north-north-west wrote:Depressing to see the state of the pools up on Eldon Bluff, but.
It was, there wasn't a lick of moisture up there... we were definitely looking by that stage of the afternoon. Very, very warm.
We had no plans to camp up high on the plateau, thankfully, but originally wanted to set up base on the Dome Hill ridgeline to avoid going up and down through the scrub from Lake Ewart multiple times. We ended up just staying at Lake Ewart as we had a less-than-great line coming down off the SE plateau/ridge - and didn't have the energy for another scrubby climb that day - but it would have been for nought anyway as all the shallow pools there were completely dry too.
That said, we had 1.5 days of consistent drizzle literally the day after and that probably filled most of the shallow pools. The South Eldon 'River' was completely dry on the way in, nine days later it was flowing. No issues with the Murchison on the way out to Tramontane... that actually was the coolest, freshest water we'd had in a week.
I think we just had unfortunate timing, with 2-3 very dry weeks leading up to our trip. Like the past two mid-January trips, the weather literally bounced between dry heat and rain on a near-daily basis, just the lead up and the first few days that were consistently hot and dry. Spending a lot of time walking up high on ridgelines obviously exacerbates the issue.
north-north-west wrote:I take it you took the low approach to Tramontane, from the Sthh Eldon saddle? I still have to check out that route.
Yes, basically what's now in the new editions of The Abels. By Eldons standards, it was a doddle. Honestly was the most delightful day out of the whole trip.
crollsurf wrote:So many good photos, but maybe they come easy. Tasmania is epic.
I think I managed around 1300 'keepers' out of maybe 3000 photos. Not difficult finding subjects to shoot out that way