound Range

We are now approaching Louisa River amongst the trees which was our campsite for the night. Here, we were getting a better view of tomorrow's climbing assignment, the Ironbound Range.

Path up the Ironbound Range

On the left hand side of the photo you can see the path up the Ironbound Range. The Louisa River and our camp site for the night are in the trees in the foreground.

Louisa River and Ironbound Range.

In the middle of the photo you can see the path up the Ironbound Range. The Louisa River and our camp site for the night are in the trees in the midground.

Chris crossing the Louisa River

If the river was up, I am not sure how much I would want to rely on this overhead line to save me.

Crossing the Louisa River

The Louisa River can be difficult to cross after rain. In our case the river was low and was easily crossed. You can see the permamant rope that is strung across the river to help people when the river is higher.

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