Lake Ada gate open? & advice re walking time

[Osik]

Afternoon All

My dad is flying into Launceston this Thursday night and out Sunday evening at 6pm. Currently tossing up Ben Lomond/Walls/Freycinet for a 2 night, 3 day walk. My dad's 57 & reasonably fit but o/n walks are few and far between for him. I'll be a pack mule, & I think he'll be ok with 6 - 8 hours walking a day at an average speed (especially because none of the proposed walks are particularly steep).

Firstly wanted to check if the gate into Lake Ada/Ada Lagoon is open at the moment?

Secondly, would be helpful if I could get some time estimates for the walking into Walls from the east as I've either started late, hammered it out or taken scenic detours when I've walked in from that end of the park. If we head to the Walls, we'd start walking early Friday morning & go via Lake Fanny and the the line of tarns to the Nth of the Great Pine Tier. Return either via via Pine River or Powena Creek.

Is it reasonable to think that we could walk most/all the way into Dixon's Kingdom/Jaffa Vale on the Friday or is that a bit ambitious? We'd probably need to aim to get back to the car around lunchtime on Sunday just to be safe.

If we go into Ben Lomond, we'd start at the ski village and probably camp 1 - 2 nights at Lake Youl.

Any advice from those who don't walk as fast as they may have once (or never did like walking fast!) would be very helpful.

[devoswitch]

I'm not sure of the answers to any of your questions sorry.
I am however eagerly awaiting the responses as I have 4-5 days at the start of December and would love to spend some time in the walls area as I've never seen it.
I believe there's no access in there at the moment though?

[Geevesy]

We did a pretty similar walk a couple of years ago and we took three days to do it also - camping at Lake Fanny and then in the Bernes Valley at Solveig. The middle day we went the same route through to Dixon's, then down to Lake Ball and along the valley.

It was a party of four and we were fairly leisurely, but it was actually a pretty long three days. If you wanted to be back at the car at lunch time on Sunday I would be camping at Silver Lake (which looked really nice at the Eastern end) or Antimony.

Could have a long day at the start into Dixons, then a few hours in the Walls before heading to Silver, and then be out by lunch on Sunday.

Can't comment on the road I'm sorry.

[Osik]

Thanks Geevesy, that's very helpful. Good to have confirmation that it should be fairly doable even at a leisurely pace.

I've done the same walk a couple of years ago however I made the cardinal mistake of not checking with Parks (& I was fairly new to walking in Tassie) so found the gate at Augustus locked and had to do a big road bash in on the first day before camping at Fanny. 2nd day headed up and climbed a few of the peaks/visited pool of bethesda etc before dropping down and camping at Sonja on the 2nd night and then walked out on the 3rd morning before again enduring the the road bash on the way out.

I'll give Parks a call tomorrow or Thursday to see if the gate's open. Reading the recent trip report, it looks likely to be closed but will post my findings.

Cheers

[rsawyer]

Spoke to a mate tonight who was up there at the weekend - the gate at Lake Augusta is shut and wouldn't surprise if it stays that way for a while yet - very wet up there.

[pazzar]

Check out this thread - viewtopic.php?f=42&t=24278

I am hopefully going up there on Monday. I will be calling the Mole Creek office to find out the gate situation tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes.

[Osik]

Thanks guys. I saw the trip report which made me think it might be dubious. Let us know if you get the inside word from Parks Pazzar

[pazzar]

The situation as it stands is that the road is still closed. Parks will be checking again this weekend, but as there is more rain forecast, it is not looking promising. As soon as the gate is opened, it will be reported here: http://www.ifs.tas.gov.au , and likely on the Parks and Wildlife Website and local newspapers. It is roughly an extra 11km walk to Lake Ada, but you run the risk of getting stuck if the lake spills again while you are in there.

[Osik]

Thanks Pazzar. Much appreciated. Will give the Walls a miss this time. Having done the road bash once already in each direction I have no intention of doing it again!