Mt Murchison, Lake Dove and a long drive around Tasmania

After meeting up at the university at 6:30pm on Friday the 25th of November, five of us squeezed into my little car to head up to Lake Mackintosh, eager for the walk up Mt Murchison the following day. The five were a mixed bunch. Myself and Nick from Hobart, Judith from Spain, Aye from Myanmar, and Simon from New Zealand. We would meet Alex, the crazy Uruguayan tomorrow morning.
We set off up the winding roads towards Queenstown, the sunset quite amazing as we were driving around Tarraleah. As we approached the hill descent at Gormanston the fog closed in. I could barely see 5 metres in front, so driving was very slow and cautious down here. We eventually arrived at Lake Mackintosh at around 10pm. The ground was quite hard, but we found a site that we could camp on. The mosquitoes were in full force, but they were rarely biting, just attracted to the light of our torches. We headed off to bed, and awoke to a bit of drizzle. It had rained most of the night, but we were all dry inside the tents.

The weather cleared a little and we headed into the Tullah general store to meet Alex who was coming down from Burnie. We had some breakfast and coffee, and we introduced Simon to kiss biscuits here. It was shortly after 9pm and we were off to the start of the Mt Murchison track. We signed in at the logbook at about 9:45. The sign said the walk was 5 hours return.

We set off up through the rainforest on the wide track. It was quite slippery in here, but it wasn't muddy. There was much conversation throughout as we had all only just met. Alex was very hard to keep quiet, especially around Judith! The forest ended and we were walking up a scrubby open ridge, still on excellent track. This was where I turned around on my first attempt. It started to drizzle again, but it was quite warm, and walking conditions were almost perfect. We had some good view early on heading up this ridge. It was an eerie feeling, walking up around these jagged and twisted rocks, shrouded in mist. It reminded me of something from Middle-Earth. The first major hurdle that we found was a small rock scramble. It was steep and slippery, so we made sure that everyone was up there safely before we continued on. As we got higher, the walk flattened out, and we were walking past small groves of pandani and pineapple grasses, as well as some early flowering Richea Scoparia. The summit was feeling close, yet we could not see it. As we continued up and around a large buttress, we stumbled upon another party of 5 who had started some half an hour before us. They had taken the wrong route and were looking for the track to the summit. Alex wasted no time in introducing himself, such was his character. We headed up the track, and with a bit of route finding, we were on the right path. There were several false leads up near the top. I started to get summit fever, so I dashed off in front of the group, eager to reach the summit first. I ascended a flat-walled buttress and I could see the trig station. From here there was no looking back. I waited on the summit for about 5 minutes before Simon, Nick and Alex arrived. The girls were following behind the other group of walkers. We had a short stop on top, with no views, and decided it was best to head back down as it was getting cold. It had taken us 90 minutes to reach the summit. The other group left before us, and we expected they would reach the bottom first. We ambled along, making good time back down. The track seemed much muddier on the way down. Judith and Alex were giving out Spanish lessons on the way back, and then by means of shouting, some playful flirting between Nick and Alex began, with Nick shouting out that he is guapo (good looking). We were just about to enter the forest and we looked back and could see the other group following further up the hill behind us. We couldn't figure out how they were behind us, as we hadn't passed them on the way down. They must have taken one of the false leads and fallen behind. Nick and I arrived back at the car before anyone else, but we were all out within 3 hours. The sign is very generous. We certainly weren't moving quickly and still completed the walk in under 3 hours.

After Mt Murchison we dropped into Rosebery for fuel and to have lunch, before heading down to Montezuma Falls for a quick walk. The walk in is completely flat and follows an old tramway. There are remnants of some of the bridges and there are railway sleepers on the ground in places. Near to the falls we had a peek in an old mining tunnel, where we saw some Tasmanian cave spiders. The tunnel now has a boardwalk into it, but stops after about 20 metres. I don't remember it being there 15 years ago when I first visited. Five minutes later we were at the falls. There was quite a lot of water pumping due to the amount of rain we had that day. We took some photos from the newly built suspension bridge, and stopped at the rest point at the base of the falls and then headed back to the car.

Montezuma Falls

Montezuma Falls suspension bridge

We decided that night that we would search for a better campsite, one with some shelter preferably since it was raining. I decided that we wold head up to Fossey River, which is a drivers rest area. It had toilets, a lunch shelter and an information centre, as well as soft grassy ground. It was close to the Cradle Mountain turn off which suited us as we would be going there tomorrow. We set up, some of sleeping in the information centre, some in tents. We got the gear out to cook dinner, brought out the Eski, and brought out the guitars and conga drums. We drank and sang for hours, various covers being played. It was a good night, and the rain eventually eased up. All this time there were drivers dropping in and out of the site. We were all in bed by 12:30am, ready for a big drive in the morning.

The following morning we arose to head to Cradle Mountain for a short day walk before heading off home. A few of the group had not been to Cradle before, so it seemed like a good idea to go there while we were in the area. As we drove in to the national park, the mist was thick and our hopes of a nice day were diminishing, but to our surprise, most of the iconic mountain was in view when we arrived at the Dove Lake car park. The sun had begun to shine through the clouds and it was looking like we might have a pleasant day.
We set off around Dove Lake, and after 20 minutes we hit the junction of the Mt Campbell track. The track up Mt Campbell is well marked, and climbs steeply through bands of Nothofagus gunni. After 45 minutes we were all sitting atop of the large plateau summit of Mt Campbell. We had very little visibility up the top, so we did not linger on the top, as it was also quite cold. After picking up the track again, we head on up and over Hansons Peak, and dropped down past the Twisted Lakes to have lunch at the rangers hut at the Lake Rodway track junction. We found ourselves enjoying the company of a very friendly forest raven who was intent on playing games. After lunch Simon and I decided to tackle the Little Horn. Nick had given us information on the track that leads to the summit. The rest of the group continued down the Lake Wilks track to join up to the Dove Lake track again to head back to the car. It took less than 10 minutes from the hut and we had reached the cairn that indicated the start of the Little Horn track. The track was steep, and very slippery, but we pushed on anyway. It took us no more than 20 minutes and we were on the top. We had some interesting views up here. Although we couldn't see the full bulk of Cradle Mountain, the mist surrounding Weindorfers Tower had an eerie feeling to it, and the green valley that leads to Lake Rodway looked inviting. We could see the rest of the group having a rest at Lake Wilks, in fact they spotted us first and started to yell at us. In return we mooned them, and proceeded to head back to the track, determined to catch them before the car park.

Lake Wilks

Lake Dove from Little Horn

Looking towards the Cradle Plateau

Mt Emmett and Lake Rodway

Looking east from Little Horn

Hanson's Lake 

Looking at Cradle Mountain

Weindorfer's Tower

We descended down to Lake Wilks using the chains that are in place. It was still quite slippery despite the well used track being in place. We spent a bit of time admiring the old trees in the forest, and the tangled nature of the Ballroom Forest. The old myrtles and sassafras were simply beautiful. We caught the rest of the group not far past the boat shed, and we walked on in to the car park together.

The rest of the day would be spent in the car, heading back to Hobart, via a compulsory coffee stop at Elizabeth Town. We had just completed over 800km, and travelled around the entire state in only 2.5 days, as well as climbing a few mountains. We had a great time despite the weather not being ideal. The places we visited are certainly ones I will happily revisit in the future.