Tasmanian travel for King's Scout hike

Words by Jess and Alyssa, 1st Hornsby Heights Venturer Unit

Over the summer holidays, Jess and I completed our King's Scout hike in Tasmania on the Three Capes Track, with four other Venturer Scouts from three different Units (1st Hornsby Heights, West Pymble, and 1st Byattunga), plus two support adults.

We flew from Sydney to Hobart on 8 January, staying at Derwent Scout Hall on our first night. We met the 1st Derwent Sea Scout Group's Venturer Scouts, their Group Leader Klaus and their Venturer Leader Aaron, who took us kayaking in the harbour before hanging out at the hall where we cooked a barbecue dinner!

The next day, we left Derwent Scout Hall bright and early and walked to Constitution Dock, where we took a coach to the Port Arthur Historical Site followed by a boat to the start of the track at Denmans Cove. We had about 45 minutes to spare, so we took the opportunity to walk around the eerie yet fascinating historical site where convicts used to reside. At 11.30am, we boarded our ferry which took us on a 75-minute tour of the Southern Ocean. We were told we were lucky with our picture-perfect day, clear blue skies and the water being unusually calm. The boat tour took us further out into the Southern Ocean than it normally would, where we were incredibly fortunate to spot dolphins, seals and even the endangered Shy Albatross feeding in the wild.

When we arrived at Denmans Cove, we took our boots off and rolled up our pants to walk through knee-deep water to get to the beach, where the track started. We took our time to eat lunch at the cove before starting our 4km hike to our first hut at Surveyors, with a breathtaking view towards Cape Raoul. That night we played card games and bonded over our dinner of steak and salad before watching the sunset over the Southern Ocean. That night, in the early hours around 2am, one of our support adults was lucky enough to see an Aurora Australis!

On the second day of the hike, we left the hut nice and early before the weather got too warm. As we climbed Arthur's Peak, we were rewarded with some amazing lookouts throughout the day, over to Crescent Bay, Mount Brown and the distant spires of Cape Raoul. The vegetation changed from eucalypt forests, through to low coastal heathlands and then through open moorlands. Even with the many breaks we had to take in the views, we completed the 11km quickly and ended up at the next hut, Munro at 1pm. One of the highlights at Munro were the outdoor showers which were so appreciated by everyone, as it’d been a very warm day!

Day 3 of the hike was the longest distance we walked at 19km. It rained overnight so the weather had cooled down luckily. We were able to leave our hiking packs at a purpose-built pack shelter and take only our day packs, before setting off. It was really foggy for the first part of the day, making it impossible to see anything at the lookouts! Once we had reached an elevation above the clouds, there were insane views! We were walking along the edge of sheer cliff faces that at times made our hearts race and stomachs drop. There were extremely strong gusts of wind while we were up at Cape Pillar where we stopped for a break and some amazing photos of Tasman Island. Next, we walked up the Blade, where the track narrowed significantly. On either side of the track there was a sheer drop on both sides of the cliff edges, 262m above sea level! This was a highlight for many of us. That night, we stayed at our third and final hut, Retakunna.

The last day of the hike was definitely the hardest day for the Patrol as a collective. It started with a straight incline up Mount Fortescue through a rainforest, with enormous tree ferns and tall eucalypts. Both Jess and I became sick so we had many breaks and both of our packs were carried by the rest of the Patrol. Additionally, the rain was absolutely pelting down, soaking through all our clothes even though we all had good quality rain jackets! We eventually reached the track junction of Cape Hauy and Fortescue Bay, dropping our packs under as much shelter as we could find (little shrubs and spindly trees), and made the decision to walk to the halfway point lookout to Cape Hauy, which the majority of people in our walking group did. The steps were extremely slippery and there were waterfalls flowing down them with the amount of rain we had!

Eventually, we made it to the lookout and back before having lunch and continuing on to Fortescue Bay, the end of the hike! Jess and I were able to carry our packs for the last four-ish kilometres, which certainly helped us to walk faster! Eventually, we arrived at Fortescue Bay, before getting on the coach back to Port Arthur. We stopped at the Historical Site again to pick up more people as well as buy souvenir shirts and then continued on to Hobart. Finally, we made it back to Derwent Scout Hall where we hung up all our wet gear around the hall, had pizza for dinner and went to bed.

On our final day of the Adventurous Journey, we were up at 4.30am to get ready to fly back to Sydney. We wore our matching Three Capes shirts and left for the airport. Everything went smoothly and soon enough, we were back on the plane home! We caught the train back from the airport to Hornsby Station, arriving at just past midday!

 
All in all, the hike was a huge success and Jess and I couldn’t be more thankful for our amazing Patrol (Emily B, Coden, Lachie and Hugh) and adult supporters (Emily O and Gen)! This hike took close to a year to plan and so many people were involved in supporting us. We need to thank our Venturer Scouts, Leaders, Group support committee, parents, sponsors (Therapy Pro Australia and the Dick and Pip Smith Leadership Through Adventure Fund) and 1st Derwent Sea Scouts!