​A magic day in the wilderness - Tuesday 14 March a day to remember!

Part of the rocky south coast
We are on our way to Melaleuca - finally

Bathurst Channel and Harbour together with Port Davey harbour in SW Tassie lies within the World Heritage Wildness of SouthWest National Park - over half a million hectares of pristine wilderness. The tanin-stained water of much of this huge waterway sits atop deep clear salt water, habitat to some unique marine species of fish, coral and invertebrates (I have included a pix of an info board which describes some of these). It's truly wonderful!

Flying into Melaleuca across Bathurst Channel
A place with unique water creatures

Off loading on a scrap of a crushed quartz airstrip in the
wilderness - very exciting!

That's where we escaped the here and now for one spectacular day. After hugging the coastline down through the D'entrecasteaux Channel and the rugged southern coast, our 2 small planes landed on a small crushed quartz airstrip at Melaleuca, a tiny dot in the wildness of the SW National Park. The only way to access this wilderness is to fly in as we did, come by sea or walk in along one of Tassies most challenging tracks either the Port Davey track from Lake Pedder or South Cape track from Cockle Creek. Both taking about a week each. There ain't no roads. You can see why we chose to fly!!

Perfect reflections 

Enough of the geography lesson.... after a long hike to a couple of long drops! we spent most of the day on the water looking rather like those clowns at side shows - heads swivelling back and forth with mouths wide open in wonder - spectacular, awesome, mind-blowing scenery, black still waters mirroring mountains and cliffs, trees and grasses. We came ashore on a secluded beach in Bathurst harbour for a delicious morning tea of Tassie cheeses and pate - yummy! How is it that coffee, well just about everything, tastes so delicious in the open air?!

What can I say!?

Warmed and ready for more, we piled back in the boats and were whisked off to the mouth of Port Davey harbour venturing a wee way into the Southern ocean just a tiny bit beyond the Breaksea Islands - rocky, grassy crags pockmarked with the burrows of short-tail shearwaters. The ocean was way too rough for our little boats but we were able to witness the relative protection the islands afford Port Davey Harbour against our wild magnificent Southern Ocean and the Roaring Forties that lash that part of the world.

The end of the Breaksea Islands

The Breaksea Islands from the air on our return flight

We hovered close to archways worn by the relentless sea flooding with each thundering wave, blow holes (embryonic arches perhaps) held us waiting expectantly for the next swell hoping to see the biggest and most spectacular explosion of freezing water yet, and we skirted rocky shelves awash with roiling froth and pouring water. Pretty wonderful stuff and our guide let us tarry for as long as possible.

A small pod of playful dolphins escorted us back almost to the Bathurst channel. They frolicked beside, behind and in front of our small boats as dolphins do. (Great video of the wilderness on Par Avion Facebook page - take a peak.) We passed the row boat 'moorings' where walkers from the Port Davey track make 3 crossings to get to Melaleuca - one to get across the Channel, then they tow a second boat back to the north side to leave it for the next people to use and then finally they row back across for the last leg of their trek to Melaleuca. Lot of hard work many days hard walking I'd say - but oh how I wish I were fit/young enough to do it!

My iPhone doesn't do justice to this stunningly beautiful place, but you get the idea.

With stomachs rumbling, we hightailed back to more tranquil water in Bathurst Harbour and ran the boats up on yet another secluded beach, Balmoral, for a delicious selection of salads etc washed down with oodles of good Tassie whites and reds. Life's tough!
Royally fed by our wonderful guides/pilots for the day, Luuk and Michael, we finishing up exploring Needwonnee Walk. This short bush walk along Bathurst Harbour gives a tiny snapshot of the life of the people who lived in this corner of Tasmania for 35,000 years; the track and interpretation boards were constructed by the descendants of those people - the Needwonnee poeple.

Our wee planes then headed north east across the rugged Arthur Ranges. Ducking behind Mt Wellington, we flew over Hobart sprawled along a silvery expanse of the Derwent river back to Cambridge.

Happy exhausted but happy travelers!

It was simply a wonder-filler day, a once in a lifetime 'bucket list' day. And a few days later we embarked on another such day - walking the last (easy!) leg of the mighty Overland track - Echo Point to Cynthia Bay. Awesome! More anon .....

Underwater wonders that live in the inky darkness of these waters