BushwalkBushwalk
Southern Ranges and
Du Cane RangeMichal Brzozowski
Even before coming to Australia for our 18 month stay, we knew Tasmania was our primary travel goal. Being passionate hikers, we were attracted by the promise of remote peaks and dense forests. We came up with an ambitious plan of a full Arthurs Range traverse, but due to bushfires had to change it at the last minute. We settled on a lesser-known track, the Southern Ranges Circuit, and later the Du Cane Range in the central part of the island.
A scrubby route going to Ooze LakeLesley van Almkerk
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Day 1 - Hobart to Moonlight RidgeWe landed in Hobart on the morning of the 6 April, and met our hiking partner Lesley, whom we found on the Bushwalk.com forum. We dropped off half of our food at a hostel and caught a bus to Dover, from where we hitchhiked further south. Thanks to a couple of lucky rides we still had a few hours of daylight left when we reached the start of the walk.
The path started off relatively easy and flat, but after a few kilometres it began climbing up the Moonlight Ridge. We passed through a beautiful forest, full of very tall gum trees. We managed to reach a height of about 700 metres and camped at a nice sheltered spot just before the track crossed the tree line. As the weather turned very rainy and windy in the evening we were happy to find this spot.
Day 2 – Moonlight Ridge to Ooze LakeThe track kept climbing up the ridge, but we were now mostly above the tree line, and had some nice views to the south. We tried to keep our shoes dry by jumping over mud and puddles, but it was a losing battle. They quickly got soaked, and didn't dry until the end of the hike. We crossed a small, burnt forest before reaching the top of the ridge. The wind there picked up and started throwing us around, thanks to our backpacks working as sails.
We crossed Moonlight Ridge (1036 metres), observing clouds moving quickly over distant ranges and dropping walls of rain. This caused some anxiety, and we debated camping early next to the Reservoir Lakes. We didn't want to be caught in heavy rain and wind on a long, open ridge. We decided to keep going, crossing Maxwell Ridge without trouble and descended to Ooze Lake. The track was in dense scrub, which protected us from the weather, but slowing us down, and giving everyone a few bruises.
Ooze Lake disappointed us with a very windy camping spot. We pitched our tent with a lot of trouble, and ended up with a bent pole. Lesley crawled into his bivy bag at first, but came out after a while to also pitch his tent. We spent the night trying to sleep despite snow bashing loudly on our tent walls.
Day 3 – Ooze Lake to an unnamed saddleThe sun came out in the morning and lifted our spirits. A layer of fresh snow made the mountains very beautiful. We packed slowly and climbed towards Pindars Peak (1230 metres). The weather turned bad again, and we were now miserable in the wind and falling snow. We passed below Pindars Peak in the clouds, after which the official track seemed to end. We followed a very faint, unofficial path into dense scrub. Our packs kept getting stuck in the branches, and we
On Moonlight RidgeJanka Konarska
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often had to get on our knees. We were very slow. Luckily, the faint track never really disappeared and didn't branch, so navigation was easy - we just had to push through. After spending most of the day in the scrub, we camped on a swampy, open area between two hills.
Day 4 – An unnamed saddle to below PBWe climbed through the scrub again, and soon reached a more open area below Mount Wylly. From here we saw the sunny coast in the south, and the scary-looking Precipitous Bluff (PB) (1145 metres) in the west, partly hidden in clouds. Both lie in our path.
In the afternoon we reached a sharp ridge where a bit of climbing and rock hopping was required. Tired by the rocks, we descended slowly towards the last camp spot before the climb up Precipitous Bluff. We thought about camping at the top, but we weren't sure about the difficulty of the climb, and decided it's better to do it in the morning on fresh legs.
It kept raining, our gear was getting more and more wet, and we were cold. Janka slept with all her warm clothes on, trying to dry them for the next day. I boiled a bottle of hot water for her to put in her sleeping bag to warm her up a bit.
Day 5 – Below PB to the South Coast TrackAt this point we were nervous, because we were behind schedule. We didn't expect we'd be this slow in the scrub. We left camp at 7 am, and started the climb right away. It was a bit technical in a few spots, but we dealt with it easily and arrived at the top of the climb within an hour and a half.
To our disappointment, due to being surrounded by a cloud we could see nothing. There wasn't much to do other than continue down immediately. We were anxious about the descent, as it is reported to be quite hard. The track dropped a bit and then traversed left under the vertical walls of PB. We were amazed by the tall, magnificent columns of dolerite. The clouds created a very mysterious atmosphere and this was probably our favourite moment of the hike.
After about an hour the track went straight down steeply into dense forest towards New River Lagoon. It was marked only by ribbons tied to branches, and we got lost a few times in the scrub, which wore us down. After about five hours from the summit we reached New River Lagoon.
Precipitous Bluff in its glory seen from New River LagoonJanka Konarska
“... this was probably our favourite moment of the hike.
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The track ended here, and we were supposed to follow the coast of the lagoon for seven kilometres, while walking about knee-deep in water. We had a gpx track from someone else's trip, which implies this part takes about four hours, but we quickly realised that the party must have used packrafts, as we were much slower. To make things worse, there were several river outlets that we had to cross by going inland, and find a fallen log to walk over. This made us lose an extra two hours, and we arrived at the campsite exhausted at 10 pm, after seven hours of wading. The whole day took us 15 hours of hiking with few breaks. There is no fresh water at the campsite, so Lesley fetched some from the nearest river, which took him another hour.
