Sep 08 2010

Paradise Road, Braidwood Road, Sandfly Bay

Published by under Trampers

8/9/2010. Trampers. Paradise, Braidwood, Sandfly Bay. M. Leadership: Informal.

Tramp Route. (Courtesy Ken). Car parked top LH corner.

Weather looked fine at Mosgiel, but when we four trampers arrived at Sullivans Dam for the Cloud Forest-Escarpment Tramp, we struck a drizzly cloudy shock. For mud and safety concerns we turned back to town and on the way decided to try the Peninsula. We parked at the top of the Paradise Road track and the weather was quite a degree clearer. However, our second shock was to find the track the WETTEST we have ever found it. No one slipped over, (miraculously), but we had to be extremely cautious in placing our feet.

A slippery muddy Paradise Road Track

We didn’t go through to Boulder Beach. We had been there plenty of times before. However we noticed that the rickety stile over the fence was gone now. (It had always been a big step to get onto it anyway.
The track up to Braidwood road was little better than the one we had come down.

Track up to Braidwood Road just as bad.

Out of Braidwood Road, onto Seal Point Road and down onto Sandfly Bay beach. We negotiated a high number of snoozing sea lions (many in pairs) on our way along to a planned lunch in the viewing hide at the far end.

The sign to the Hide

From here we had excellent views of seals on the rocks, and the beach stretching back the way we had come.

View south from the Hide

Back at the south end of the beach, we had to tackle the tough climb back out of the bay.

The steep sandy climb back up from the beach

But the reward of the view was well worth it.

The view from the Viewing Platform

Back up to Seal Point Road, up to Highcliff Road and a stop to view the historic water trough.

The Annie Dickson Memorial Trough, 1862

Then back along the crest of the Peninsula to the cars. We had planned initially to return via the Boulder Beach dip, but the muddy conditions we encountered had firmly ruled that out!
Well, a different tramp. An unexpected one. And we felt we had made a triumphant creative solution to problems the day threw at us. – Ian.

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