March ... a little madness at the end of the month

Trevor's mother passed away on 27 February at the advanced age of 95 years. As we had a school carnival at Yass on Friday 28th Trevor did not depart for Queensland until the Saturday. After dropping him at the airport at some ungodly hour for his flight to Brisbane I returned home and then headed off to the gym.

Returning home I decided that it was a pleasant day and, with the recent rain dampening the vegetation and thus reducing the fire risk, I decided to see if the route up to the summit of Black Mountain was open. Heading off through the Botanical Gardens I came across numerous small birds attacking the flowers on the Coreas with gusto. Having noted this activity I continued on my way. As I passed the Red Centre Garden it was obvious that it had sustained some damage in the recent heavy rain.

The Red Centre Garden

Arriving at the boundary fence I was pleased to find the gate unlocked so headed out and up. A little way along the track there was a sign stating that the climb up would take 1 hour 10 minutes and the round trip 1 hour 50 minutes. I'm not sure who did the timing but it didn't take anywhere near that time to make the climb and descend.

The Black Mountain tower visible through the trees on the way up the mountain

A rather grey looking sky behind the tower

Some of the interesting looking trees up on Black Mountain

Once back inside the gardens I came across more of the small birds feasting on the Corea nectar. Try as I may I failed to get a decent photo of these elusive creatures.

During March I made numerous trips up to the top of Mt Taylor. Some of the climbs were in the early evening and I was treated to some lovely sunsets. Then there was the evening, well night really, when I made the climb by moonlight. The moon was very bright and was reflecting enough light that I did not need to use my torch on the way up the Richmond Fellowship Trail. I was surprised when I arrived at the top to find a heap of people there. Some had settled in and were happily consuming beverages while others were wandering around looking at the lights of the city below. As I headed down the Mannheim Street track I encountered more people coming up the mountain in the dark. Some were family groups with relatively young children. I was beginning to think that some sort of convention was happening on top of the mountain. I was also surprised that quite a few people did not seem to be carrying any light. On the way up this is sort of OK but very dangerous going down. When I got down to the Mannheim Street "carpark" I was asked by a young chap which was the quickest way to the top of the mountain and would he be able to see the fireworks from there. The penny finally dropped. There were fireworks scheduled for the night and the crowd on top of Mt Taylor were there to see them. They should have had a good view, too. I didn't bother returning to the top of the mountain though!

Kangaroos grazing just below the summit of Mt Taylor

Looking down over the "horse paddock" which was now green

During March I struggled to get as much walking in as I would have liked. A trip to Queensland for Molly's funeral impacted a couple of days and then there were all the swimming activities: ACT Championships, Brophy and numerous school meets. They all contributed. By the last week of the month there was also a lot of rain. I was well short of my targets. Fortunately the Canberra Walking Festival provided a solution on the last weekend of the month with a marathon walk (42.2km) on the Saturday and a choice of 10km, 20km or 30km on the Sunday. There were other walks on the Saturday as well as the marathon but it was the marathon that I selected. It was possible to register on the day and I duly presented myself in plenty of time to complete the paperwork and commence the walk at 7:30am.

Walkers gathering ahead of the marathon walk

The gray, misty morning ahead of the marathon walk

I'm not sure how many people did the marathon walk but there was a reasonable sized crowd who set off in the the gloom of the misty morning. The first 10km took us through Kingston, Manuka, Forrest, past old and new Parliament House before heading back to the shore of Lake Burley Griffin.

A different view of the Parliament House flagpole

View across Lake Burley Griffin toward Black Mountain

We then did the 32km circuit of the lake before arriving back at our starting point. I was really pleased with how well I managed the 42km. The balls of my feet were a little sore and my left heal was rubbed but otherwise I was in pretty good shape. A bath, a foot rub and an afternoon snooze and an early night did wonders.

On Sunday morning I was up early and headed off to Kingston for my second longish walk of the weekend. This time I was only doing 20km. I had grabbed some hikers wool from Trevor to protect the tender parts of my feet and it worked for the balls which came through the walk in good shape. I did end up with a double blister on my left heal. Bother!

