Maria Island 3 Day Walk

The day starts in Hobart where you will meet our guides at 6:30 AM in the foyer of the Hotel Grand Chancellor Hobart. We enjoy a scenic drive north winding up the coast to Triabunna where we join our boat and cruise across to Maria Island.

The best way to get an understanding of the significance of the Island is with a walk around Darlington township to reveal the complex and intriguing past of the Island. Learn about the ghosts, the hardships, the entrepreneurial spirit and sheer tenacity of those who came to live on the Island before us.

After lunch, we set off together hiking from Darlington to the wonderful Painted Cliffs via Oust House Track. The Painted Cliffs are stunning patterned and coloured sandstone, carved and moulded by the sea, and bordered by rock pools teeming with marine life. After exploring the coastline further south, we journey back to Darlington before returning by ferry to mainland Tasmania.

You’ll stay for your 2 nights at the Spring Bay Mill, a sustainable, architecturally designed venue with water views that stretch from the portside town of trayapana/Triabunna to wukaluwikiwayna/Maria Island. Previously the world’s largest wood chip mill, the site purveys a transcendent stillness that is truly unmatched. We’ll stay in The Ridge Quarters. Enjoy dinner featuring local produce and Tasmanian wine.

Walk: 12km, 5-6 hours with breaks

After a hearty breakfast, we will transfer by boat back to Maria Island for todays adventure. We start our hike to Skipping Ridge where we’ll have lunch. Our Lunch location is one of the best on the East Coast of Tasmania. Perched on Skipping Ridge we’ll enjoy magnificent views of Fossil Bay and Bishop & Clerk. During lunch, we will give you a brief geology lesson of the famous fossil cliff of Maria Island. The Fossil outcrop at Fossil Bay is recognised as world class and the best example of lower Permian strata in Tasmania, if not the world. Over the centuries the rise and fall of the seas have left a legacy of amazing sea creatures over 290 million-year-old fossilised into the cliffs. On the lower rock shelf, you can see a variety of fossils including sea fans, coral-like creatures, scallop shells and sea lilies.

After lunch, we hike one of the top 10-day walks in Australia. The walk takes you through grasslands, open forest and tall woodland, to the rocky slopes of the summit. The highlight of this walk is the views at the summit of Bishop & Clerk. These towering dolerite columns of the summit are named due to their resemblance to a bishop, wearing a mitre, being followed by a clergyman. From the summit on a clear day, you’ll be able to take in exhilarating views towards the Freycinet Peninsula. Life’s An Adventure owner Mark Norek says “this summit is so stunning it’s worthy of a marriage proposal and was the location I chose to propose to my beautiful wife Vicki”.

Note this walk involves hiking through a large area of rocky slopes to the summit, with some boulder scrambling near the top. For those that don’t hike to the top of Bishop and Clerk – our Logistics Guide will take you on an alternative walk back to Darlington where you can enjoy some free time.

Afterwards, we’ll get the boat back to the mainland to Spring Bay Mill for dinner served with wine.

Walk: 12km, 6 – 7 hours with breaks

After a hearty breakfast, we set off to Marion Bay with magnificent views of Maria Island for half the walk. After our walk on the beach we head to a local winery for a celebratory wine tasting with cheese and charcuterie board before heading back to Hobart. Our tour finishes at the Hotel Grand Chancellor Hobart, the end of a remarkable journey.