Tasmania, the hidden jewel of Australia 2010/08/01-15 day14-15 end of trip

We drove to somewhere near Devonport and tried to a campsite or a creek to camp anywhere. In the end, we found one.

Woke up very early because we were supposed to be at the ferry terminal at 7.30am to queue in the car loading section. Got a bit of breakfast. Luckily we managed to find our way without much fuss to the ferry terminal with a map.

Somehow even though we boarded early, the ferry didn’t depart until like 9am???

Guessed what? This is a 9-11hrs ferry ride!!! It’s my maiden longest ferry voyage!!! LOL. Well, luckily i’m not boarding it alone, lol.

From the time i boarded the ferry, i have been exploring the ship as you will see with the pics below.


How much is it for an hour internet usage?? lol…


I’m on board the ship called Spirit of Tasmania. We only bought the day ride ticket, with no seat allocation, no cabins for zzzz, no ocean recliners on the ship deck. Still, there are ways around it, people sleep on the benches…etc.

Tasmania, the hidden jewel of Australia 2010/08/01-15 day 13

We woke up as soon as the first day light hits.

Guessed who’s the unexpected guest that came and visit us last night? It’s a fat possum, lol. Someone mentioned it in the log book and we were aware of its presence as soon as we heard scratching noise over the roof, and it will come into the hut through the opening on top of the door which is apparently big enough for a fat possum to squeeze and came in to steal food and poo, lol.

We had fun playing with the possum, we even saw its head peeping through the opening. Alex even waited for the possum to peep through the opening again with a wooden baseball bat, lol. Though in the end, we didn’t hit it, but we managed to kinda scare it away up onto the pine tree next to the hut. To be cautious, we blocked the opening with a piece of wood which is what you saw on the upper left pic :)


The hut still under shade as the sun rises…

 
Dixon’s kingdom in clear skies…yeah!!! Click to view enlarge photo!!!

Tasmania, the hidden jewel of Australia 2010/08/01-15 day12

The next morning, we had a better day with a bit of sun light.


The trapper’s hut and the creek next to the hut.


Today’s aim was to get to Dixon’s kingdom!!! SOund somewhat fantasy right??!! That’s how the different features in this small national park are named!!! When i first saw all these names while reading on the net, it make me anticipate and looking forward to it so much because i like fantasy stuff!!! LOL. The walk/hike wasn’t really hard all the way, it’s kinda undulating but the weather wasn’t great and it’s pretty wet from the rain yesterday.

Tasmania, the hidden jewel of Australia 2010/08/01-15 day 11

The next morning, we headed for our final destination of this Tasie trip – Walls of Jerusalem National park. Walls of Jerusalem is another World heritage area of Tasmania linked with the greater world heritage area. This national park is a small one compared to the others, but full of of backcountry unspoilt alpine wilderness. Tell you what??!!! I LOVE THIS PLACE SO MUCH!!!! You’ll see why when you read on!!!

It was a bit of a drive to the car park of the national park, and it was raining, LOL. There’s no car there other than ours. And there’s a sign there saying park at your own risk, LOL. Alex was cursing why put that sign up?? Now he don’t feel so at ease of leaving his car there. Apparently, because this car park is not guarded and so isolated, hence there’s been a few car break in that occurred here.

Nonetheless, despite the weather and the sign, LOL, we are GOING IN!!!! Yeah!!!


The first bit of walking wasn’t so bad, it’s pretty flat.


Alex registering the group at the information and registration shelter.

Tasmania, the hidden jewel of Australia 2010/08/01-15 day 10

Today we left the beautiful Lake.St Clair National park for a 3 hours ish ride back to Cradle mountain National park to retrieve Alex’s frozen car, lol. As there’s no transport available during this season, we have to arrange our own charter and it cost all AUD$400-500??!! for the 3 of us for that ride. Can’t complain even though it’s a lot, it’s the only way of getting out and around, other charters or taxi offer higher or similiar price.

It’s good for us especially Alex since he can have 3 hours of rest and worried not bout driving.

Above is the backpacker lodge we stayed the night and lake st.clair jetty on the right hand side picture.

It’s a calm morning…as we left.


Rolling mountains along the ride


The Frenchman cap!!! Can you see it?? it’s the white pointed sharp peak in the middle. The driver said it might not be snow but the way the rock already is. The Frenchman cap was named so because of the way the peak looks like a frenchman cap when they saw it. The route up and a circuit takes 3 days??? and it’s pretty hard.

Tasmania, the hidden jewel of Australia 2010/08/01-15 day 9

Guessed what??!! My backpack was invaded by mice last night!!!! they chewed a hole on my wraps, surprisingly they only eaten a hole and not finished up the whole packet, haha. Alex said he heard
some noises but both Jono and I heard nothing, haha. I woke up the next morning to find that there’s
a hole in the wrap!!! LOL.

Again i made the early morning walk to Narcissus bay for photo shooting. It’s a relatively short walk from the hut. The jetty at Narcissus bay is the 1st ferry point for transfer from overland track to Lake St.Clair park headquarter which is what normally people do by ending their overland track at this point and take the ferry. Otherwise one can also catch the ferry at a 2nd point at echo point but that’s further down.

No idea who did this, lol.


Mount olympus with the 7 apostles on the left hand side of the mountain!!!

