Hiking South East Tasmania

Showing posts with label Big Lagoon Beach-South East. Show all posts

Tuesday, 25 June 2019

Big Lagoon Beach

Tuesday 25th June 2019

Big Lagoon Beach

It was a cold and frosty morning and the drive down to the start of the walk was a bit slippery in places due to the frosty roads but we got to the start of the walk without incident. For access see previous post here. The locked gate has been destroyed so just drive to the walk start.
It was wet and boggy in a lots of places but that is to be expected this time of year. There was ice in the puddles and some snow on the peaks.

We made good time to the beach and walked along it for a distance before crossing over the spit to the lagoon side. Normally I would walk around the spit on the rocks but time restraints did not allow that.

The tide was out and this made walking on the lagoon side easy. At a convenient point a track was picked up across the spit to the ocean side and we walked back to the car.
A nice walk on a perfect winter's day.

Monday, 9 November 2015

Big Lagoon Beach

Sunday 8th November 2015

Big Lagoon Beach

After walking to Donnellys Creek a couple of weeks ago, I thought I would revisit Big Lagoon Beach in the same area, with some friends. We were expecting a fairly long walk as we intended to walk from the locked gate just off South Cape Road. When we arrived the gate was open, and on checking it, found that it had been vandalised and the lock removed, so we drove the 3.0 kms. to the second locked gate. This saved us 6.0 kms of walking on a road.
We set off along the old tracks and soon had a view of the mountains to the west.

Looking towards Moonlight Ridge

Lune Sugarloaf

The track was mostly dry and we reached Big Lagoon Beach in good time. There was a light breeze blowing and it was indeed a very pleasant day. We stopped at a large log for a snack before heading off on the long walk to the lagoon entrance. There were more rocks to negotiate on the point than I remembered from last time but we made it comfortably around to the sheltered side of the lagoon.

Big Lagoon Beach

On the rocky point

We then walked back along the sheltered side to find another handy log to sit on for lunch. t was very peaceful sitting there with great views of the mountains and a large eagle flying overhead.

Across the lagoon to Adamsons Peak

Across the lagoon towards Moonlight Ridge

Southport Lagoon

After lunch we kept going along the beach. I wanted to take a different route back, so we kept on around the rocks at the end of the beach to a creek with very muddy sides. This necessitated taking to the grass verges to avoid the worst of the mud. We found a very convenient log that I had spotted on Google Earth spanning the creek and we availed ourselves of this, crossing without any disasters. I did have my camera ready just in case. After this we just walked along the rocks some more before leaving the beach and heading inland through the button grass to pick up an old track. From here it was a good stroll back to the car.

Looking towards the lagoon from the return track

A great walk with pristine beaches, good views and lack of people.
Distance: 17.0 kms.
Time: 5'50"
Ascent: 140 metres
Click here to download GPX file.

Sunday, 14 July 2013

Big Lagoon Beach

Saturday 13th July 2013

I left home in the dark this morning and arrived at the start of the walk on South Cape Spur 1 at 7.45am. There was some slight misty drizzle falling but that did not last long. I headed off to the sounds of lyrebirds through a forestry gate and was soon walking through nice forest. After about 3 kms. another forestry gate was reached and beyond this the track deteriorated to become an old 4WD track which has been seriously eroded because of overuse and by people making extra tracks over time. Thankfully, this area is now closed to vehicles, so, hopefully, the country will regenerate to some degree. The tracks were filled with water in lots of places but it was possible to walk the whole distance without getting wet feet.
After 1'45" Big Lagoon Beach was reached and followed north east to the point. Along this beach were quite a few live crabs, and of course plenty of flotsam and jetsam. Once the point was reached, I rock hopped around to the beach on the lagoon side and walked back south west to the end of the beach where there were some good sitting rocks for a lunch break. It was so peaceful looking out over the lagoon and the surface of the water was like glass.
I then tried to follow a track back to the outward leg but it was full of water and the scrub was too thick to bash through so I backtracked down the beach a short distance and cut across the peninsula to the ocean side. I arrived back at the car at 2.05pm.
This was an enjoyable walk, the beaches were very nice and deserted and I saw no footprints on either of the beaches. It probably would be very difficult if not impossible to walk the beach on the lagoon side if the tide was high but it should not be a problem to cut across to the ocean side at any stage as the peninsula is quite narrow.
Distance: 23.4 kms.
Time: 6'20"
Ascent: 215 metres
There is a map and gpx file at Everytrail.
Click here to download GPX track.