Choose a diary entry31/03/2004 - Retrenched! 02/04/2004 - Farewell Lunch 03/04/2004 - Preparation 1 04/04/2004 - Preparation 2 05/04/2004 - Packing 06/04/2004 - Sydney to Hobart to Mt. Field NP 07/04/2004 - Tarn Shelf, then into the Southwest 08/04/2004 - Western Arthurs Hike - Day 1 - Up Alpha Moraine 09/04/2004 - Western Arthurs Hike - Day 2 - Lake Cygnus 10/04/2004 - Western Arthurs Hike - Day 3 - Lake Oberon & Square Lake 11/04/2004 - Western Arthurs Hike - Day 4 - Lake Oberon to Lake Cygnus 12/04/2004 - Western Arthurs Hike - Day 5 - Lake Cygnus to Junction Creek 13/04/2004 - Western Arthurs Hike - Day 6 - out to Mt Field NP 14/04/2004 - Back to Hobart for resupply and on to Southport 15/04/2004 - Southport, Hastings springs, Cockle Creek 16/04/2004 - South Coast Track - Day 1 - Cockle Creek to South Cape Rivulet 17/04/2004 - South Coast Track - Day 2 - South Cape Rivulet 18/04/2004 - South Coast Track - Day 3 - back to Cockle Creek, then Hobart 19/04/2004 - Hobart to Lake St. Clair 20/04/2004 - Frenchmans Cap Hike - Day 1 - to Vera Hut 21/04/2004 - Frenchmans Cap Hike - Day 2 - Tahune Hut and the Summit 22/04/2004 - Frenchmans Cap Hike - Day 3 - Tahune Hut to Vera Hut 23/04/2004 - Frenchmans Cap Hike - Day 4 - out to Derwent Bridge 24/04/2004 - Derwent Bridge / Lake St. Clair to Hobart 25/04/2004 - R&R in Hobart 26/04/2004 - Hobart, buying a new Camera 27/04/2004 - Hobart to Port Arthur 28/04/2004 - Port Arthur Historic site, then to Fortescue Bay 29/04/2004 - Tasman Trail Hike - Fortescue Bay to Eaglehawk Neck 30/04/2004 - Eaglehawk Neck to Hobart, Targa 01/05/2004 - Hobart R&R, Salamanca Markets 02/05/2004 - Tiger Trails Tarkine Hike - Day 1 - to Wombat Flat 03/05/2004 - Tiger Trails Tarkine Hike - Day 2 - to Mt. Ramsay 04/05/2004 - Tiger Trails Tarkine Hike - Day 3 - Mt. Ramsay to Huskisson River 05/05/2004 - Tiger Trails Tarkine Hike - Day 4 - Camped at Huskisson River 06/05/2004 - Tiger Trails Tarkine Hike - Day 5 - Across the Huskisson 07/05/2004 - Tiger Trails Tarkine Hike - Day 6 - Out, then to Strahan 08/05/2004 - R&R in Strahan 09/05/2004 - Dissapointing Gordon River Cruise 10/05/2004 - Strahan, R&R, Preparation for Overland Track 11/05/2004 - Strahan to Lake St. Clair 12/05/2004 - Overland Track - Day 1 - Lake St. Clair to Pine Valley Hut 13/05/2004 - Overland Track - Day 2 - the Labyrinth and Acropolis 14/05/2004 - Overland Track - Day 3 - Pine Valley Hut to Kia-Ora Hut 15/05/2004 - Overland Track - Day 4 - Kia-Ora Hut to Mt. Ossa to Pelion Hut 16/05/2004 - Overland Track - Day 5 - Pelion Hut to Windermere Hut 17/05/2004 - Overland Track - Day 6 - Windamere Hut to Cradle Mountain Village 18/05/2004 - Sick!, Cradle Mountain to Launceston 19/05/2004 - Recovery 1 20/05/2004 - Recovery 2 - Doctor, and Cataract Gorge 21/05/2004 - Recovery 3 22/05/2004 - Recovery 4 23/05/2004 - Recovery 5 24/05/2004 - Launceston to Bicheno 25/05/2004 - Freycinet Hike - Day 1 - the Hazards to Cooks Beach 26/05/2004 - Freycinet Hike - Day 2 - back to Bicheno 27/05/2004 - Exploring Bicheno 28/05/2004 - Bicheno to Launceston 29/05/2004 - Exploring Further in Launcestion 30/05/2004 - Cataract Gorge 2 31/05/2004 - Launceston to Liffey Falls to Deloraine 01/06/2004 - Trowunna, Devils Gullet, Walls of Jerusalem National Park 02/06/2004 - Walls of Jerusalem Hike - Day 1 03/06/2004 - Walls of Jerusalem - Day 2 - Out, then to Hobart 04/06/2004 - Mt. Field NP, Styx Valley & on to Triabunna 05/06/2004 - Maria Island - Day 1 06/06/2004 - Maria Island - Day 2 07/06/2004 - R&R in Launceston 08/06/2004 - Flying Back Home

