A warm wander through the Southern Reserve

A long time between drinks, but alas, here is another trip report. This time, from my latest adventure. Between the 1st and 4th of January 2013, the forecast finally in my favour, I decided to traverse Mt Byron, Cuvier and Manfred, a walk I had been hoping to do since visiting Mt Olympus at this same time last year.

Mt Manfred and The Guardians

Mt Gould and the Du Cane Range

I set off from Hobart on New Years Day at around 4:15pm, having worked the day, and would have otherwise needed hangover recovery time. My plan was to walk in to Echo Point hut for the night. I arrived at Lake St Clair at 7:20pm after stopping to get a few extra supplies on the way. It was a very tiring drive, but once I was there, I was eager to get moving. It was trying to drizzle on the way up, and a light mist persisted around the lake. I set off after signing in at 7:30pm and started to walk. The daylight was still reasonable at this stage. Having walked the lake shore several times, I was keen to get to the hut quickly before the track bored me. As I moved along, it was getting increasingly dark, especially as I entered into the thicker forest sections. I was determined to keep my head torch in the pack though. I kept on moving, and a few glimpses of a purple haze over Mt Ida made for a pleasant view. Knowing I was close, I kept walking, arriving at the hut at 9:20pm, just a sliver of daylight left.I walked into the hut to find a family inside, quite content not to make space for me, so I went outside and set up my tent.I slept very well that night, a light drizzle helped me get to sleep easily. I knew the next day was not incredibly long, so I hoped for a little sleep in.

Mt Olympus and Lake Petrarch from Mt Byron

Maybe I slept too well? I was awoken by the ferry arriving with a group of tourists, many children, and a tour guide telling them about myrtles. Maybe she should have warned about potential hobo's that often hang around the hut too? It was a little after 9:30am when they arrived. I rushed to get up and pack up my gear. I was back on the track at around 10am. Knowing that it takes around an hour to get to the Byron Gap turn off, I moved quickly down the track. Had I been up earlier, I could have hitched a ride on the boat and saved 40 minutes of walking, but it wasn't to be. I reached the turn off after about an hour and stopped for a quick snack. I had walked down the track from Byron Gap, and remember it taking about an hour, but it definitely seemed like longer on the way up. There was more water around than last time, which was a good sign, as we opted out last summer due to a concern for the amount of water available. I reached the point just past the top of the gap, where an indistinct pad leads off towards Mt Byron. I was under the impression that this was a reasonably well followed route and I was expecting a few tapes here and there, but after 2 minutes I had lost the pad, and I was wandering up hill through open rainforest, littered with pandani's. I made very good time up through the forest, and eventually I made it to the final boulder climb to the summit. I was able to pick up a line of cairns up to the top, at least it confirmed that I had vaguely come the 'right' way. I stopped for lunch on top, the views a little cloudy, but it was warm, and certainly not unpleasant. It was around 1:30pm. I made a phone call to book a place on the Friday afternoon ferry while I was there, walking out around the lake wasn't in my plans, despite the cost of the ferry.

Mt Cuvier and Manfred from Mt Byron

After having  my lunch, I set off down the most obvious lead through the boulders, and followed for as long as I could to avoid diving into the trees too early. I wanted to minimise the amount of tangle I had to walk through. I quickly hit the trees, but I found it very open, and after a matter of minutes, I was on the scoparia covered flats on the connecting ridge to Mt Cuvier. The scoparia only covered around the rims of the forest, and it petered out into pleasant alpine scrub. The walking became very easy here, although it was getting very warm, and there was a shortage of water in the saddle. I followed the ridge until the scrub began to thicken around the final ascent to Cuvier Shelf. In this ascent, a series of small cliff lines had to be negotiated. Around the cliffs was a mixture of dwarf myrtle, pandani, scoparia, and bauera. As long as I was going up, I was happy though. After 45 minutes of bashing through, I reached the shelf. I immediately found reliable water, which was my main concern about visiting the area. I wandered around the shelf, looking for the campsite that took my fancy. I eventually found one in a small recess in the cliffs, with two running streams cascading over the cliff lines, making for an amazing setting. From my tent door, I had a beautiful view of Mt Byron. The campsite was perfect, apart from the plethora of ants swarming everywhere I went. The ants possessed a nice little bite as well. It was 4:15pm when I arrived at camp.