As for the walk, we set out just before 9 o'clock. It was another grey day with mist hanging around. This made for good walking conditions. Crossing Kings Avenue we headed through the carpark and walked along the side of the John Gorton Building. Crossing over to a wide path that runs alongside the rose gardens in front of old Parliament House we were confronted by a lot of traffic ... unusual for a Sunday until we worked out that a classic car event was taking place on the grass area in front of the rose gardens. There were some great looking cars already lined up for inspection and a heap of people already streaming in the area. It made the going a little slower than would otherwise have been the case. We eventually passed the Treasury Building and headed past the side of the National Library before passing under Commonwealth Avenue Bridge.

The rose gardens

Looking towards a mist shrouded Acton from Commonwealth Avenue Bridge

Walkers crossing the bridge across Sullivans Creek in the grounds of ANU

After crossing the lake using the Commonwealth Avenue bridge we headed around the lake as far as the ferry terminal before taking a footbridge across to Acton and the grounds of the Australian National University. Passing through the almost deserted university grounds we headed for the Botanical Gardens.

The pedestrian entrance to the Botanical Gardens

Gosh, it was only a few weeks since my last visit. Our route took us through the gardens, initially along the lower rainforest boardwalk before heading towards the exit gate that I used when walking up to the Black Mountain summit. Today, on exiting the gardens, we headed down rather than up and walked through the Canberra Nature Reserve that surrounds Black Mountain before crossing into the suburb of Turner and then on to O'Connor, Lyneham, Dickson and Hackett. Arriving at the nature reserve that surrounds Mt Ainslie we followed a number of trails in a generally anti-clockwise direction before exiting the park at the back of the War Memorial. Next came Anzac Parade with its memorials lining both side of the road. It was then a short walk along the lake shore, across the lake using the Kings Avenue Bridge and back to our starting point.

On both days I had walked with people for part of the time and their company certainly made the walk go quickly.

At the end of the walks I actually felt pretty good. I had averaged just on 10 minute a km for the 20.2km. Apart from the blistered heal the body had stood up well to the two days of walking.

I was left with one problem. I hadn't done my mountain climb of the week. Taylor didn't count as I had tagged it for one of the earlier weeks in March. So, around 4 o'clock, with rain threatening I headed off to climb one of the local mountains/hills: McQuoids Hill. Apart from the lack of tracks to follow and the rather wet, a result of an afternoon thunderstorm, it was a pleasant walk, blister and all. The hill was populated with numerous huge kangaroos and they kept hopping away from me in the direction I was walking. Silly animals.

In the final weekend I managed to catch up most of my distance shortfall from earlier in the month. The step count was healthy. Only the elevation gain was a little below my monthly target. Pretty good all up considering the disrupted month.

Oh, yes, I have now ticked over the 2 million steps so far this year.

During the month I encountered more of my lizards and the one spotted near the start of the Richmond Fellowship Trail appeared a couple of times. There was abundant bird life in evidence although not many of the small birds except for those spotted in the Botanical Gardens. The kangaroos enjoyed the improved conditions and the fresh young grass appeared to me to their liking.

In many of the places I walk within the ACT I encounter ant nests. There are quite a few along the Mt Taylor circuit. During the winter, when the ants are not too active, walking across the nest is fairly painless. Not so during the warmer weather when you are likely to pick up ants on your shoes. Ant bites generally follow.

An ant nest straddling the path

When the nest straddles the path the best approach is to walk along the edge where the least number of active ants are.

The magpies on top of Mt Taylor are rather cheeky. They probably manage to con food out of people as they certainly thought that I should part with some of the grapes I was munching.

The month had quite a few wet days. Sometimes the rain was confined to the ranges which meant some interesting views.

And then there were the sunsets ...

The cockatoos were everywhere. Often there would be trees covered in white things. On closer inspection they turned out to be cockies.

My stats for March:
Distance: 344.37km; an average of 11.11km per day
Elevation gain: 6157m which was an average of 199m per day, just short of ny 200m per day target
Steps: 705,886 and average of 22,771 per day

February wanders ...and the rain finally came

The early part of the month was hot. The countryside was very dry. The roos started to disappear as surface water became scarce. Horses appeared in the horse paddock just east of the Taylor Nature Reserve and the roos left them to it.