Tasmania, the hidden jewel of Australia 2010/08/01-15 Day 8

Left the big big modern hut for nature again, our aim was Pine Valley hut, a long side track that is not frequent by people a lot. Worse still, the heater there was being removed for repair during this time, lol. We were having a hard time deciding to go there or not. However, it sounds like a magical land according to Alex’s description who have been there and hike the Labyrinth, a place with stunning view of many big and small lakes. Hence, we all decided we got to get to pine valley!!!


About 5kms from Bert nichols hut, is the turn off to the pine valley track.

It takes approximately 4 hrs return trip to the pine valley hut from the overland track at least that’s what the brochure/map said. Haha, can’t remembered how long it took us, but we were on high speed…=.= because we knew there’s weather coming in and we wanted to aim for the Acropolis (1471m) after reaching Pine Valley hut.

The upper right pic was Mt.Gould (1491m).


The track passed through several streams, suspension bridges and some parts were well-build with boardwalks. Lots of moss all the way. The forest we walked through was really just like walking through a magical virgin temperate rainforest, SO PRETTY!!!! Every corner was a surprise especially when the sunlight cut through the trees.

Tasmania, the hidden jewel of Australia 2011/08/01-15 day 7

 
Another day passed, another nice cosy hut, another cold morning…


The view of Du Cane ranges near Kia Ora hut.


One last and only group snap shot with Chun-Hui, the taiwanese girl before we left Kia Ora hut. From here onwards, we will not likely to meet again as she was going straight down to Narcissus hut to catch the ferry the next day, so she pushed for 19km instead of 10km to Bert nichols hut where as we will stay a night at Bert Nichols hut. Nonetheless, she only had to endure the 1st 10km, because the remaining 9km is gradually downhill and flat.

Tasmania, the hidden jewel of Australia 2011/08/01-15 day 6

Sunrise over Mt.Oakleigh, Barn Bluff & Cradle mountain in the far distance!!! Click for enlarge photo!!! I wished i can stay there longer…sigh


Zoom shot of sunrise over Barn bluff (1559m) & Cradle mountain (1545m).


The right pic above depicts a comic easy to understand teaching people on minimal impact bushwalking while you are sitting or peeing in the toilet which is a good way to get people’s attention because most people will need to go the loo somehow. SO what is minimal impact bushwalking, hmm…trying to remembere: register your walk, bring in and out your own rubbish, keep to the track, don’t erect cairns or blaze trees, use a campsite (not camping anywhere), don’t cut live vegetation, respect other’s privacy to zzz, never feed the wild here, avoid gastro and never loo in the nearby stream which people used for drinking/cooking (dig a hole15cm deep, lol), do not wash your stuff/dishes in the nearby stream too, no open fire, keep group size small.

 
Well, the time doesn’t stop, and it’s always time to go. The moss in this forest is damn amazing as depicted in the upper left pic, unfortunately, i don’t have much time to stop and shoot many of these photos due to the lack of light.

Tasmania, the hidden jewel of Australia 2011/08/01-15 day 5

It’s a WONDERFUL DAY!!! You can guessed why by looking at the picture above, haha!!!!

Although my mobile phone alarm did pissed Alex off a bit early morning with the black eyed peas – I gotta feeling’, LOL. The alarm went off non-stop even though i have turn the power off inside my backpack until the battery went dead, LOL I didn’t hear it meant i have a pretty good sleep last night, haha.


But otherwise it’s a WONDERFUL MORNING to wake up!!! My god, i was SO EXCITED again when i viewed out of the window, it’s SNOW!!! LOL!!! And this time there’s quite a bit of it that fell last night. I quickly went out for a walk in the slippery melting snow, but it was AWESOME to see the pure white scene!!!



Obviously the swamp hen has been working hard around the hut for its breakfast, haha. I was so excited that i went back into the hut and wrote “Merry Xmas” on the window!!! I felt like celebrating a white xmas!!!

Tasmania, the hidden jewel of Australia 2011/08/01-15 day 4

Didn’t slept well at all for the 1st night, though i tried to zzzz early. We all woke up by 6-7am. Alex was always the 1st one to get up and make hot water for all of us, which i kinda slowly emulated. It’s a good habit after all. Had our hot drink and breakfast, we tried to get ourselves all ready by 8-9am.


My 1st impression of the hut was, IT’s really GOOD!!! love it!!! i reckoned this one can sleep about 20-30 people if squeeze!!! Luckily we had the hut to ourselves and the girl who we finally got to know, a pretty girl from Taiwan!!! Anyway, as you saw in the pics above, the hut was pretty clean, and we have our socks hanging on top of the heater to dry.

On the other hand, I guessed it’s very boring at night, either you are very tired, went to bed earlier, or you stay up to chat, mingle around, and some people became creative to write things on the board or paste them on the wooden wall, lol. There really not much you can do at night in the hut, that’s hiking, lol.

Tasmania, the hidden jewel of Australia 2011/08/01-15 day 3

The drive to our exciting 6 day hike!!! A 100-ish km (including side trips) hike of rugged mountains, alpine gardens, waterfalls, temperate rainforests, lakes & tarns, and unique wildlife!!!!

Picked up Jono from Launceston town, and straight we head down to Cradle mountain national park.

Frozen morning dews…


halfway, Mole creek town…


Finally we reached the cradle mountain national park, got to get ourselves the tasmania national park pass, read whether there’s any new notice regarding the trail etc.