Bushwalk Australia

There's been some very strong winds yesterday and today. Did anyone go walking over the weekend? Did your tents survive?

Took the kids to Dove Lake yesterday. Walked as far as the boat shed and yep, it was cold, wet, snowing (horizontally)and did I mention windy?! I reckon anyone on Cradle Cirque would have been blown to Launnie

This morning my four year old daughter asked why we had to drive so far to have a picnic, and next time we should just have a bbq on the deck.

Saturday morning I did D'Arcys Bluff near laughing Jack lagoon with a mate (off track); quite nice through the forest & up the hill but got buffeted by the winds at the summit - we were going to continue on to Wentworth Hills (about 6-7 k's return from D'Arcys) but bailed after the snow got deep, wet & cold & the wind was pushing through strong. We diverted to Cynthia Bay for hot drinks & went to Bradys Sugarloaf on the way home (about 2 hours return to the true summit, at pace, through the scrub from the tower at the south end).

Sunday morning I went for a very early solo mission (walking by 7:30) to Snowy North near Maydena; again nice up through the forest but once I hit the plateau I felt the need to make haste for the summit as the Northerly front was starting to blow in & looking & feeling very ominous - I have a morbid fear of white out conditions after a solo mission on Picton went horribly wrong earlier in the year (thats another story). I basically ran from the trail head to the summit & back relishing the safety of the descent back into the forest. A quick 2.25 hours return from the car. The pay-off was great views from the summit as the squalls had passed (sometimes you gotta have a crack, even if the weather looks daunting) - particularly impressive was the Jubilee Range to the west which I had done only a couple of weeks ago (a pretty hard off track walk) - one of the largest expanses of alpine moorland you will see in Tassie.

A fun 3 peak weekend.

stubowling wrote:The Jubilee Range from Snowy North (Anne Range in cloud behind) - taken with my phone, apologies for poor quality

Actually looks pretty good to me for a camera phone. Nice shot.

No tents but I took TasTrekker junior number 3 fishing early Sunday morning. We managed to pick a 2 hour gap in showers for our walk to a pleasantly sheltered streamside reserve. After drowning some worms and seeing one platypus and zero fish, we then returned home when the hot chocolate ran out.

Well, great walk across the Mt Wellington plateau, but no camping. Fierce winds, so that the wind actually overcame the friction of my boots on the gravel in the carpark when I got to the pinnacle. I was balanced against the wind, but I could feel my feet moving across the surface. It was alright (although unsettling at times) until I got to the carpark, and I think the open space allowed the full strength of the wind to hit me, without the friction of the boulders and scrub reducing the windspeed at ground level. Checking the BoM website, it hit 111 km/hr as I was walking across the plateau, and I know I've been up there when their equipment measured 128km/hr. Great to watch, but more difficult to walk in. Would be a sod to put up a tent in....

hahaha
yes i did go trekking, got to blackwood camp and it pissculated down, i think i need to go over my seams of my macpac minaret as it leaked a bit of water
the leven river rose a whole foot overnight, just to give you an idea of how much i copped. mad fun though
glad everyone else survived though
would do it all over again if i had the chance
cheers!