The larger birds were in evidence: magpies, currawongs, crows, koels, cockatoos, peewees, various parrots and galahs. Down at Lake Tuggeranong there was a black swan family, a pelican, a pair of ibis along with the various duck like creatures, terns and swamp hens. Small birds were sometimes in evidence. A colony of thornbills were seen near the Kambah #1 oval while willy wagtails and varigated wrens appeared from time to time.

Swan family on Lake Tuggeranong

In the middle of the month the rain came.On Saturday 15th I managed to get caught in the rain while doing a Mt Taylor walk. It was OK as I was wearing my rain jacket so the top was dry (except for the sweat!) but the bottom half was decidedly damp.

The next day I climbed Mt Ainslie and managed to get my timing spot on. I arrived after a downpour and got back to my car before another one.

From the top of Mt Ainslie with much of the city and ranges obscured by haze

The next couple of days were fine.

On Wednesday mornings I have a PT session and I generally walk the 6kms to the gym and then back. From home to the Tuggeranong Town Centre is fairly flat. The rises and falls depend on the route selected and are really quite small. As I have been aiming at averaging 200m elevation climb per day I need to throw in additional climbing to compliment the flat walk. I had some business to do in Woden so decided to take the bus in to Woden and walk home via Mt Taylor. I failed to check the weather forecast and did not notice dark clouds building up in the sky. I happily went off without a raincoat or umbrella.

The first storm struck while I was in the shopping centre. The sound of the rain pounding on the roof was hard to ignore.

The rain stopped. While there was still grey cloud hovering overhead it did not seem to be that threatening so I began my walk home. By the time I was walking along the path which runs between Chifley and Hindmarsh Drive it started to spit. I was not too concerned. I figured that I could stop at Chifley shops if the rain increased which it did very rapidly. The shops were too far away so I opted to head for the Hindmarsh Drive underpass as it was the closest available shelter. This was fine until the storm water drains started flooding and water began gushing through the underpass. When the water reached ankle deep I decided that it was probably time to leave my "shelter".

As I headed towards the Chifley shops I could not help but admire the lake that had formed across most of the open area which runs up the spine of the suburb. Water was pouring down the path. The storm water drains were not coping with the deluge and I observed at least one manhole cover being bounced up by the surging water. When I got up to the playground and BBQ area adjacent to the Chifley shops there was white water and waterfalls.

Chifley's lake

This is normally a path ... but here a river

 Taking shelter in the supermarket, it was still raining although it had eased off, I grabbed a coffee and some plastic bags. Both were welcome. The coffee to warm me up. The plastic bags to keep the content of my backpack dry.

On leaving Chifley shops I figured that the best route home was to take the sealed path across to the Tuggeranong Parkway, go through the underpass and then use the path on the western side of the Parkway to get back to Kambah.

The theory was fine.

There were quite a few kangaroos in evidence standing around the the meadows that the path passed or meandered through. All of the roos looked rather damp and a bit miserable. I probably look a darn side worse!Most just watched me trudge past.

All went well until I reached the Drakeford Drive underpass. The path into the underpass goes over a storm water drain. No problems here as the water level in the drain was well below the path. There was a build up of water in the underpass though. How deep could it be? When it reached the mid thigh level and I had no idea how much deeper it was going to get before I climbed out I decided to call it quits and go back.

Leaving the underpass I headed up Waldock Street towards the Mt Taylor Nature Reserve. I entered the reserve through a gate a short distance below the carpark. The track took me down to my normally dry creek. Today it was running a treat. After paddling through the ankle deep water I passed more kangaroos. I'm sure they were wondering what the mad human was doing. They simply stood there and watched me drip by.

Water had finally run into the dam. While it could still do with more, at least it was no longer dry.

The dam in the Mt Taylor nature reserve a few days after the downpour

 The walk through the reserve was uneventful.

On leaving the reserve I headed across Colquhoun Street and down to towards the Sulwood Drive underpass. For some reason the drains in this particular underpass get clogged even with light rain. Today they were not only clogged but the underpass had collected quite an amount of water and other debris. At least I had a fair idea of the slopes leading into and out of this underpass and I waded in. Once again, the water level reached mid thigh before the path began to rise and the water level fall. The last half of the passage was through leaves, bark, twigs and other assorted debris.

