Tasmanian Wilderness Hiker - Day 3

Monday 13 January 2014

We had an early start today. Breaksfast at 7:00 and on the bus at 8:00am.

We had a long drive to the start of our walk which was the Tarn Shelf in the Mt Fields National Park. After passing the Vsitors Centre we took a winding, dirt road up to the carpark at Lake Dobson which was the starting point of the walk.

Today the air was much clearer than it had been on the previous two days. The ranges were easier to make out and the sky was a glorious blue. The days was warm, too, with the temperature registering 30+.

Right from the start we were surrounded by a miriade of alpine flora. Much of this was in flower as was the case with the plants at the higher levels of Mt Wellington.

One of the more interesting plants ... check out its curls!

Lakes dotted the landscape. Some big others small. The smaller lakes are actually termed tarns and it was to view a whole series of tarns that was the objective of todays walk.

 

The landcape had been formed/modified by glacial activity during the last ice age. Scoring on many of the rocks was a testament to this.

Scoring on the rocks caused by glacial action

The track varied. Early on we had a rocky path supplemented with a boardwalk before we headed up a zigzag road. This section was a bit of a slog. After leaving the road we the track conditions varied from more boardwalks, flatish sections and rock hopping. There was certainly quite a bit of the latter.

The track was sometimes rocky

The boardwalks had been placed over wet or marshy sections of the track. While there were many spots where water remained in pools, both big and small, there was also evidence of the dryness of the area this summer as sections were dry, black mud.

The boardwalks have been added to protect the fragile ecosystem and to make these lovely places accessible

The walk had vistas across rock strewn peaks which dominated the landscape as well as the lakes and tarns.

We lunched beside a tarn. I did check the water temperature and it was a little cool. So much for the suggestion that we might like to take a dip. No-one did!

Trevor lunching beside a tarn

Our lunching tarn. note the greenish tinge to the water in the middle left of the picture

The colour of the water varied from a glorious blue to tea coloured. Quite often there were patches of green coloured water near the edge of the larger tarns. I found some tadpoles in one of the small pools.

We returned to the carpark by the same route, more or less, as picking a route across the boulder strewn areas was more an art than a science.

Leaving the Lake Dobson carpark we headed down towards the Mt Fields Visitors Centre. We encountered a number of other vechicles on the road as we descended. It provided an interesting challenge for the drivers as they sought to pass each other on the narrow road with steep drop offs and no barriers.

Once clear of Mt Field National Park we headed for New Norfolk where we were staying for the night.

Once again the many flowering plants were a delight to see. Here is a photo of the Tasmanian Waratah.