Tasmania Diary

 

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Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Sydney to Hobart to Mt. Field NP

I got up really early (4:40am) and quickly got ready. The taxi I'd booked arrived at 5am and took me to the airport. After finding the correct terminal (T2 not T1 as I discovered), I checked in and got a snack whilst I waited for boarding.

The flight was uneventful with only brief views of the royal national park, and some forested hills in Tasmania.
Hobart "International" Airport is rather funny because of its small size. It has no jetways just mobile stairs for disembarking.

I caught a shuttle bus to the city centre, then went to the information centre, where I learned about the nearest supermarkets and camping shops. I shopped for fuel, a little more food, maps of the western arthurs, film, a diary, beer and some other stuff.
I had some nachos for lunch, then found the bus terminal. I spent the afternoon till the 4:00pm bus sitting in the park in front of parliament house, and by the harbour, relaxing in the sunshine which was much warmer than Sydney had been with it's rain!
I was also looking at and dreaming about the Aurora Australis, and going to Antarctica.
Hobart seems to have a large number of historic buildings, and is pretty nice.

The bus ride to Mount Field National Park was uneventful, only one other guy was on the bus. The Derwent valley seemed very dry, with pastures in the valley and forest on the hills either side. Mount Field was where the pastures ended, and the mountains and continuous forest began.
Jennifer was at the National Park office where I was dropped off by the bus. After setting up camp, Jennifer's friend Gaye turned up. She was due tomorrow, but wanted to get out of Hobart, so she drove out to Mount Field. The plan was that we would all do a hike in the Western Arthurs together.
It was quite cold at Mount Field in the evening.

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Wednesday, April 07, 2004

Tarn Shelf, then into the Southwest

After striking camp, all three of us and all our gear piled into Gaye's hatchback. I had to nurse my pack between my knees as there was no other space.
We drove up the dirt road to the top of the mountains where there was a pretty lake with some ski lodges.

We took a walking trail up onto the alpine area where the low cloud obscured any views. Dropping slightly to the "Tarn Shelf", we came across a day shelter hut, the ski rope tow, and several beautiful tarns. There were views to a couple of small lakes far below, but not off into the distance. The water in the tarns was amazingly clear.

After returning to the car via the same route, we drove back to the visitors centre through the tall lush forest. Driving southwest, we stopped at Maydeena as the car was making some strange noises which seemed to be due to the suspension being very low. We continued on to Lake Pedder, and the Huon River camp ground. The campsite was quite damp, but pretty. We had a campfire, and were talking to a guy who had just completed the South Coast and Port Davey tracks and said the last 5 days were all mud.

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Thursday, April 08, 2004

Western Arthurs Hike - Day 1 - Up Alpha Moraine

After packing everything for the hike, we drove down to the start of the track, only a few hundred metres from the campsite. We took a couple of group photos, signed the walkers register, then started the walk.
We were planning to hike as far into the Western Arthurs as we could and to make it a loop if possible.

For the first hour, the track was good, going first through forest, then out onto button grass plains. We saw a wallaby very close to the start. After this good section, came two hours of slogging through thick mud which sometimes came above my knees.
I didn't bother trying to go around it, I just waded through, as it doesn’t damage the vegetation, and is faster anyway. It is quite slippery however, meaning that practically every step results in nearly falling in some sections.



After the 2 hours, we came to Junction creek where walkers are required to scrub their boots to prevent spreading Phytophthora (A root rot disease). This seemed pretty pointless, since the mud started again straight away.
After another hour and a half, with great views of the mountains, we came to the base of Alpha Moraine, having traversed much more mud and button grass. (Alpha Moraine, also known as Moraine A is just a spur coming off the end of the Western Arthurs mountain range)
We thought the mud would end as we ascended the moraine –

It didn’t.