While I encountered other pools of water on the final couple of kms home the worst was definitely behind me.

All that practice dealing with wet feet in England really came to the fore. The day brought back memories of the wet days we had as we hiked across England last September.

A warm shower, a change of clothes and a cup of tea and I was ready to face the world again.

On Thursday I walked from Cooleman Court home along the Stanhope Highway. The Highway section was pretty much undamaged by the heavy rain. Sections of the track leading up to Cooleman Ridge and through the horse paddock leading of Mt Arawang had had some scouring but was generally in reasonable condition.

On Friday I checked out my Mt Taylor circuit with a climb up the Richmond Fellowship track and down the Manheim one.There was evidence of erosion in places but all in all the tracks and trails had fared pretty well.

On Saturday evening I took Trevor with me to do the short Mt Taylor circuit: from the Manheim St carpark we entered the Mt Taylor reserve and headed in an anti-clockwise direction around the mountain until we reached the Richmond Fellowship track. Up the track to the summit and then down the track leading to Manheim St. All up the circuit is a little short of 4km with about a 194m elevation gain.

On Sunday afternoon Trevor suggested doing the circuit again. We set off shortly before 7pm. As Trevor came up the Richmond Fellowship Track he observed a Wedge Tailed Eagle overhead. It eventually moved on and I saw it hovering near the summit before it darted off. As we were descending the mountain we came across an eagle on a dead tree. It obviously didn't mind observers as a number of people approached the tree and it just sat there. I took a series of photos of the eagle.

 During the month I saw eagles a number of times with a pair observed circling over Mt Arawang, too.

As we came down the Manheim track the sun was setting. There was quite a bit of smoke in the air and this made for interesting light effects.

I keep coming across lizards when I'm out and about. This little chap scooted across the bridge at the bottom of the Richmond Fellowship Track and "hid" behind the post.

All in all, February has been an interesting month with the initial heat and finally some welcome rain.

Stats for the month:

I walked 328.25km, a daily average of 11.72km
The elevation gain was 6575m which equates to 235m per day.
And my steps: 713,947 an average of 25,498 a day.

By the middle of February I had clocked up one million steps so far for the year.

Looking ahead ... and January activities

Having mused about the challenge to set myself for 2014 for a day or so I have tossed up a couple of objectives. Both have an element of fun so I'll do a suck it and see for January before finally deciding if either or both are goers.

In terms of straight walking I thought that a target of an average of 11km per day across the year should be achievable as long as the body doesn't decide to crack up! This includes hike, too.

The other objective is a mountain climbing one. On average to climb at least one mountain a week. To add interest, any one mountain can only feature once in any given calendar month. I've already done Mt Taylor for January. There are so many easily accessible mountains in this area that it should not prove overly challenging. I'll see how I go with this one.

The weather has been quite warm with temperatures edging up into the 30s. It is interesting to note the complete lack of activity of the non humans in the heat of the day. The kangaroos, sensible creatures, generally find a shady spot which picks up any breeze and laze away the hot part of the day. When it is hot you don't see many roos out and about and the horse paddock adjacent to the Mt Taylor reserve has been devoid of hoppy creatures during the heat of the day. Usually the paddock is a haven for roos but not in the heat as there is no shade.

A kangaroo in the shade of a tree

The horse paddock which normally has loads of kangaroos ... not a roo to be seen

The small birds are once again in evidence although they too are generally not out and about in the heat.

We finally got some welcome rain. The brilliant green of the countryside we saw as we flew from Sydney to Canberra on our return from England in mid October had vanished by Christmas and the land was looking very parched when we flew down to Melbourne on our way to Hobart. The January rain has been very patchy but welcome nonetheless.

Walking down to Tuggeranong on the afternoon of 24 January in a drizzle I came across a tortoise. I can't recall the last time I have seen one of these creatures and definitely not locally.

During January, Trevor and I went to Tasmania for a weeks walking and a few days in Hobart. I've detailed the walk day by day in my blog. A significant part of Tasmania is World Heritage listed or in either a national or state park. There are some wonderful pristine wilderness areas and the fight to preserve these is ongoing. There are threats to log areas that have not been attacked on a large scale before and this sort of activity will damage the environment for decades, if not centuries, to come. Some of the trees are hundreds, if not more than a thousand, years old.

