Bear Hill, Schouten Island 2017 Oct

Bear Hill, Schouten Island Oct 2017.

View of Bear Hill from the water’s edge.
Schouten Island has at least three peaks worth climbing, two of which are worth points. Poor Bear Hill is worth no points, but is probably the nicest climb of all, being quick and easy, and with an excellent view. It’s so quick and easy, I did it twice: once on the day we arrived, and once before breakfast for a dawn shoot the following day. My stats confirm it was 28 minutes to the top – and that’s with lugging 3kgs of camera gear. In other words, it’s easy to do for a dawn or dusk shoot and not have to deal with too much darkness.

Early morning view.
I particularly liked the fact that Bear Hill was not too far from the mainland peninsula, so the mountains of Freycinet National Park looked appealing from up there. Meanwhile, you could look down on the beach where the tent was, and the beach on which we landed. The little world of the island was laid out before me. Because I felt like having a workout, and the others wanted to enjoy themselves, going at a more leisurely pace, I did this one solo, which gave me this little world to myself. Funnily, no one else (of three) had wanted to get up in the dark and do a dash for the top to see dawn from on high with me. I went alone. Penguins called to me as I left my tent.


And this is the view mid afternoon.

Schouten Island 2017 Oct

Schouten Island. October 2017.



Before Bruce’s disappearance, I had booked us both in to an HWC walk to Schouten Island, and we were looking forward to it. By the weekend of the walk, however, events in my life had changed dramatically; nonetheless, I thought I would like to go, albeit for entirely different reasons. I decided that seeking the soothing balm of nature and camping with a tiny group of friends would be restorative. I was right. These friends were just perfect, and I had a wonderful mixture of happy, healing company and much-needed solitude. We climbed mountains each day, and I had fun at dawn and dusk photographing the beauty of Schouten. The “peaks” we climbed were Bear Hill and Mt Story. I will give each its separate entry in the blog, and only publish some seascape shots in this entry.




Story 2017 Schouten Island, Oct

Mt Story, Schouten Island, Oct 2017


Mt Story summit looking to the Freycinet peninsula
Mt Story does not have a path to the top, but it does have a taped route (mostly pink) that is not too difficult to follow. This mountain is a much longer undertaking than Bear Hill, and we took about two hours’ walking to reach the top, with a break for snacks and another just for the heck of it added in.
The start of the walk was where the descending spur meets the track that exists between the two beaches to the north, i.e., between the beach on which the boat drops you (Moreys Bay), and the one where you camp if you want to camp right on the beach under the shade of casuarinas (Crocketts Bay).

If you compare the photos of this mountain worth points and Bear Hill, worth none, you’ll see that getting no points is more photographically pleasing on this occasion.
If you are wondering what the detour (on the map below) to the east after we’d been to the summit is, it was the beginning of a climb of Daedalus, but we soon decided we didn’t have enough time given the general energy levels prevailing in the group. One of our number didn’t think he was up to it, and really, I was not feeling one scrap energetic, and was glad of a pleasant meander back to where we’d come from rather than a desperate race against the clock to complete the circuit. I had a strong feeling that the salmon I’d had the night before, and again, for an early lunch, was not quite in the kind of condition that salmon should be in when meant for human consumption. I think my salmon  pate needs to wait until the cooler weather of next autumn before it’s allowed on any more overnight bushwalks.