ILUVSWTAS wrote:We'll be in there well after that.. I hope for your sakes you arent still in there........ We're going in Feb
Be sure to report back here with a trip report though!!
SCRUB
That about sums up our 11 day trip from the Lyall Highway, Jane River track, Algonkian and south along the ridge.
The walking times were longer than those that had been before us around 10 years ago.
Many sections including the Jane River Track are now slow and scrubby.
I knew the route around Algonkian south to the start of the POWs was scrubby, no surprises there
Once on the range itself, rather pleasant, the southern facing slopes scrubby due to rarely being burnt in the past, a natural SW Tassie feature.
We got parked behind a large boulder on the ridge just north of Princes Peak while the wind, a pre-frontal roared from the NW on New Years Eve. We were then treated to a thunderstorm which started fires well to the North and South. These are being extinguished by Parks at the moment via a chopper and teams of parks staff.
Funny how PWS discourage visitors in these remote wilderness areas due to impacts on sensitive areas, yet they interfere with the nature of the fire generated buttongrass and other species by extinguishing fires as and when they occur. Many documented buttongrass leads we followed were choked 10 years later by tea tree with the buttongrass mounds underneath dead or dying from lack of daylight! The fires are natural yet the protectors of this stunning and diverse world heritage listed area are anxious to extinguish them which will kill this diversity with kindness and the open areas are continuing to close. We found evidence of Wombats but only occasionally, no roos or wallaby were seen.
Our only viable escape route option was taken up as we got low on food and enthusiasm to continue south of Mt Humbolt. We went down at the foot of Humbolt to the Denison then out via boat from Pearce basin to Strathgordon with 1 day of food left.
Didn't find much in the way of books with pages stuck together
Didn't find too many signs at all of those who passed this way before. A pad was followed occasionally when found. A couple of cairns were appreciated as confirmation of the correct route near Humbolt as we lost body heat in the cold wet Southerly rain
Found a commemorative plate at the foot of Diamond peak along the western side which was placed earlier in December. Detracted from the wilderness experience but left it there anyway. What is the story there? What do others think of this? Having seen it in other National Parks interstate I would be annoyed if my friends or relatives did this for me when I expire.
Sheltered from the rain under a fly found erected on the Jane River Track and found lots of rubbish strewn in the bush nearby. Another such site was found further along the track with rubbish in the bush as well. Will be getting in touch with parks on that score.
Wrote off my trousers in the scrub, totally wore out my new leather gloves and finished the trip in my overpants!
Wayno