Trevor up the top of Mt Wellington

Looking down on Hobart and the Derwent River from the top of Mt Wellington

Boardwalks have been installed in heavily visited areas of the parks to preserve the fragile environment. The Cradle Mountain area, these have significant numbers of visitors each year, have extensive boardwalks which have a twofold purpose: making it easier to walk through the park and ensuring that the impact on the fragile environment is kept to a minimum as most walkers do the right thing and follow the tracks and do not wander hither and zither across the park.

Having done Auswalk's Tasmanian Wilderness Hiker this month I have begun looking at my next hiking challenge. Larapinta looks tempting. It is one of the iconic Australian walks and features in many of the lists of the 10 best walks in the world. World Expeditions classic Larapinta trek looks good.

Having seen a number of snake when I have been out walking, including a large brown on the Stanhope Highway back in October and the tiger snake at Cradle Mountain, I still had not managed to get any photos of one of these wriggly creatures. I intended to get a photo the next time I came across one. On 25 January I was doing a circuit of Mt. Taylor with a climb up to the trig point and down. I went up the Richmond Fellowship Track and was coming down the Mannheim track when I spotted a young brown snake coming across the track just ahead of me. While I had my camera it was in my pack. By the time I got it out the snake was disappearing into the vegetation beside the track. I wasn't going to take a close look in there so missed another photo opportunity.

The other odd thing that happened on the 25th was the behaviour of the kangaroos. I was walking in the afternoon and it was reasonably warm. Kangaroos generally take to the shade in the heat of the day and I had not seen any until I had a group of three suddenly taking off in fright. I'm not sure who was the more surprised - me seeing the fleeing roos or the roos seeing me. Normally the roos pay little attention to walkers who are on the tracks so I'm not sure why this group got spooked. Just to add to the oddity, about a km later a lone kangaroo, unusual in itself, took off as I approached near where it had been standing. Once again, unusual behaviour. I'm not sure why the roos behaved in this way on that particular day.

The small birds are making a return or perhaps it is that they are no longer tied to their nests but are now out and about with their young. In the latter part of January the Superb Fairy Wrens were popping up quite frequently. What a pity that they are both small and flighty making them hard to capture in a photo.

I climbed Mt Arawang on Australia Day. This is not a very tall mountain and one I usually walk around rather than up. It does have good views from its trig point, through.

I came across these wallabies near the top of Mt Arawang

Looking down over Weston Creek towards Black Mountain from Mt Arawang

Looking towards Woden from Mt Arawang

Looking across the Tuggeranong Valley from Mt Arawang

The western ranges as seen from Mt Arawang

 A number of the tracks on Mt Arawang pass through long grass and are quite narrow. I am cautious about walking those types of tracks when snakes are obviously out and about so don't normally climb this pimple during the warmer months.

January had been pretty dry and this was clearly evident in the only dam inside the Mt Taylor Nature Reserve. During January it completely dried up.

Monday the 27th was a public holiday. Trevor and I lunched at the National Library. Their food is always interesting and well presented. Even the 15% surcharge for the public holiday didn't put me off.

After lunch Trevor headed off home and I walked. The route I took was along the southern side of Lake Burley Griffin before tracking through Yarralumla and then alongside Yarra Glen past the Woden town centre and on Mt Taylor taking an anti-clockwise circuit. All up the walk was 16.72km. It is possible to stop at a number of shopping centres with just a short diversion (Yarralumla, Curtin, Lyons and Woden Plaza) and no diversion much to speak of to reach Chifley and Kambah Village. I filled my water bottle up at Chifley. There is a tap in the local BBQ area. The day was quite warm so the additional water was most welcome. The only wildlife encountered were large birds and humans. A significant number of people were out on bikes with the odd person on foot. There were quite a few groups picnicing beside the lake. Some even had gone to the trouble to cover tables with tablecloths. Very posh.

January has been a very warm month. I'm sure that there have been hotter months over the past 40 odd years. I can remember one summer when we watched a series of Black Adder which came on late at night, 11:30pm if my memory serves me correctly, simply because it was so hot that we couldn't sleep. This was our introduction to Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) and Tony Robinson (Time Team) amongst other things.

