I have noticed that Tasmania seems to have a bit of 'branding confusion'.
Clearly the island status of this State sets it apart from the rest of Australia, that much is understood. For some reason being a plain old island isn't enough, however, and the marketing people feel this needs furthering. So, everywhere you look this Island-ness develops supposedly attractive descriptive appendages: sitting next to me is a book entitled "Isle of Mountains", it is also called "The Apple Isle"; "The Island of Beauty"; "The Wilderness Isle", and; "The Isle of Splendour". The number plates on the cars have "Holiday Isle" which I think is a bit odd, because the huge majority of people with those number plates are going to be those who actually live in Tasmania! (Although this isn't as silly as the Victorian plate which says "The Place To Be" ... any of those seen outside Victoria beg a question: "If it's the 'place to be' why aren't you there now?").
So, I'm coming up with my own names for Tasmania based on this simple piece of geographical knowledge ... that it is an Island. So, why the Isle of Mud? Read on.
For our Christmas break Ella and I thought we'd take advantage of our time off to take an extended walk in the Franklin Gordon Wild Rivers National Park . In particular we wanted to the Frenchman's Cap Track walk. It is supposed to be "considerably more arduous than many other Tasmanian walks", which seemed like a fun challenge at least!
We set off on Christmas Eve afternoon and drove for about 3hrs 30mins in the rain and strong wind to the start of the track. The walk is reckoned to take 3-5 days so our intention was to camp near the start and get a good start early the next morning. In the end we opted to sleep in the car to keep ourselves dry. The seats in the car recline almost flat, so it actually proved really comfortable and we set off all fresh at 8am Christmas Day.
The warning at the head of the trail goes something like this:
"You are are going to get wet. You are going to get very wet. You are going to get muddy. You are going to get very muddy". Excellent!
First was a basic bridge over the Franklin River, which wasn't too high, which we thought might be a sign that the bogs ahead might not be too bad...
Here's Ella (this was actually taken on the way back)
There wasn't too much climbing (of the conventional sense) to do on the way to Lake Vera and the first rest point. After a gentle rise we reached the infamous Lodden Plains, nicknamed the "Sodden Loddens" ... very aptly. It's a large Button Grass plain that's basically a Peat Bog, which you have to more or less wade through, at point knee deep in mud. It's rather slow and hard work (especially with 15-20kg on your back). It took us the best part of 3hrs 30mins to get through these, and a total of 5hrs 30mins to get to Lake Vera and the sanctuary of the communal hut.
I'm afraid we didn't take any photos on the way in because the weather was rather foul - windy, rainy and cold unless you kept moving! Someone else has done, though!
At Lake Vera Hut I was tempted to re-enact a topical pseudo-historical incident and knock on the door and ask if there was any room at the inn (we took a tent in case it was full anyway). It turned out there was a friendly bunch of equally mad walkers who had opted to spend Christmas on the track. It was warm and cosy in the hut with a stove burning and lots of friendly people:
Lake Vera Hut:
It turned out that most of the other hut visitors had attempted to go up to Frenchmans Cap that day and been driven back by snow! A white Christmas for some.
After a pretty good night of sleep (no snorers fortunately), we tried our luck at going up. The next section of the track was through the most beautiful forest with unusual looking plants, and moss covering everything. The track climbed steeply up to Barrons Pass, and as the trail climbs steeply the rivers are pathways, the pathways are rivers ... it really was rather wet and extremely steep.
The view from Barrons Pass was tremendous, despite the fast moving clouds, and worth the hard climb.
We then walked along the ridge (up and down a fair bit), through the remains of the snow until we got to Lake Tahune and the next hut for lunch. The temperature in the hut was only 4 degrees celsius, and the peak of Frenchmans Cap didn't look too enticing, however, and we decided it would probably be best to head back to Lake Vera rather than risk the weather. Typically, not long after we turned back (after some lunch) the peak cleared and I got this photo:
Better weather meant we got more photos!
The return route was almost as hard, going downhill so steeply hurts the feet, knees and ankles! We made it back to the first hut, though, slightly annoyed by having lugged all our gear all the way up and back in the same day! Ho hum!
Another night was spent in the hut, with a different bunch of walkers who had come in from the start of the walk, and then we retraced our steps from the first day. The conditions were just as wet and slippy.
All in all it was an extremely enjoyable, if tough and tiring, experience. We'll definitely be looking to do some more long walks ... hopefully in better weather, though.
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