As the walk to Mt Koonya was only an hour we were able to fit in another one on the same day.....bonus! This is mainly a beach walk, with a few hundred metres of coastal heathland and a short scramble up a steep bank to add a little spice to the trip. Graded easy and only taking 2 hours for the return trip, this walk is accessible to most people.
Turning off the Arthur Highway at the Taranna turn-off continue driving for 9 km and turn right onto the C341 Saltwater River Road near the Old Trading General Store at Premaydena. Follow this road for 13.7km to a junction with Kelletts Road and turn right, driving for 200 metres to the Sloping Main Beach and a picnic area.
This beach evokes a lot of nostalgia with me as it is where my family holidayed every year when I was a child. Poor Jane had to endure numerous tales of my childhood memories of the area.....she's so patient!
The first part of the walk is along the firm white sands of the Sloping Main Beach, heading in an arc from northeast to northwest and providing views to Mount Wellington,South Arm and Sloping Island. After around 40 minutes walking the beach ends at a small creek and some sandstone cliffs which have been sculptured by wind and salt spray. The route up the cliffs is slightly to the right of this where a large eucalypt grows out of the bank.
Scramble up the bank and 20 metres into the bush turn left. Approximately 100 metres along the jeep track, pass through a gate into the Lime Bay State Reserve. At this point we came across evidence of Parks and Wildlife activity....controlled burnoffs! How this would effect our ability to follow the trail, we weren't sure.
As it turned out we were still able to follow the track even though most of the foliage around had been burnt....really not sure of the necessity of this as there are no areas of human habitation for kilometres from this area. Unfortunately the walk through this particular area was not as picturesque as expected.
After 15 minutes of walking through burnt out foliage the path emerges to overlook Whalebone Beach. This small idyllic beach provides views across Federick Henry Bay to Betsy Island and the mouth of the Derwent River.
The return walk is by the same route.
It was around 4.00pm when we arrived back to the car and the sun was starting to set.....I managed to capture a couple of really cool photos.
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