Somehow the water stayed on the steep side of the mountain, and turned the track to mud. It was extremely slippery, and we were continually having our feet slip down and out from under us.
I was about three quarters of the way up, and feeling pretty tired due to lack of fitness when both my feet slipped out from under me on a slippery muddy rock, and I came crashing down onto my hands, however as I came down, my left eye caught a bush. I immediately thought I'd lose sight in my eye, as it was very painful, but on opening it, I could still see properly, and found that much of the pain was from several cuts around my eye, but also from a stinging of the eye itself.
After a few minutes, I felt I could go on, or at least made myself go on, as we were running out of daylight, and needed to find the campsite.

At the top of the climb, the weather closed in, with a freezing wind and enveloping cloud. I was extremely tired, and having trouble making my legs work properly. Walking along the alpine ridge, Jennifer was getting ahead a bit, we stopped and discussed finding a camp before Lake Cygnus, where we intended to go. Jennifer wanted to go on, as did I, but the light was fading fast. Sook after, Jennifer got out of sight in front of Gaye and myself, and we stopped, and decided we really had to make camp as we couldn’t see the path properly, and were liable to get lost. We yelled to Jennifer, but to no avail.

We made camp on some rocky ground in an exposed saddle, hoping Jennifer was OK, but at the same time cursing that she had gone ahead and split us up.
There was no water on the saddle, so I gave Gaye the little I had, and cooked my ready to eat soup, which required no water.
Even on the alpine tops of the mountains, the mud continued unabated, only the plants in it changed.

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Friday, April 09, 2004

Western Arthurs Hike - Day 2 - Lake Cygnus

(Good Friday)
The morning brought little change to the weather, still enveloping cloud, and cold wind, with a light rain.
As we were packing up camp, we heard a person calling, and called back. After several minutes, we saw a man approaching, although we had been expecting to see Jennifer. He was going out, and said Jennifer was at Lake Cygnus, 20 minutes away.

We started along the track again and soon came to a steep descent into Lake Cygnus.
The lake is surrounded by towering grey crags. It has a tent site hardened against the alpine bog with rubber matting and gravel, and two other wooden platforms. It has a "toilet" consisting of a big container with a lid on top which can be flown out when full.
We all quickly decided to spend the day at Lake Cygnus due to the poor weather, and so spent most of the day in our tents reading, sleeping or eating while the wind and rain continued outside.
There was a brief period when the sky cleared, and we climbed the mountain behind Lake Cygnus to see the views.

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Saturday, April 10, 2004

Western Arthurs Hike - Day 3 - Lake Oberon & Square Lake

We awoke to good weather and no wind and quickly agreed we should go for Lake Oberon today. We tried to wait for the sun to reach our tents before leaving to dry them, but a solitary cloud thwarted us by hiding the sun. the views of lake Cygnus and to the northeast and southwest were awesome as we climbed out from the lake. There were clouds in both directions in the distance, but none overhead.
The track became very rough after leaving lake Cygnus, and often muddy again. We traversed the range through a series of peaks and saddles, with one of the descents being down a steep scree slope. The views of jagged mountains were amazing.

After about two and a half hours, we arrived at Square Lake. It is very impressive, since it has dark cliffs surrounding it on three sides, some of which drop straight into the water.
The sun came out while we were eating lunch by the shore of Square Lake, so we laid our wet tents and gear on the rocks and plants, and managed to dry everything before the sun disappeared behind the clouds again.



The climb from Square Lake toward Lake Oberon was steep and slow, but had good views of Square Lake. When we reached the saddle between the two lakes, the views were breathtaking. Lake Oberon is a very beautiful lake flanked by jagged mountains on all sides. It is quite large compared to the other lakes, and has a small extra lake on its outlet. There were lots of Pandani in the valley.
The descent down into Lake Oberon was very very steep, at times more like rock climbing than walking, but felt reasonably safe when done slowly. Soon we were on the valley floor, and found all the flat land was actually bog, and generally covered by a few centimetres of water. For this reason, the four campsites are wooden platforms. We chose one (they are all about 5m x 3m) and managed to fit all three tents onto it.

After dinner we had an unusual visitor, - a Spotted-Tail Quoll (Dasyurus maculatus maculatus) – it had a beautiful pattern of white spots on its body and tail. It appeared twice, and the second time, it poked its head under the fly of my tent, into the vestibule, then stuck its head into one of my plastic bags. I got to briefly touch its fur as I shooed it out. I was a bit worried that it would return in the night and go for our food, but it didn't.

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