Southern Ranges
Mystery Creek to Cockle Creek in 9 days. Southwest, Tasmania.
February 2018
Mystery Creek to Moores Bridge
From Mystery Creek, pay respects at the shrine of decomposing leather boots and follow buried tramway to the abandoned limestone quarry.
Climb through forest and brush the first pandani. Cross a cutting grass plain and reach Moonlight Flats. From Bullfrog Tarns ghost bones ranging up toward the Hill One skyline.
Hug the rocks around until the ranges open up on gaining the western side.
With a heavy pack, run out of legs cresting Hill Two. Sidle down Hill Three to the northwest to make camp on Moores Bridge, overlooking the massive ampitheatre of the Lune canyon.
Moores Bridge to Reservoir Lakes
Breakfast by the horseshoe tarn as rays pierce the middle distance. Distinguish a leisurely day with a trip to The Hippo.
Cross Hill Three to the southeast and stroll the paper daisies and wind shorn rocks of Agnetes Garden. Contemplate the deep cirque, Arndell Falls, and the buttressed spurs beneath The Cockscomb. Scramble up The Hippo’s loose hide.
Descend to Reservoir Lakes through Pigsty Ponds and discover a secretive rainforest to the west.
Spy a walnut–coloured wombat.
Reservoir Lakes to Ooze Lake
Emerge from the night’s forest and cross spongy herb fields for La Perouse.
Wander a vast sandstone summit mirroring the curvature of the earth. Observe the drop to Swallows Nest Lakes and gaze eastwards over The Cockscomb toward yesterday.
Realise endless vista on all sides: Adamsons, Hartz, as far as Mt Anne; ranges queuing well beyond Federation Peak; Victoria Cross to the northwest, with Precipitous Bluff embracing Wylly; west to Pindars, rising sharply; south to the capes and the symmetric cone of Mt Leillateah.
Trek steeply up then down Maxwell Ridge to King Billy Saddle, skirt Knife Mountain and trip through a little forest to find Ooze Lake drenched in afternoon sun.
Make camp on the lakeside, strip down and wade into the shallow water chasing tadpoles and miniature fresh water shellfish.
Ooze Lake to Wylly Plateau
Sidle Lake Mountain to summit Pindars, the southern oceans spreading forever. Watch fine white mist roll in along the ridge towards Wylly. Descend to Pandani Knob on noon.
Force for five hours through fucking brutal terrain. Follow a false lead. Verify that four metre high scrub is impenetrable off the twisty, unmarked pad.
Tear a gaiter down its length. Endure the bludgeons of hateful teatree. Scoparia excoriation.
Breach Leaning Tree Saddle just inside the window for a feasible advance on Wylly. Trust scrub to ease on the ascent after a further period of flagellation. Encounter open, rocky ground, with mist returning to create a closed–in moonscape.
Summon Wylly to emerge dead ahead floating up out of a band of fog, Precipitous Bluff gleaming on the left like an ocean liner plunging through white caps.
Miss the route around the west side to Wylly Plateau and climb up high on loose shale in lengthening shadows. From near the summit spy the route below, slide down to intersect and collapse into the plateau.
Nestle in a spikey alcove with soft white moss underfoot.
Body tagged and brain burnt, cook dinner facing a pink–tinged Victoria Cross catching the setting sun across its imposing southern face.
Wylly Plateau to Precipitous Bluff
Wake each morning with the sun burning stronger than the last. Fill containers from tiny soaks and depart tranquility with some trepidation.
Encounter mere waist high scrub and make good time to the first knoll. At the base of the subsequent descent, scout around knee deep in a brightly lit swamp with no apparent exit.
Locate clues in the form of a solitary faded tape fragment and some helpfully bent twigs, climb onto Kameruka Moraine.
Methodically progress along the broken ridge line. Lose the trail on the final descent to the saddle before PB. Stumble into the lumpy stumps of Low Camp, a touch under six hours from Wylly Plateau.
Select the most directly western route from a maze of pads in every direction leading god knows where. Within a few lucky minutes find the cut track up PB. Negotiate a clambery bit… beyond, a rock staircase.
Relax at High Camp, a sweltering late afternoon sun slanting low over the parapet to the west. Leave socks and shorts to bake on warm flat rocks. Luxuriously survey the entire route from Pindars, laid out far below.
Keep company with the sun as it sinks over New River Lagoon and beyond to Ile du Golfe and the Maatsuyker group, a single fluffy cloud crowning Temple Point on De Witt island. Recline in the quiet night and disappear into the infinite array of the Milky Way.
Find peace.
Precipitous Bluff to New River Lagoon
Rise early with the colours of the sun. Make for the summit and find space for a message inside the back cover of a log book filled with 13 years’ passage.
With skies presaging rain, descend in short order along the base of the slanting cliffs toward New River Lagoon.
Recall thirdhand tales of nightmare descents through horizontal scrub and limestone sinkholes, and ignore the false promise of the early gullies. Select the clearly taped lead into the trees a little further along.
Trek steep and squiggly downwards through magnificent rainforest. Curse softly as the tapes vague out and peter away. Lose the track entirely at 250 metres elevation.
Pick an indepedent path through soaking, slippery woods. The correct direction is down. Gently traverse the friable terrain; fallen trunks crumble under foot, shadowy depressions hint at treacherous, forgotten things. Go arse up in the muddy bracken. Be awestruck by ancient forest.
Find the creek a couple hours later and twist through towering gums to Cavern Camp with the mist well set in over the lagoon.
New River Lagoon to Surprise Bay
Feel soft bumps against guy lines throughout the night, imagine inquisitive pademelon.
Wade the thigh deep lagoon for eight kilometres toward Prion Beach. A sharp wind sends miniature swells to shore. Three sleepy swans float by. A large eagle stalks above, spread wings ragged wide and still.
Progress steadily to the dark waters of a forked creek too deep to wade. Head upstream to a likely log. Trust in upright balance and stride forth like a fool.
Slip from the wet trunk and bounce chest–first off the steep bank into a semi-submerged log. Strike various solid things underwater. Let out an awful winded walrus groan.
Struggle to breathe armpit deep in tannin–stained blackwater. Avoid concussion and haul out across a second creek a little more carefully.
At Prion Crossing, encounter a mass of walkers heading for Osmiridian. Resolve to push on ahead for the solitude of Surprise Bay. Fall into a fast–flowing rivulet on the far side of the beach and laugh.
Surprise Bay to South Cape Rivulet
Wake to pounding surf and a dry, grey day.
Stroll Granite Beach as waves smash the point closest to the fluted cliffs. Explore a small shallow sea cave.
Find the rest of the day challenging in a most tedious way. Follow a track cut inland, composed of deep muddy ruts and tree roots. Endure a lengthy, objectionable trudge downhill from South Cape Range. Maintain constant vigilance underfoot until a boardwalk respite across a buttongrass plain.
Emerge late in the day to ford South Cape Rivulet, its serene camp secreted off the beach by the lagoon.
South Cape Rivulet to Cockle Creek
Leave the beach with some regret.
Cross Coal Bluff, backtrack at South Cape to admire Lion Rock.
Half–sprint, half–limp the seven odd kilometres out to Cockle Creek.
Startle a baby tiger snake.
Find a pie at Geeveston.
