A week of fine autumn weather in April (we thought) would be ideal to take a peek at a couple of Tasmania’s ‘beauty’ spots – so off we went, flying into Launceston (for $57 from Melbourne with a rental car at $25 a day!)
2-3 hours later (after lunch at Deloraine and driving the more scenic route via Mole Creek etc) we were at the Discovery Holiday Park (excellent) at Cradle Mountain which (BTW) has a store selling hiking essentials (food, gas bottles etc) to be greeted by a couple of eager locals.
At home ours are much darker, black almost. However we have them fenced out of our farmland (See Vermin-Proof Fencing) as we view them as a worse pest than rabbits – their holes are much bigger for a start. You can tip your tractor in them. They are cute though, I guess.
We had time for a quick look at Dove Lake in the afternoon which put on a spectacular rainbow just for us.
Inside the boat shed.
Next day we decided to walk the ‘Crater Lake Circuit’ which took us a leisurely 3 1/2 hours including stops for photographs, lunch etc. There are shuttle buses every ten minutes – it’s busy.
Of course we took the obligatory Overland Track (beginning) photos at Ronnie Creek.
Lots of the area had (obviously) been cleared for cattle grazing (logging etc) in the past but has now been abandoned to innumerable wombats and pademelons and declared (saved) ‘National Park’ – as seems to be happening everywhere instead of sensible management.
Most of the forest you see (everywhere) is pretty ordinary secondary regrowth but the conservationists love it! There are patches of original (primary) forest though, eg along the top end of Lake St Clair which are exceptional and not to be missed. Huge pines and gums probably nearly 1,000 years old & etc.
Much of the Overland Track (probably over half) is boardwalks now – which is a nuisance if you want to use yourpoles – especially those fancy new ‘cross-hatched’ones. You can easily be blown off them (if you have a heavy pack) by strong winds along the spine of the mountain. 6-8 days though, much of it cold and exposed…and lots of people. 3,000 being bussed in to Dove Lake daily and over 8,000 through-hikers a year a year. Not for me. I prefer to enjoy ‘the solitude’ on my own.
The Tasmanians have gone very big on tourist development of their natural resources though. For contrast the Victorian High Country comprises a larger area of similar (often better) wilderness you have to discover on your own. Somehow I find this preferable even if it entails much ‘bush bashing’ and finding your own way/place to camp etc.
Bizarre trees grow along the Ronnie Creek.
But an odd splash of colour too.
And here is another – currawongs and parrots like them.
The track then sidles along through (cleared) snowgum ridges.
Then climbs a pretty creek through some interesting old beech trees.
Then along an attractive mossy gully with some small waterfalls.
Soon you begin to encounter the ‘Fagus” one of Australia’s few deciduous trees which was showing us a lovely display of its autumn colour.
Finally (after maybe an hour) we came to the (other) boathouse at the end of Crater lake. You had to get your feet wet to get inside, so we didn’t. Sissies.
A view back towards that boathouse.
And closer up.
Looking away from the boathouse up the lake.
The weather decided it would show us a display of winter (in early April) about then – as you can see.
Up we went through the pines and fagus past some wonderful mosses and lichens.
On the tops it was quite suddenly really cold. I walk and camp all the time in the winter, yet this is only the second time (in a long life) I have ever put gloves on!
About this time I was just about persuading Della that next summer we could do the whole Overland Track. After she started to freeze (on a ‘warm’ early April day) it became harder to persuade her! Me too!
As you can see we had raincoats and pants on from the start. We encountered lots of ‘idiots’ (some only in shirtsleeves) wearing only cotton – and with no raingear at all. They must have been very, very cold by the end of the day – if they survived!
Looking down towards Lake Lilla and Dove Lake (right).
Every now and then the clouds and rain parted, but not often. A forbidding landscape.
And example of the ubiquitous and eponymous – two interesting words for your edification – ‘Button Grass’ showing maybe why it is so called.
A ‘delightful’ viewing seat over Dove Lake – too cold and wet for Della to even walk out and look!
Past the ‘incorrectly signposted’ Wombat Poo(l).
Past Lake Lilla
Up over the ridge (through black wattle) to Dove Lake again.
Finally we were back at the Discovery Park (after a splendid dinner at Pepper’s restaurant) to be greeted by these little guys (pademelon wallabies) – you can see why they were (also) called ‘rat kangaroos’ . Used to be zillions of them on the mainland when I was a kid in the 50s before the myxomatosis epidemic (and foxes?) eliminated them. Have scarcely seen a single one of them (or quolls and bandicoots) since. Tassie’s roads are littered with them. Poor little guys.
Next day we were off again through the beech tunnels to Queenstown on the West Coast.
Probably the section we walked to the Wombat Pool turn-off is about a quarter of the first day of the Overland track and about half the day’s distance by the time you have walked back again – so hopefully it gives you a small ‘taste’ of some of the beauties you might see along that famous track – and assures you that you probably could walk it, if we can. Next post will be about the last day on the track.
‘Conservation’ is a strange thing, isn’t it? As you drive up to Cradle Mountain you pass through thousands of acres of a barren blighted landscape with innumerable snow-gums clear-felled and lying higgeldy-piggeldy to create poor quality cattle grazing (now fenced off to prevent tourists camping) which has never even been developed by the introduction of fertiliser or better quality pasture so that what you see is stunted heath and tussock barely able to sustain a handful of wombats. This landscape continues into the park which thousands visit every day! Having been a farmer all my life I actually find this wantonness quite awful.
In Vic’s high country (eg above Licola) the creation and management of ‘National Parks’ has resulted in thousands of acres of fire-killed snow-gums as far as the eye can see which when they next burn will create a similar barren landscape to that on the approach to Cradle Mountain ie blighted heath and tussock (due to the huge fuel load of dead timber whose combustion will next time kill the snow-gum roots).
In Victoria (with the ban on native forest logging) we have just ceased a better management model which has helped to preserve our wild beauty for close to 200 years. It is likely that we will all be locked out of it soon (except no doubt for some similar to Tas tourist development) as has happened during the last 40 years along the (now impenetrable) Baw Baw Plateau which I can see in the distance out my window every morning and which I used to hunt with hounds when I was a young man – so little time ago!
Even today a walk along the Baw Baw Plateau (so much more accessible than Tas really) holds as many (indeed to my mind more) beauty than Cradle Mountain – and without the crowds (we scarcely see anyone there).
Indeed the entire Upper Yarra Track (parts of which eg the Yarra Falls) used to be the No 1 tourist destination in Vic before they build the Yarra Dam, which use to run from Warburton to Walhalla (and still does – though I have extended the instructions so you can walk it from Lilydale to Moe or vice versa and catch public transport at either end) is much more beautiful and altogether a more rewarding experience than these tracks in Tasmania from what I have seen.
Some of my posts about it:
Upper Yarra Track Instructions
Mushroom Rocks to St Phillack Saddle
PS: I have decided to turn off comments to this post because of the numbers of outright greenies just wanting to argue the toss. This blog is not a debating society. Go to Reddit if you want to do that. I just present my own views and the reasons for them – and hopefully lots of helpful advice. I admit lovers of the ‘wonderful’ (and quite useless to man and beast) ‘button grass plains’ & etc will not like it any more than I like such landscapes. Cheers, Steve.
See Also:
Tasmania’s Overland Track Last Day
