Frenchmans Cap, late Feb 2005
We took 7 days and did a complete circuit including a swim across the Franklin River. Here's a small sample... (We took heaps!)
Morning of the 2nd day, Lake Vera.
Midday, 2nd day, Barron Pass.
Midday, 2nd day, Barron Pass.
Looking southwest over some glacier formed lakes, the lighting on this pine with its lichen in the wind was too good to walk past.
End of 2nd day, Lake Tahune.
If you cover the bottom half of this photo, you get a typical photo of the area. But with the startling reflection of Frenchmans Cap in the water, your eyes can be drawn away from what would normally be an interesting image in itself.
End of 2nd day, Lake Tahune.
Day 3 and my birthday. Frenchmans Cap, sunrise.
Mid morning, 3rd day. The challenge ahead.
Early afternoon, 3rd day. From the summit (obviously), how blue the sky was! Even with the whispy clouds.
From the top of...
If you look closely, you'll see a track over the top of this mountain.
Late morning, 4th day.
Over North Col and behind Frenchmans Cap on the way to the Franklin River, a startling amphitheatre of white quartzite.
Less than an hour on.
How quickly the weather can turn. The clouds were just amazing.
Early afternoon, 4th day.
Franklin River is in th deep ravine in the centre of the pic. The other ravine in the foreground right that meets up with the Franklin is Tahune Creek. They join at the Irenabyss and that's the destination for this day (below black cliff in centre of pic). 1 km down from highest point behind us here.
In 3 days time (including 1 rest day at F.River) we will be in the far left top corner of this pic - Flat Bluff leading on to Raglan Range.
Franklin River at the Irenabyss.
(it WAS a COLD swim)
Check where the water level gets to on the cliffs when the river is at its peak!
It's hard to believe that our ex-premier Gray described this as‘nothing but a brown ditch, leech-ridden and unattractive to the majority of people’
I am happily a "minority".
5th day.
Taken from inside the tent - Huon pine.
5th day. The polished rocks that form the banks of the Franklin River really come to life after a bit of rain.
5th day, sunset.
Afternoon, 7th day, Raglan Range.
Now if you were a little kid, and you woke up one day and looked out your window and saw this, I reckon you'd wet the bed or something... The monsters in these trees are captivating. Big daddy on the right, with his cap on backwards, looking down... the fog making it all the more spooky.
Actually, it's low cloud - we're at the 1000 metre mark.
Same place. The weather has really done a job on these trees over time, it's a wonder many of them stand the way they do - especially this one.
How lucky we were to have things damp and foggy, really added to the experience of being here.
I hope you enjoyed this little look into our circuit walk of Frenchmans Cap, out via Raglan Range.
One word of caution - this walk is definitely not for the inexperienced. You are really on your own in these places and it would be good to be sure of your ability before tackling such a walk.