Taroona to Tinderbox

The coastline along Tinderbox is lined with dolerite cliffs up to around 20m or 30m high. Most of the rock of climbing quality is shorter than this though: around 4 to 10m and most of this is concentrated on the area between Fossil Cove and the popular snorkelling spot sometimes called Fisherman's cove. The best "value for money" climbing action is probably just to do this section, although the section from Blackman's Bay and Fossil Cove still has its moments, as does the section round to the southern tip of Tinderbox.

The remaining sections are Taroona beach to Kingston beach, which has only some very short sections of climbing, and the section from Kingston Beach to Blackman's Bay beach, which has a littel more climbing and two short swims. Adding these sections (mostly running and scrambling) increases the length of this traverse enormously: well over 10km, maybe 15km.

We first started traversing here (for its own sake) in the early 1990s, with the final push from Taroona done in the late 1990s. The best parts of the Tinderbox sea cliffs were subsequently (though independently) developed as a sea level traversing and deep water soloing area, mostly by Nick Hancock. There is plenty of fun to be had here and the sea is commonly very calm.

The water was unusually rough on the day that these photos were taken. It is not uncommon for the areas depicted to be as still as a swimming pool. (Photos by Peter Jackson.)