A Changed Track - Cape Raoul
Saturday 1 July 2017
It is now a quite
different experience walking to Cape Raoul now that the track has been
upgraded, although it was far from finished. The initial early part is predominantly
gravel with a little boardwalk and means the slippery mud is now thankfully
thing of the past. From the creek crossing it is all gravel and winds up to the
Raoul lookout, but on the descent after there some large zig zags have been
added and maybe just a bit more than needed. It was still under construction as
was long sections between there and cape Raoul. It was pleasing to see the
track will continue under the casuarinas but that section was always good
walking and it seems a great waste of resource and money ripping through it to
add gravel. The same can be said for the last part where the track crosses the
heathland before the cape, where the old track has been dug up and rocks
removed. This seems to be very much
overdone and again unnecessary and expensive, whereas a little gravel topping
would have been quite sufficient.
Cape Raoul from lower lookout on a bend on new track |
While on the subject
of the track upgrade; it looks likely, based on the yellow paint on the Raoul
lookout cliff edge that railing is planned.
Surely quite unnecessary. Storage
sheds were noticed a little off the track and two of them seemed to have been
hit bit very strong winds and had blown off the base platforms and one was
knocked about quite a bit.
The scenery was as
usual marvellous, especially in such lovely calm weather and a great highlight
was seeing a group of whales rounding Cape Raoul below us as we ate lunch. You could hear the spume and at times some of
them beached with one frequently whacking the water with its tail.
Whales |
Just before leaving a
couple of walkers turned up and both were quite annoyed about the track
upgrade. The bloke looked familiar and Sue eventually recalled that it was Dave
from the radio who interviewed people at the Mount Field Fagus Festival last
year.
Cape Raoul |
The return walk is
15.4k and takes about 2:15 each way.
We plan to return and
make use of the old track now reopened to the public and stated to have convict
heritage. This goes to Tunnel Bay and the return would be via the upgraded
Shipstern Bluff track to make a circuit of the walk.
View a photo album from the walk by clicking the image below.
Cape Raoul 2017
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