Tumbledown Point via Lousy Gully

Friday, 26 July 2013

Tumbledown Point via Lousy Gully

Thursday 25th July 2013

This was to be an exploratory walk as I had not been to Tumbledown Point before, and, as it turned out it was quite a circuitous route that I ended up taking. If anyone has a better way , please let me know.
I left home early and it took just over 2 hours to get to the start point on a dirt road off Stormlea Road at Stormlea. The drive down was through the fire devastated area from earlier in the year and it was good to see the trees regenerating and the rebuilding of peoples homes going ahead. I had been down not long after the fires and the change was very noticeable.
I had done the first part of the walk previously because it also goes to Salters Point, which is a good walk in itself. I headed off through a forestry gate and followed the road until it became a fire break, then up to the top of a hill where a track leads off on the left. This was followed for about 1 km. to the top of Moonlight Hill where there is a junction marked with a sign "Salters Point" left, "Lousy Gully" right. I turned right and soon the track deteriorated to a very overgrown condition, mainly with grass and small shrubs, but it was not that difficult to find. I walked along this track for about 2.5 kms. until a better road was reached and then turned left and followed this for 2.7 kms to the end of the road. I was getting close to Tumbledown Point but could not locate an easy access. After a bit on searching I found an old overgrown track on the right of the road and walked along it for about 500 metres and then went across country in a westerly direction to the point. From here there were good views of Bruny Island, Mount Wellington, Wedge Island etc.
I decided on an early lunch and sat and enjoyed watching the swells break over the rocks below. There were a few birds screeching overhead and a lone boat out to sea and it was quite relaxing just sitting there. After the break it was just a matter of retracing my steps back to the car which I reached at 1.45pm.
Distance: 18.9 kms
Time: 5'20"
Ascent: 650 metres
There is a map and gpx file at Everytrail
Click here to download GPX track.