With temperature well over the 30 mark walking has been decidedly hot.

A kookaburra spotted sitting on a climbing peg on pole in Mt Taylor Nature Reserve

On Wednesdays I mostly walk the almost 6km to the gym for my 9am PT session. On the 29th I set out in lovely, balmy conditions. By the time I reached the gym it was starting to heat up. The walk home was definitely hot!

Trevor and I lunched at Cooleman Court and I walked home along the Stanhope Highway in the heat of the early afternoon. Large birds were out and about but there was not much other activity. I did come across a lizard taking advantage of a post pointing out the features on Cooleman Ridge. I arrived home and spent the next hour dripping!

A lizard hiding on a pole along the Stanhope Highway

To fit in a mountain climb for the week I planned to climb Mt Ainslie which sits behind the Australian War Memorial. I figured that I could probably do the climb on Thursday after I had completed my session at the Family History Centre and any swimming stuff that I needed to do before the weekend. The only issue was the temperature. The heat was quite fierce in the high 30s, nudging 40, but how difficult could it be? By the time I reached the top I was feeling pretty awful. A stop in some shade just before the summit did help but it was still a tough climb. I'm glad that our guides decided that the Mt Roland climb was too risky as much of the route was completely exposed. Even with partial shade on Mt Ainslie the climb was tough.

There are some wonderful views from Mt Ainslie. Here is just one ... looking down across the city and lake.

View from Mt Ainslie across the city

The final day of the month was another scorcher. The temperature recorded against my walk home from Mawson in the mid afternoon was 38 degrees. In the morning Trevor and I checked out the blackberries on Narabundah Hill. The berries are quite small this year due to the very dry conditions and they are still at least a week off ripe although there is a scattering of ripe berries already but not worth the time picking just yet.

Stats for the month:
364.19kms at an average of 11.75km per day
Elevation gain: 8435m. Daily average: 272m
Steps: 718,297. Daily average: 23171

And, yes, I did climb 5 separate mountains during the month.

Tasmanian Wilderness Hiker - in summary

I had selected this hiking trip as it would take me to a number of areas within Tasmania's World Heritage Areas. Walking gives you a completely different perspective of places than that achieved when you drive through places even if you do stop and look around.

The trip notes promised a birds-eye view over Lake Pedder from the Mt Anne Track, a number of waterfalls, alpine tarns, hiking at Cradle Mountain and more.

Trevor and I flew to Hobart a couple of day ahead of the tour start. While I spent a day doing research on a number of my ancestors who had found themselves in Tasmania Trevor walked all over the central part of the city.

On our second day we took the hop on hop off bus tour of Hobart and hopped off at the Female Factory, a place I had read about in Bryce Courtney's novel "The Potato Factory". In the afternoon we took the shuttle bus up to the summit of Mt Wellington. While Trevor took the bus back to Hobart I hiked down the mountain and back to our hotel. The hike down the mountain was great preparation for the Wilderness Hiker. The higher slopes of the mountain were a riot of colour.

The Tasmanian Wilderness Hiker official started at 9:30am and all the participants were gathered in the lobby of the Fountainside Hotel, the departure point, well ahead of the appointed hour. Our guides introduced themselves and gave us all a briefing. Some of us had done other Auswalk tours and knew one or other of the guides. The addition of a third guide, Monica Chapman, was a bonus. Monica and her husband, John, have walked extensively through south eastern Australia and Tasmania and written a number of guides. Her knowledge added to that of Marie and Lisa, the other guides, on our trip.

The accommodation at all four establishments used during the trip was more than satisfactory even in the unprecedented heat that we encountered.

The catering arrangements were generally good and we certainly did not go hungry. If anything, we probably ate too much.

The tour took us to some wonderful places and through some terrific scenery. It gave us a taste of what makes so much of Tasmania such a special place and why it has been worth fighting to preserve the wilderness areas.

The guides did provide very acceptable alternative walks on the day that was deemed too hot to attempt the climb of Mt Roland. We did see a lot of Mt Roland as we circumnavigated it.

I would have appreciated some additional information on the expected distances to be walked each day and the associated elevation gain. The latter is important for preparation ahead of any trip as it provides an essential guide to for participants as to what needs to be included in their pre trip fitness regime.