Mt Byron from my camp

One of the waterfalls at my camp

The surrounds of the Cuvier Shelf camp

Sun beading on the slopes of Mt Cuvier

After setting everything up, I decided to go for a quick run up Mt Cuvier. The sky was now cloud free, and it was a pleasant temperature. From my camp, I was able to follow a pad, whether it were an animal pad, or the commonly walked route, I do not know, but it lead up the open ridge to the boulders just below the summit. The summit itself is not overly rocky, but a nice covering of alpine species, interspersed among dolerite boulders. I took a few snaps, planned my route down to Mt Manfred, and also had a look at the best plan of attack for the following day to Gould's Sugarloaf.

I wandered back to camp and lay down, some light reading, followed by a good nights sleep.

Open walking up to Gould's Sugarloaf

The next morning, Thursday, I woke up at around 8am and got my day pack ready for a quick trip out to Gould's Sugarloaf, and then a potential camp change closer to Mt Manfred. By 9am I was ready to leave. I headed out towards the ridge leading to Coal Hill. After a little bit of searching, I found a point where I could drop off the shelf, into an open flat, that lead to the main ridge. On the other side of the ridge is some more pleasant camping around a series of tarns, just to the east of Coal Hill. The slopes of Coal Hill were covered in dwarf myrtle and scoparia. It took about half an hour to reach the summit from the tarns. From the summit, it was simple open ridge top walking all the way to Little Sugarloaf. It is quite a long way out to here, it took me around an hour from Coal Hill. The ridge was dotted with pools of water, and some shady respite. The sun was out in potent force. As I approached the top of Little Sugarloaf, the wind picked up, and was very hard to stand up top. Gould's Sugarloaf is a further kilometre southwest along the ridge, but again it was very open. I reached the top in 20 minutes. The view to the Eldon Range, and the Cradle reserve were quite amazing. Frenchmans Cap appeared very close too. I could see as far as Barn Bluff and Cradle Mountain in the north, Mt Murchison in the west, Diamond Peak towards the south, and out over the Derwent Valley and Central Plateau in the east.

High Dome and Tramontane

Mt Byron and Olympus from Gould's Sugarloaf

Eldon Range, Mt Murchison in background

View from Gould's Sugarloaf

I had a quick lunch break on top before heading back the same way to Cuvier Shelf. Again I had scrub issues on Coal Hill, but once negotiated I made good time. It even tried to rain on the ascent back to the shelf. The trip took 6 hours, and was mostly open and pleasant walking. I decided to rest up instead of moving camp, opting for an early start, rather than exhaust myself today. I curled up in bed, reading some Jack London adventure stories before nodding off to sleep.

Beautiful sunrise over Mt Byron

Having previously checked the forecast for Friday at Lake St Clair, I decided I definitely needed an early start. It was forecast to hit 32 degrees. I was up at 5am to pack up camp and get moving. By 6am I was off on the slopes of Mt Cuvier. I could see the open connecting ridge, but before then, I had to descend through forest. This didn't seem overly appealing, but once in the forest, it was rather open and easy walking. By 7am I had hit the flats in the saddle. I desperately searched for water, but I found only a tiny trickle in a small stream. I later saw from a further height, a small tarn on the edge of the saddle. I had heard that the ascent up Mt Manfred was quite difficult around the cliff lines, so I went in all guns blazing, ready to tackle whatever it could throw at me. I found it rather easy going, bashing through myrtle and scoparia to the base of each cliff, where it was inevitable be open, and then sidle underneath until I could climb them. I made quick work of the cliffs, but it was getting hot already, and water was my priority. Knowing there was a decent sized tarns on the slopes of the mountain, I headed straight for it. I had my fill and proceeded to a point where I could begin to ascend the main bouldered ridge of Mt Manfred. I dropped my pack and headed to the summit. Making quick time, I had a big break on top, having morning tea. It was 9:30am.

