4 replies to this topic

[Mystic]

Only about a 10 minute drive from Doras Point, you will find the Sloop Reef campground. This is situated on The Gardens Road, which is a left turn off Binnalong Bay Road (out of St Helens). The turn off is well signposted, and directly before the Humbug Point Recreation Area turn off.

The campground here has no facilities, and limited spaces, but is worth visiting. After you have made the entry road into this ground, you will be faced with a 3 way intersection. The road stright ahead takes you to a launch point for walks around the reef, not really any campsites here, though you could camp at the turnaround if you liked. The road to the right leads down to a secluded beach and the road to the left leads to the long Taylors beach area.

We camped in the Taylors Beach area, where you will find two large sites. One right at the end of the road, to the left, and the other, just at the carpark, to the right. The latter was our chosen place.

Here we were perched on top of amazing rock formations, overlooking the reef and bay. The image in my profile was taken on the rocks here.

For spectacular scenery and beaches, this spot was great. We spent a few days perched on the rocks, and enjoyed every moment, especially the sunrises and sets. These had to be felt to be believed. Both spectacular in colour, and feel, it was a special place.

The camera had one hell of a workout throughout this region, but Sloop made for some particularly good photography. Make sure you have spare batteries, a huge memory card also, or loads of film. In this location, you will need it.

The downside to Sloop was the wind. With the exception of very early morning, when everything was dead calm, it howled through the whole area, and there was nowhere to hide from its ferocity. Beware if you hang your sleeping bags out to air, as they may well end up in the ocean. We narrowly avoided losing ours this way. In order to protect our fire, and keep it safe, we had to erect a windbreak, but this only helped a little, as the wind here has the tendency of blowing from all 4 directions at the same time.

Overall though, it was a fantastic place to stay, and one I would definitely love revisiting time and time again. For nearest facilities and such see the listing under Doras Point.

for Sloop Reef, 5 if the wind dropped

Our Sloop Reef Hideaway

Location map

Map supplied by Tasmap, for more mapping information
please see www.tasmap.tas.gov.au

[Shane V]

Sloop Reef will blow you away, literally. Not only will the views take your breath away so will the wind.

Our campsite here was protected by bushes on the west and we looked out to sea from the tent door. The ground was level and we needed the hatchet to put the pegs in. You will need to bring your own water and firewood because there isn't any there.

The wind was the only downside to this campsite. There are gorgeous views up Taylors Beach, west to the Mt Pearson Reserve and Sloop Lagoon and of course east to sea, where you will see Sloop Rock jutting out of the sea. Early mornings were the best for viewing all of this area.

There is a lot of bird life around this site, as well as wallabies. There was also some sort of animal which let out a strange sound after dark which was a little freaky at times.

Sloop Reef,for me, is a campsite. It is definitely worth braving the wind to stay there, even if it only for one night.

[Son of a Beach]

There's a few other camp areas just up and down the Gardens Road from that turn off too. A great area.

The best thing about the point near Sloop Rock, is the rock pool. Did you ladies see that? If you clamber around on the rocks you'll find it close to the point. It gets a bit washed by the waves at high tide, but most of the time it is just a huge rock pool cut off from the sea, deep enough to dive into from the high rocks on the other side of it. I'd estimate about 3 metres almost perfectly round, and probably about 3 metres deep too. Very cool!

[Shane V]

Unfortunately we didn't see that. We are going to go back that way, so when we do we will definitely check it out. Thanks for the info.

[Mystic]

Thanks for the info Son of a Beach. I know the spot you are talking about, and I think we stopped just short of it due to not wanting to disturb a group who was camped there.

There are a lot of campgrounds along this road, as you say, and although many of them get busy during school holidays, it is unlikely that you will not find somewhere free to stay if visiting the region. We did check most of them out, Dora's & Sloop were our personal favourites, though I will get around to doing a write up of all the others in the area, once I find a little more time.