I have provided posts on all but the final day of the trip, generally with a selection of photos.

I have statistics on distances walked and elevation gained if you are interested in these.

My overall impression of the trip was very positive and I thoroughly enjoyed the week.

Tasmanian Wilderness Hiker - Day 7

Friday 17 January

This was to be our final full day of this trip. The week had gone so fast it was hard to believe that we would be home the next day.

Three options were offered to the group for this final day. Options:
1. Starting at Dove Lake car park: Ascent to Hansons Peak (some airy sections and steep gradients), along the face of Cradle Mountain, down the Overland Track back to the Dove Lake carpark. This was rated as a 10km, moderate to challenging walk of 6-7 hours.
2. Starting at Ronny Creek car park: Overland Track to Crater Lake, Wombat Pool Track to Lake Lilla, Lake Lilla Track to the junction with the Dove Lake Circuit then clockwise around Dove Lake. This walk would have been about 10kms, too.
3. Circuit around Dove Lake starting at the Dove Lake car park and taking the shuttle bus back to the Visitors Centre and then walking the couple of kms back to the Chateau.

I opted for option 1 while Trevor chose option 2. You will find details of both these walks in this post.

Lorraine's Dove Lake Circuit

The forecast was for a hot day. With this in mind I added my small thermos to my pack in addition to 2 litres of water and a 200m juice pack. I also left 600ml of water on the bus. I stripped as much as possible out of my pack, including my rain jacket, although I did put my fleece in to stop things moving around. It still seemed heavy but then perhaps I was beginning to feel tired.

We were attempting to get an early start and got away from the Chateau just on 8 o'clock.

The four hikers doing option 2 were duly dropped at Ronny Creek with Marie as their guide.

Three hikers had opted for option 3 and they set out from the Dove Lake car park with the option 1 group.

Our group of five hikers had the required 2 guides (Lisa and Monica) and both pointed out features to us through the hike.

Much of the walk today was across terrain with low level plants and very few trees. What trees there were were generally quite small.

When we arrived at Dove Lake there was cloud cover which persisted for most of the morning. The air was still and the reflection of Candle Mountain and the other peaks on the lake was near perfect.

There are lots of tracks accessible from the Dove Lake car park

It is hard to tell where the lake starts due to the clear reflection of the surrounding features

The bumpy  and pointy bits in the background is Cradle Mountain ... from left to right

We headed off along the Dove Lake Circuit Trail as far as Glacier Rock.

Cradle Mountain reflected in the still surface of Dove Lake

Glacier Rock is a large rock which has been deposited on the edge of the lake. The views from the top of the rock across the lake to Cradle Mountain were stunning.

View from Glacier Rock across the lake towards Cradle Mountain

A short distance from Glacier Rock we left the the Dove Lake Circuit Track and headed off uphill on the Lake Rodway Track. This track climbed steeply from the lake level, around 950m mark to just on 1170m near Hansons Peak. The track had good views out to the east with the Walls of Jerusalem standing out on the horizon as we looked out over Lake Hanson.

The cloud overhead decided that it would give us a scare and started to drop spots of rain. Fortunately it was only a few spots as most of us had opted to leave our rain jackets behind today.

On this section the front markers saw a white lipped snake. It got out of our way very quickly so most of us missed seeing it.

Looking out over Lake Hanson towards the east

The alpine flora was showing off in all its glory:

Christmas Bells

These flowers were clinging to the rock

The track had risen quite steeply and one section had a chain support to help get up a steep, rocky section of the track.

Negotiating the chain section of the climb

We continued to have views across Lake Dove as well as other lakes in this area and the face of Cradle Mountain.

Looking down on the end of Lake Hanson with the land falling away at the right hand end of the lake

The track continued past Twisted Lakes before we arrived at a hut near a tarn where we stopped for morning tea. At least I had a cup of tea.

Morning tea with the hut in the background

Leaving the Lake Rodway Track we picked up the Face Track which took us up onto and then along a ridge line at around the 1240m mark. The track gradually rose to about 1260m just before it met the Overland Track.

