Saturday, December 19, 2020

Southern Ranges - Take Two - December 2019

Mount Victoria Cross
Mount Victoria Cross

I have a confession.  Before the 2011 trip to Southern Ranges I blogged about recently I thought I could have a crack at Precipitous Bluff (PB) that long weekend.  On the Friday night I left work later than expected, took longer to get ready than expected but still hit the road late in the evening with the deluded view I could drive the full 5 hours to Lune River - Ha!

Bronze wombat
Bronze wombat - One of the many wildlife sculptures at Steppes, midway between Devonport and Hobart via the highland lakes

I only made it 2 hours down the road before I was bouncing zeds off the windscreen, thankfully, after I had pulled over at the Steppes Sculptures.  With a mid-morning start from the Lune River car park I knew I had no chance.  Rather than charging along the range to the furthest campsite I could reach, I had a very chilled trip to Mystery Creek, Mount La Perouse, Pindars Peak and Arndell Falls.  In fact it was so chilled there are several hours I cannot account for.  After exploring Benders Quarry my photo timestamps have me leaving Mystery Creek Cave at 11am, passing Bullfrog Tarns at 3:30pm and rolling into Pigsty Ponds in failing light at 8pm!!!  What was I doing?

Evidence of historic logging along the Mystery Creek tramway.

Roll forward a few years, it's 2019 and I have a new secret weapon.  Kylie!!!  As well as being an amazing wife, terrific trekking companion and all-round legend, Kylie had done the Southern Ranges back in the summer of 2013, a mere 2 months before we met and 10 months before we got married.  After pouring over maps and 'Chappy times' we decided an efficient Mystery Creek to Cockle Creek expedition could be done in four days.  On top of all that we had my rapidly-growing-up children, Emily and Henry to do the car shuffle with us the afternoon before.  This allowed us to be camped by the old tramway just above Mystery Creek Cave ready to start our 4-day epic.  What could possibly go wrong?  Well...

Mystery Creek Cave
Mystery Creek Cave entrance

Day Zero ended well.  After a late afternoon trip into Mystery Creek Cave there was time for an evening exploration of the cave's higher entrance inspired by another cave symbol marked on our map.

Mystery Creek Cave stalectites.

Day One
The following morning we were on the track at 6:30am.  By 8:30 we had ascended the climb through tall eucalypt then myrtle forest and arrived at the lovely view towards Hastings Bay once the treeline is reached.  This section had taken me four hours back in 2011 - what was I doing?


Bullfrog Tarns - a stark contrast between 2011 (top) and 2019

As we passed Bullfrog Tarns things were remarkably different to what we both remembered from our previous trips.  A 2016 fire had burnt the section past Bullfrog Tarns and up to the lower slopes of Hill One.  While the alpine scrub was closing in on the track at this point the pandanis, stunted myrtles and scoparia provided a welcome relief from the charred remains of the alpine heathlands below.
Mount La Perouse and Arndell Falls from Hill Four

Hills Two, Three and Four passed by without incident apart from providing the first glimpses of our objective, PB, along with a lovely view of Federation Peak.  By 1pm we were enjoying lunch by the DÉntrecastaux River after about six hours of walking - a big improvement on the nine hours on my 2011 solo jaunt.

Snow drifts on Maxwell Ridge with Mounts Wylly and Victoria Cross on the left and Federation Peak in the distance.

After lunch we passed some snow drifts on Maxwell Ridge, always a novelty this close to Christmas, and descended to Ooze Lake soon after 3pm.  Perhaps we could have pushed on but the next campsites were on Lake Mountain only a few minutes further on (hardly worth it) and then not until Pandani Knob which required the full traverse of Pindars Peak.  There was enough daylight but we were fairly certain there would be no water between Ooze and Pandani and the thought of carrying overnight water over Pindars was unappealing so we stayed put, pitching our tent beside an idyllic Ooze Lake (even if the name sounds anything but).

Idyllic Ooze Lake

Day Two
Next morning we hit the track enthusiastically at 6am and shouldered Pindars Peak a couple of hours later.  After a 7:45am rest stop, cool, foggy conditions made us keen to navigate carefully down the broad featureless ridge towards Pandani Knob.  Visibility had also been poor on Kylie's previous trip and any directional uncertainty in the 'pea soup' back then was met with the cry, "Nooo - we don't want to end up in the Picton Valley!"

