In the first week of December myself and 9 other of my year 11 cohorts came down from Darwin for a walk around the walls of Jerusalem. The walk lasted 6 days hoping to see what most of the walls had to offer, and it was amazing. We had a wide range of weather thrown at us displaying how quickly it can change (which we had been told about).
Day 1: On the drive to the car park the weather looked quite ominous with grey skies and drizzle teasing us most of the way until we approached the starting point where it cleared surprisingly quickly. We started the notorious (so we were told) ascent up first section through open eucalypt forest and by god did it live up to its name. After we stopped for morning tea at Trappers Hut we took the track to the left to Tiger Lake which was pretty impressive where I saw my first pencil pines which I had been dying to see. With the help of GPS we found solitary hut which was very interesting and then finally headed off to wild dog creek camp site through a long, boggy valley (I can’t remember the name of the creek) again with the aid of GPS where we spent our first cold night.
Day 2: Day 2 was very pleasant as we walked through the main walls at a slow pace taking lots of photos quite literally stunned at the scenery. We walked past the Pool of Bethesda and descended down to Dixons Kingdom Hut where we had lunch and set up out tents. Then we trudged up Mount Jerusalem admiring the numerous lakes and interesting flora along the way before heading back to our campsite. We were treated with clear blue skies and heat the whole day.
Day 3: We woke to dark, grey skies and light drizzle which enhanced the mystique and ambience of the pencil pine forest. We slept in to about 10am that morning as our only activity was to climb Solomon’s throne. And despite the weather, we did. We trudged up the long steps to find the summit whited out. We did however catch a few glimpses of the surrounding area which was incredible before heading back to Dixons kingdom for another cold night. It rained the whole Day and only topped 11 degrees at Dixons kingdom (we could see our breath the whole day which was exiting).
Day 4: Again we woke to drizzle and a strong wind blowing. We headed off quite early as this would be a long day. We started walking down a gentle slope through an open valley on the edge of the rainforest and wow was it a sight watching the mist floating through the valley. We then headed into what I think was one of the most beautiful places on the walk, a mossy pencil pine forest with streams running everywhere; I was almost in disbelief at the sight. I almost expected Bear Grylls to run out from behind a tree with his film crew. We passed Lake Ball where I saw some extremely impressive "fagus" TREES! (Emphasis on the 'TREE' because I only expected shrub-like plants but these were full trees) i was so excited because I had heard these were the only native deciduous trees in Australia! Which i tried explaining to my friends but they didn’t really care lol. Then we passed yet another lake, 'Lake Adelaide' which was a real drag and really tested on my patience. Then yet another Boggy section which felt like it was grinding my ankles, and then finally the welcomed sight of lake Meston, which then went on for a lot longer than i had first anticipated. I quite literally dropped my pack and dropped to the ground despite the leeches. It rained all day with a few patches of shot lived sunshine towards the end. The whole walk took 7 hours.
Day 5: The walk started with a steep ascent which was annoying lol, but soon flattened out and was mostly flat the whole way. We were all still buggered from the previous days walk which slowed us down a bit. Some sections were tricky to navigate but thanks to cairns we managed to press onwards towards the spectacular lake myrtle. After a quick stop for photos and lunch we then headed off to Lake Bill. On the way we got confused about where to go so we just decided to follow a creek and bash through some tussock grass plains to Lake Bill. It was sad to see so much fire damage and it looked like almost all the pencil pines were wiped out. We walked around the shores of Lake Bill where we found our 5th and final camp site. We had a little rain in the morning which cleared mostly in the afternoon.
Day 6: We woke to thick fog with visibility to about 10m, we could not see the lake at all and it looked very eerie. And so we packed and stated walking for the last time which was very sad i must say. The final descent did not agree with the knees and feet but was certainly better than the walk up. We sat at the car park and waited for our bus all feeling sad that the trip had ended but with a great sense of achievement also.
The trip was easily the best thing I have ever done and holds the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen and I will definitely get back there soon.
- Tiger Lake
- King Davids Peak from Mount Jerusalem
- Solitary Hut