Looking back on the track we had walked

Looking down onto Dove Lake from the Face Track

While most of the track was well maintained this section needed a bit of attention

Looking up to the western end of Cradle Mountain. The rock structure can be seen in this photo

More of the colourful display that met us as we came down along the Face Track

These bushes had flowers ranging from orange through pink and red

We turned north and head down the Overland Track stopping at Kitchen Hut for lunch and its welcome toilet.

The track junction: Overland to the right, Summit and Face Track to the left with Cradle Mountain looming above

Looking down onto Cradle Plateau with the toilet over to the left with Crater Lake visible in the distance above the toilet; Kitchen Hut and the Overland Track to the right

At this point the track was quite busy with overlanders heading south, Cradle Mountain summit climbers heading up and down the mountain, those just doing high circuits of Dove Lake as well as people coming up to this point.

Kitchen Hut

Brett, one of our group, dearly would have liked to tackle the climb to the summit of Cradle Mountain. Unfortunately, because we were in a guided group, we all had to stay together and two guides would have had to accompany those in their group who were tackling the climb so no go. The summit of the mountain stands at 1545, almost 300m above the junction of the Overland and Face Tracks. The Cradle Mountain Summit Track is rated steep and, looking at the topography, would have been a fairly hard climb. I'm not too sad that Lisa and Monica turned Brett down.

By early afternoon the cloud had begun to clear, except foe the smoke which was drifting in from fires, and the temperature started to shoot up.

After lunch we followed the Overland Track to Marions Lookout. This had views across Dove Lake. We also managed to see the option 2 group who were down on the edge of the lake doing their circuit.

Just below Marions Lookout we met our second section of chains for the day. On the whole they did assist in the steep descent of the track that they serviced.

The tracked provided good views of Crater Lake before we turned off on the Wombat Pool Track which eventually took us past the rather small Wombat Pool and on to the northern tip of Lake Lilla.

Wombat Pool

Wombat Pool with the reflection of a tree highlighting the brown colour of the water

Picking up the Lake Lilla Track heading south east we eventually met the Dove Lake Circuit Track which we followed clockwise until we found the option 2 party lounging beside the lake, some with the bare feet cooling off in the lake.

A final view of Cradle Mountain across Dove Lake

This ended the walking part of our trip.

... and now for Trevor's day

There were 3 options today. I decided to take the second one which started from the Ronny Creek car park. This is the normal start of the Overland Track. 

There were four walkers in the group along with Marie as our guide.

We headed off along the Overland Track towards the foot bridge.

The following photographs are an indication of the flora in the area.

After reaching the foot bridge we continued along the boardwalks of the Overland Track to Crater Falls

Crater Falls

From Cater Falls we headed to Crater Lake.

More flowers

At Crater Lake there were some striking cliffs and reflections of these in the water.

Reflections in Crater Lake

Continuing past Crater Lake we turned onto the Wombat Pool Track. 

Before reaching Wombat Pool we had views overlooking Lake Lilla and Dove Lake.

Lake Lilla

Lake Lilla with Dove Lake in the distance

Wombat Pool was a pleasant body of water with great reflections and Cradle Mountain in the background.

Beautiful reflections on Wombat Pool

Cradle Mountain

We turned onto the Lake Lilla Track which took us to the Dove Lake car park. There were toilets at the car park and most of the group took advantage of these.

Looking down onto Dove Lake

Suitably refreshed (or relieved) we headed off to do a circuit around Dove Lake. The views across the glassy water were wonderful.

Cradle Mountain reflected in Dove Lake

Cradle Mountain reflected in a ripple free Dove Lake

Glacier Rock sits on the edge of Dove Lake a short distance from the car park.

Looking across Dove Lake to Cradle Mountain from the top of Glacier Rock

Looking across Dove Lake to the boat shed

The walk around the lake was a combination of boardwalks and rock hoping.

Halfway around the lake we stopped and had lunch which was overseen by a Currawong.

A brooding Dove Lake

We continued around Dove Lake until we came to Ballroom Forest which is a temperate rainforest.

Ballroom Forest is a tangle of trees and understory plants

The Ballroom Forest gave a different aspect to the Lake walk.

After passing through Ballroom Forest we continued past a beach and the Boat Shed before arriving back at the Dove Lake car park and our bus.

The boat shed nestled on the shore of Dove Lake

And a final parting shot of Cradle Mountain