Three Capes

Located on the Tasman Peninsula, the renowned Three Capes Track offers access to world-class scenery. Towering sea cliffs, Australia’s highest, plunge 300m into an ocean teeming with wildlife; pods of dolphins cruise the rocky capes, eagles ride uplifts along the cliffs. The peninsula’s forests and ecosystems are equally unique. Pockets of rainforest with myrtle beech and sassafras grow just metres from cliff edges, and coastal heath in spring and summer is brilliant with colourful flowers.

Despite its wild and heroic scenery, however, the track at times feels like a manufactured experience, and an expensive one at that. The official Three Capes Track is 46km, built by Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) at a cost of $25 million. While there is no doubting the quality and good spirit that went into its construction, the track is highly engineered. Trails are hard-packed gravel or boardwalk. And most walkers stay at luxurious private lodges or public huts; neither are cheap. The public huts—replete with mattresses, deck