24 hours on the Three Capes Track
The Three Capes Track is now one of Tasmania’s most popular multi day hikes. The official hike involves booking your dates well in advance, catching one of the Pennicott boats to a remote starting point, and hiking for 3-4 days out to Cape Pillar and back over Mt Fortescue to Cape Hauy, finishing at Fortescue Bay. The track is incredibly well made and the new huts/lodges are quite stunning (at least the one we saw at Munroe was).
The Three Capes of the Three Cape Track from Cape Pillar. Cape Raoul to the left and Cape Hauy to the right.
The “Old” Cape Pillar Track, starting and finishing at Fortescue Bay, still allows access to Cape Pillar for those who haven’t booked themselves on the official hike and it is this track we decided to utilise on a 24 hour mission out to Cape Pillar and back recently.
The “classic” shot of the Blade and Tasman Island. I have to admit to having seen this shot/composition before visiting for myself but the rather lovely late afternoon light kind of demanded I grab this shot for myself too…
It is a 14km hike but the track is very, very good. A lot of the way is very new boardwalk, and you can make some pretty good pace if you have to. Given we had an appointment with the sunset, we made very good time indeed! The late afternoon light was great, and cloud started to set in towards dusk – but not before a magnificent light show with sunbeams bursting through the clouds out near Cape Raoul.
“Sunset Searchlights” – these beautiful beams of light appeared out near Cape Raoul towards sunset
More great late afternoon light over Cape Raoul
Things got very grey after that so we decided there would be no astro shoot for us this evening and instead crossed our fingers for the morning shoot.
The Cape Pillar sea cliffs at blue hour.
We woke early to stunning clear skies so we got our astro shoot in after all (those pics are coming soon!) And the morning light on Cape Pillar was a sight to behold. After shooting for a few hours we started the long hike back.
Morning light on Cape Pillar and Tasman Island, Three Capes Track.
Morning light on Cape Pillar and Tasman Island, Three Capes Track.
The Blade and Tasman Island
All in all we spent exactly 24 hours on the track so a pretty huge effort, but what a reward!
