Crescent Bay

I have been enjoying an extended Christmas/New Year break and on the 2nd, with the weather forecast neither too hot nor too cold, decided to check out the walk to Crescent Bay, south of Port Arthur, with my brother Colin plus Imogen and Josh. The track leaves from the Remarkable Cave car park and follows the coast eastwards past Maingon Bay.

There are lots of sea caves in the area (Remarkable Cave is the most famous of these), and the track passes over the top of Maingon Blowhole allowing a dramatic — but not easily photographable — view of the ocean rumbling in its dark depths (the following photo hints at the hole in the right foreground; the sea cave runs under the land bridge at the centre, and obviously the roof of the original cave has collapsed, leaving a hole some 10-15m deep; you can see the water below but the dark/light contrast made it impossible to get a decent shot).

As we journeyed around we saw a couple of Sydney-Hobart yachts making their way back after the big race.

We decided not to do the Mt Brown detour (it involved an uphill for which none of us were in the mood), and instead started to make our way down to the dramatic Crescent Bay, with its massive sand dunes.

Here there are fantastic views across to Tasman Island and Cape Pillar to its left/north. The lighthouse on Tasman Island is 29m tall, and is situated about 250m above sea level, which makes those cliffs rather tall. The cliffs on Cape Pillar, at 300m in height, are apparently the tallest sea cliffs in the Southern Hemisphere.

Of course, those massive dunes just had to be climbed and slid down by the more youthful members of the party; fortunately I had come prepared with a slippery cardboard box off-cut (the piece of foam was less useful).

It was only pretend sliding in the next shot!

It is a lovely spot, and there were some interesting sand and light effects on the dunes.

And then it was a matter of retracing our steps back to the car … and then going in search of an icecream or four.