The whimsical pandanis on Pandani Knob resembled something out of a Dr Seuss book.  Ironbound Range and Precipitous Bluff in the background.

Sure enough we arrived at Pandani Knob where there was no sign of water - Not even a puddle. Thus is where the fun (I mean scrub) begins. Immediately we plunge into waist high scoparia with only the slightest hint of a track through it. Halfway down to Smiths Saddle the track briefly contours right (north) despite a very convincing false lead heading straight on. An aggressive yabbie entertained us, bravely waving its claws as menacingly as possible, while we passed overhead.

Agro yabbie fending us away

Either side of Smiths and on the descent to Leaning Tea Tree Saddle we pushed through a near-impenetrable matte where other densely packed shrubs join the scoparia making for slow progress. A pandani forest offers brief relief and almost clear, easy walking provided you're bent over double.

The very literally named Leaning Tea Tree Saddle

At Leaning Tea Tree it's easy to see (a) how this place gets its name and (b) which direction the prevailing winds must howl through this low point on the range. By now the 'heat' of the day has kicked in and we eagerly guzzle the last of our Ooze Lake water supply. Unenthusiastically we filled our water bottles from the markedly warm, stagnant puddle and diligently added the relevant dose of Micropur Forte.

W for Wylly?  Walking conditions in the Southern Ranges vary from this delightful 'lawn' to extremely dense thickets where all efforts are focussed on thrashing ahead, not photography!

More scrub is endured up the western side of the saddle until pleasantly open tops with views to the south coast are a welcome reprieve.  We made reasonable progress towards Mt Wylly with just a few delays caused by false leads - at least in this area relatively light scrub means regaining the track is relatively painless.  At the turnoff to Mt Wylly we contemplated whether to make the detour.  It was a tough decision.  Eventually we decided against it.  A short distance away we again paused at Wylly Plateau.  Uncertainty was creeping in.  Kylie's previous trip had taken more than twice the time we were allowing ourselves and she was a bit hazy about just how ugly the scrub is from here.  John Chapman's description was ominous and that's saying something.  We started dreading the mysteries of Kameruka Moraine and whatever that may have in store.  Water was again a concern.  We knew there was likely to be water running off PB but what if we only made it to Tramp Camp?  Would that be dry?  Kylie's earlier trip had featured torrential rain - a far cry from the dry conditions we now faced.  More warm, stagnant pools on Wylly Plateau were not inspiring us to head further into the potentially waterless unknown.

Precipitous Bluff with low cloud in the upper Salisbury River valley separating it from Kameruka Moraine.

A tough decision was made to halt our plans and spend the next two days retracing our steps back through the scrub to Pindars Peak and on to Moonlight Ridge and Mystery Creek.  A late afternoon trip out to Mount Victoria Cross provided a much needed distraction.  This was a relatively scrub-free detour with the exception of a small band that must be crossed to reach the broad climbing gully.

Looking eastwards - Mt Wylly and Pindars Peak soon after sunrise on Day 3

Day Three
In no time we seemed to scoot past the scrub free ridges around Wylly and were back into the scrub so easily remembered from the previous day.  A tick-removal session was a fun distraction before we eventually popped back out of the scrub at Pandani Knob.  Our time was about half an hour slower than the outward journey which is not bad considering there is much more uphill scrub on this section heading back to the east.  By mid afternoon we were basking in the sun back at Ooze Lake.  As we set up the tent we contemplated how we might fetch the car which had been so lovingly shuttled down to Cockle Creek.

Tick

Day Four
Gales, caves and hitch hiking were the highlights on our final day.  Maxwell Ridge was blowing a gale but the real fun was on Hill Three.  Kylie and I loved every minute of it.  Cloud was racing past us in the saddle between Four and Three and the only way we could reach the Three-Two saddle was to skirt around the downwind side of rocky summit outcrops.  Wild!

Kylie leaning into the gales on Hill Three

At the foot of Moonlight Ridge we poked around the karst features beside the track and found three cave entrances.  There's an amazing world down there!

Small caves can be found beside the track above the quarry near Mystery Creek

Our final adventure was getting back to our car 20 kilometres down the road at Cockle Creek.  After a 5km walk out to the main road we were quickly picked up by a couple of groovy campervanners from Germany.  They were heading to the end of the road which suited us perfectly.  By early evening we were back home and planning our return.  To be continued...

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