MacKenzie - WoJ

[nickthetasmaniac]

Some shots from a recent four-day, off-track solo walk from Lake MacKenzie to Walls of J. The rough route was: Blue Peaks - Turrana Bluff (night 1) - Long Tarns - Daisy Lakes/Lake Nutting - Zion Gate - Dixons Kingdom (night 2) - Soloman's Throne/King Davids Peak - WDC (night 3, with sunset from the little summit to the north of Herods Gate) - out

Fantastic trip generally. Found a great campsite amongst the pines by a little tarn near the top of Turrana Bluff (about 1380m) and it was also my first time in the Long Tarns - Zion Gate area, which looked pretty amazing in the mist!

Shot with a GH2, Lumix G 7-14, Nokton 25/f0.95 and SMC M50/f1.4.


Cathedral, Ossa and Pelion West in the distance.




West from Herods Gate.




Clumber Bluff


Turrana Bluff


Dixons Kingdom Hut


Mt Jerusalem


West Wall and King Davids Peak




Blue Peaks from night 1 campsite.


Dead pine on the Plateau

[Phil]

Beautiful photos Nick from a most beautiful area!

[shazcol]

Great shot inside Dixons Kingdom Hut, it works really well in mono with the contrasting outside light streaming through.

[DaveNoble]

Nice images!

Dave

[Graham51]

Fantastic photos. A ramble across the plateau gives plenty of opportunities and energy for photography. Thanks for sharing.

[Nuts]

Nice collection of pics, thanks , imagined it would be easy walking (a Stroll)

[nickthetasmaniac]

Nice collection of pics, thanks , imagined it would be easy walking (a Stroll)

Yeah, from Lake MacKenzie to Long Tarns it's very open and easy walking (very much a stroll ). Long Tarns to Zion Gate is a bit more difficult though - lots of scrub, scoparia and intertwined tarns, which make for frustrating navigating (I have a feeling that there's tracks through a lot of this area, if you know where they are...)

[Nuts]

I have an old map but even on that the track peters out at the tarns, apparently no fish to the south of there? I was trying to get an 'easy' walk organised through to WofJ so that's not the best news. Nice pics just the same.

[DaveNoble]

I've walked that way a fair bit over the years and never had a problem with scrub - even navigating in wet misty weather. All the scrubby areas can be walked around if you take the time to find an easy path. I have gone right and left to get around the Daisy Lakes (from Long Tarns to WoJ direction) - and both ways are good. I've only gone left around Lake Tyre - and that is open to the lake - then pick up clear leads around the lake a short bit then down to the open lower flats that lead up to the WoJ.

I have sometimes seen cairns on the left side - and followed them for a bit - but it is not worth it. They offer no advantage - too much time is spent looking out for the next cairn, and its just as easy to find your own route (and i think more scenic - as you can follow a skyline with great views of the Daisy Lakes. Great country and lots of nice campsites on the way.

Dave

[flyfisher]

Walked through there a few years back and there was a definite pad to the SE of Long Tarns, a little towards Lake Butters.

Interesting is Nutting's cross which is right alongside this pad. Fantastic country out there.

FF

[Nuts]

..

[eggs]

Lovely photos of a great area.

Long Tarns is a big target for describing a walking track.
We crossed it right near its north end and then headed over the ridge and down to North Daisy Lake.
I think the SE track starts way down the other end of the Long Tarns.

It was all pretty good open walking until we headed from North Daisy Lake directly towards Lake Tyre via the valley to the south west.
This valley is lined with multiple moraines running across the valley - making it a lot of steep and rocky up and down and generally scrubby.
By the sounds of it - Dave followed the higher ridge to the east and avoided this.
Then, having gained the heights north of Lake Tyre we encountered a very thick section as we sidled down and across to the east side of Lake Tyre.
I noted in our report that we may have had an easier path if we had proceeded to skirt around South Daisy Lake and then Lake Nutting, but it sounds from Dave's comments like the high ground of the ridge is a good way to go.

[nickthetasmaniac]

Long Tarns is a big target for describing a walking track.
We crossed it right near its north end and then headed over the ridge and down to North Daisy Lake.
I think the SE track starts way down the other end of the Long Tarns.

It was all pretty good open walking until we headed from North Daisy Lake directly towards Lake Tyre via the valley to the south west.
This valley is lined with multiple moraines running across the valley - making it a lot of steep and rocky up and down and generally scrubby.
By the sounds of it - Dave followed the higher ridge to the east and avoided this.
Then, having gained the heights north of Lake Tyre we encountered a very thick section as we sidled down and across to the east side of Lake Tyre.
I noted in our report that we may have had an easier path if we had proceeded to skirt around South Daisy Lake and then Lake Nutting, but it sounds from Dave's comments like the high ground of the ridge is a good way to go.

I went around the northern end of Long Tarns and then followed the track about half way along, before crossing Scoparia Ridge (or is it Richea Ridge?) to the west - then made my way between South Daisy and Nutting, following Nutting towards the south and then heading SW to Zion Gate.

There were solid pads around Long Tarns, Lake Nutting and from Zion Gate up around the East Wall towards Dixons Kingdom, but I wasn't overly bothered about following them so I'm not sure where they start or finish

[eggs]

OK
- so we crossed to the top of North Daisy from the top of Long Tarns and found a pretty clean line, while you were further down.
I can see from my photos that further down could have been a lot thicker with Scoparia.
scrubmaster had warned me that for this walk gaiters were a must because of the smaller but thick scoparia.
It is interesting though that the scrub that I did find troublesome wasn't scoparia - but more tangles of various bushes with lots of twigs to stick into you.
On reflection though - it wasn't all that bad, just a bit annoying and hot at the time.

[flyfisher]

Nutting's cross, near Long tarns, alongside what I think is Ritters track.

[nickthetasmaniac]

Nutting's cross, near Long tarns, alongside what I think is Ritters track.

Interesting, I never saw that... Who was the bloke?

[flyfisher]

Hi ntt, the bloke who died there was William Nutting after who Lake Nutting is named. He was a hunter and apparently died from cold and exposure.The cross isn't at Lake nutting but is a k or 2 further to the south east. I was out there with my brother in law a few years back on a walking-fishing trip when we found it. It was placed there by Reg Dixon (of Dixons kingdom) and Simon Cubit some years back.
We were walking a marked track which we took to be Ritters track due to the depth of the pad.
We were walking roughly ne and when we came to the top of the scarp falling away between long tarns and lake Butters, it was easily seen for a long way, heading north.We didn't keep following it as our interest lay elsewhere.
We had fished in the lake Gwendy area a few years earlier and seen widely spaced moss covered cairns on big rocks heading to the Long tarns-Butters area.

ff

[nickthetasmaniac]

Thanks FF! It's definitely an area I'd like to explore more

[Mickeymoo]

Nice set of photos Nick.

[nickthetasmaniac]

If anyone's interested, I've started a bit of a walking/photography blog and have a full report written up about this walk
http://peopleandotherstrangecreatures.w ... jerusalem/

Goes without saying that this is just personal reflections and not a walking guide... Go find a map and compass if planning to do it yourself

[DirkJ]

Nic your pictures are stunning. Thanks

[cams]

Gorgeous photos. Thanks for posting.