Taking the Mickey’s Beach turnoff

Mum and I took advantage of the day’s glorious sunshine, and went for a drive down to the Huon, Cygnet and Channel area, partly to revisit old family picnic spots. Randalls Bay* was an intended destination, and having enjoyed a short stroll along its shore I decided to head to nearby Egg and Bacon Bay. On the way, however, there was a turn off for a narrow dirt road, with the signpost “Mickey’s Beach”* and me, being me, decided to take this road not yet travelled.

We hadn’t gone too far before we encountered a parked car, the cause of its abandonment for Shank’s Pony clearly evident in the form of a very large puddle stretched right across the road. I looked at Mum, the puddle, and then my Subaru — which has led a rather unadventurous life since I bought it — before getting out, grabbing a stick and testing the depth of the puddle. Mum claims she knew what was going to happen next, and the Subaru barely got its rims wet as we drove through and up out the other side.

The road then continued, with a few bumps and puddles, before opening out into a bit of a turning area. I could see where the road continued, this time with some nice steep eroded bumps and washaways, but another inspection suggested the Suby could handle it, and so we embarked cautiously on a bouncy descent, through another big puddle, coming out at another clearing in a sort of gravel quarry. From here the road down to the beach was easy enough, although we actually walked this last little section.

And thus it was that we discovered the hitherto unknown (to us) Mickey’s Beach, which is a lovely spot.

View along the beach.

Steps cut into the eroded gravel hillside, from the walking track from Randalls Bay (we didn’t go this way)

East end of the beach. 

Closer view of tree and rock formation.

Mum enjoying Mickey’s Beach.

* The Tasmanian nomenclature board doesn’t do apostrophes, but I think the Mickey’s Beach sign may have had one … just to confuse everyone.