Day 6 - South Coast Track to South Cape Rivulet We were now on the South Coast Track, which is much more popular, and well maintained. We started walking east, and in the beginning it was very easy, at least compared to the day before! Parts of the track followed beautiful beaches, and we stopped for an hour to bathe and relax a bit. The weather turned clear, and we had great views all around. We could see Precipitous Bluff in all its glory, and Federation Peak far in the north.
We left the last 10 kilometres of today's stretch for the afternoon, and to our dismay this part of the track was very muddy, eroded, and full of roots. Some kilometres took as long as 40 minutes. We arrived at the campsite at 10 pm again, even more exhausted, and with minor injuries. While crossing a stream just before the camp, Lesley took a wrong step, and fell in. At least it cleaned the mud off him!
Day 7 – South Cape Rivulet to HobartThere was little distance left to cover today, but we left early to make sure we didn't have a hard time hitchhiking back to Hobart. The track was now well-defined all the way to the end at Cockle Creek, including long sections of boardwalks. We quickly swallowed the remaining kilometres, pulled off the last few leeches from our legs, and caught a lift to Hobart. Our driver took us directly to our hostel! Time for some sweet recovery time.
Days 8 and 9 – Hobart to Pine ValleyWe stayed two nights in Hobart to heal a bit from fatigue and injuries. Our further plan assumed hitchhiking to Lake St. Clair, which is the official end of the popular Overland
Descent from Precipitous Bluff to New River LagoonMichal Brzozowski
“We arrived at the campsite at 10 pm again, even more exhausted, and with minor injuries.
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Track. There didn't seem to be any public transport going there, so we hired an Uber to a small town out of Hobart, and tried to hitchhike from there. We stood by the road for a few long hours, until a friendly Swiss couple in a tiny car took us directly to Lake St. Clair. We were lucky to arrive just in time to catch the ferry across the lake, after which we had an easy hike to Pine Valley Hut, where we spent the night with a group of very loud school kids.
Day 10 – Pine Valley to The LabyrinthA well maintained track climbs from Pine Valley up to a large plateau called The Labyrinth. We did a few side trips here and summitted Mount Parthenon (1260 metres) and Walled Mountain (1431 metres). The day was warm and sunny, the views were amazing, and we finally felt like we were on a holiday, and not in some kind of survival reality show. We finished the day at a beautiful spot near the Pool of Memories, and watched the full moon rise from behind Mount Geryon. The night was extremely windy, but our tents were well sheltered.
Day 11- Geryon day trip, Pine ValleyThe forecast was very bad for the evening and night, so we did a quick summit push to Mount Geryon (1509 metres). The mountain consists of three sharp peaks, two of which we understood are accessible only to rock climbers. Geryon North gets summitted by hikers, but it's quite a scramble. We reached a minor peak to the north of Geryon North, and judged the remaining bit as too hard for us. Lesley was determined to keep going, but incoming rain cooled his enthusiasm. To us it didn't matter much anyway, as we were happy with the views. We could spot Mount Ossa (1617 metres) to the north, the highest peak in Tasmania, and Frenchmans Cap (1446 metres) to the south.
Back at the Pool of Memories we met a gentleman with a big, old-school medium format camera. He was also there last night, taking pictures of the moon behind Mount Geryon. We packed our things and backtracked through The Labyrinth to Pine Valley. Our legs were completely spent by now, and we suffered on the steep descent.
Wading in New River Lagoon in the darkMichal Brzozowski
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It's going to take a couple of weeks for injuries to heal back at home before we can enjoy physical activities again.
We were very happy to have a lazy afternoon in the hut. At night, when very heavy rain came, we were glad to have a roof over our heads.
Day 12 – Pine Valley to HobartA small surprise awaited us on the easy track back to Lake St. Clair: the boardwalks were flooded! A week ago we wouldn't even blink an eye, but today we were expecting an easy walk back, and were unhappy to get our shoes wet again. We were lucky to get into the fully booked ferry across the lake, and were soon able to treat ourselves to a good meal and beer at the restaurant. The remaining challenge for today was finding a lift back to Hobart. We spent a few hours asking people leaving the car park, and were finally picked up by a Polish couple and again taken straight to our hostel.
We spent our remaining time in Hobart by visiting the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, where we admired such beauties as the Tasmanian Devil and the quoll, and even hand fed some kangaroos! We strongly recommend visiting this place if you're around!
Michal is a software engineer developing indie video games, also interested in programming language design, and cryptocurrencies. In his free time he enjoys running, and spending his holidays on extreme adventures with Janka.
Janka is a scientist visiting Melbourne to research how trees and climate affect each other, and how we can be smarter about planting trees to let them cool us better. She loves dogs, travelling, practising karate, and playing video games.
Lesley is a competitive distance runner, mountaineer, and general sports junkie from the Netherlands. He is currently working and travelling around Australia, keeping an eye out for long-distance hikes that he could crush in record-breaking time.
On Mount GeryonJanka Konarska
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