Barrett Island to Coldwater River

Sep 7, 2021

At 05:00 I got up and discovered a light rain. I went back to bed. Could not fall asleep though, and after a little while the rain stopped so I got up and made some coffee. It started raining again so I set up a kitchen tarp which was well used by all during the breakfast routine.

The first kilometer of hiking today took an hour and a half as we carefully picked our way along slippery rock scrambles in the rain. Fortunately the trail mellowed a bit after this tough stretch, and the rain thankfully stopped too so we started to make a little better time as we hopped across cobbled beaches and boulder fields. A few long stretches of sandy beach made for even easier travel, but a good portion of the day was spent slowly negotiating very tricky and slippery rubble beaches which slowed down even further as people began to get tired. At one point the trail went back out to the highway to cross the Sand River. The bridge was under construction and a single narrow lane had us holding up traffic as we crossed this, which caused one polite fellow to roll down his window and shout obsceneties at us. Not quite a back country feeling along this stretch!

Cobble beaches were tough walking

Treading carefully across slippery wet slabs

Boulder beaches were ankle breakers

Rubble beaches were negotiated with extreme care

Sandy stretches were heaven

Industrial scenery

We had second lunch at the Katherine Cove picnic area and then saddled up once more for the seven kilometers remaining towards our booked site at north of the Coldwater River. We did not make it. Travel was interspersed with easy rock slabs and treacherous rubble beaches which slowed our pace to a crawl. Fortunately the sun came out in the last half of the day which dried things out making things a little less slippery. When we finally arrived at the beautiful Coldwater South beach late in the day, we found the campsites empty. As it was now past supper time we decided to call it a day here. A lovely sunset in the unsettled sky was witnessed and we all hit the sack shortly after.

Sunset for dinner

Hiking time: 9.5 hours

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