I headed back to my pack, with the knowledge that I had 6 hours to make it to Narcissus for the ferry. This seemed a simple enough equation in my head, but boy how wrong I was! The next 3.5 hours were the hardest walking I have ever done, maybe not so much in a technical sense, but the conditions were very challenging.

Frenchmans Cap

I headed to the Manfred saddle, where I doubled back to sidle underneath the cliff line, and head down to the main ridge heading towards Lake St Clair. I encountered a tangly band of myrtle, just before I dropped right down a cliff. The scrub didn't let up, and I was parched. I wandered along a little further, before finding the next cliff. It was about 20m to the bottom. I managed to zig and zag my way down almost to the bottom, but a final band had my stuck. The heat was beginning to play with my mind, and my decision making was certainly becoming flawed. I decided the best way down was to hang onto a series of branches and free fall the remaining 8 or 9 metres. About half way down, I had run out of branches, and I decided that this was a bad idea, but there was no way out of it. Luckily the base of the cliff was covered in pineapple grass, so I fell the remaining metres to a soft landing. I pushed out of the remaining myrtle and pandani to what I thought was the last obstacle before bashing down to the Lake Marion track. The long open ridge was very dry, and exposed to extreme heat. There was no breeze to speak of. I wandered along until a point where I thought it was suitable to drop off. I wandered off towards the forest, only to be stopped by the mother of all cliffs. It was easily 30 metres to the bottom.

Mt Gould, The Guardians, and Lake Marion

There was no easy way down. I figured the best thing to do was to follow it along the length of the ridge, it had to run out eventually. By this point, my brain had turned to mush. I was getting dizzy, and passing out on occasion, and seriously contemplating calling up the search and rescue team. My mind told me that the helicopter would be used for fighting the bushfires though, so rescue was unlikely anyway. I kept wandering, and after what seemed like hours, I found a way down the cliff. The forest underneath was beautiful and comparatively cool. It was open and very easy to walk in. I had quite a bit of elevation to lose yet though. After half an hour of walking down through the forest, I finally found a creek, where I also found an empty bread bag. I wasn't the only person to have been to this creek. Shortly after I crossed a tributary of Marion Creek, and I ended up on the button grass plains. It was very hot in here, and regular breaks were required. After crossing a few more creeks, I stumbled across the track. To my surprise it was only 1pm. I took off my scrub gloves and moved quickly down the track towards Narcissus, not knowing how far I had to go. I was still exhausted, so regular breaks were needed. By 2pm I was at Nichol's Junction, and feeling much better. A well deserved swim was looking very good. I continued on and arrived at Narcissus at 2:30pm. I was covered head to toe in scrub, and looked a wreck. I stripped down to my shorts and jumped in the river. I tried to explain to the others waiting there where I had been,  but they struggled to understand why I would want to do that. I had trouble even speaking, I was so dry.

While waiting for the ferry, my friend James turned up, having just been up Mt Gould. We caught the ferry back, and I immediately went to get a beer. It was certainly deserved.

The drive home was an adventure in itself. Driving  through Ouse, the full extent of the Lake Repulse fire could be seen, flames racing down the grassy plains towards Lake Meadowbank. It looked like hell itself. The sky was red, smoke pluming high into the sky. A seriously scary looking scene.

This trip would have to be one of the most challenging I have done so far. Like I said before, it was not hard in a technical sense, and the scrub normally wouldn't have bothered me, but the heat in which I walked in changed the game completely. I later learned that it had reached 41.8 in Hobart. God knows how hot it was where I was! The off track nature of this walk means that it should only be attempted by experienced walkers, and I certainly do not promote large groups visiting this fragile alpine environment. Let's keep it beautiful people!

Looking back at Mt Cuvier from Mt Manfred

Happy Walking!

Jared