Waterfall Vally to Windermere
Trip Start
Jan 19, 2006
1
5
20
Trip End
Feb 23, 2006
Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania,
Australia
Monday, January 23, 2006
Up at 6am, we had decided to hike back to Barn Bluff (close to 2km back up the trail) to do the ascent. It was beautifully clear and cool, and we had a quick bite and make our way up the valley, leaving our tent and backpacks to collect later. Barn Bluff was also a dolorite rock mountain which meant for a lot of scrambling with hands to the peak. We made a quick ascent and had a great view of Lake Will from the top. As we descended we could see clouds literally running their way up the valleys; we weren't sure if this meant rain or not so we picked up the pace and made it back to the Waterfall Valley campsite by 9:30am. Although we had hiked over 10km already we felt great having no packs on our backs and the cool morning air. We made a breakfast oatmeal and packed up our tent and bags and headed off on the trail, leaving our wallaby friends behind who were catching a bite themselves! We continued on through buttongrass moorlands towards the Lake Will junction, where we saw a white-lipped snake basking on some moss just off the side of the track! We quickly made our way along the hot trail, with pandani bushes, eucalyptus trees and pencil pines dotting the way. We soon approached Lake Windermere, where many hikers had decided to jump in for a dip. Half a kilometer down the trail we found the Windermere campsite, and found ourselves a private site on a platform (platforms have been put up at some campsites to protect the grass and shrub vegetation which grows very slow). Much to our dismay there were flies everywhere, March flies they are called, look like a horse fly and apparently bite like one too! We quickly set up our tent and literally jumped in to get away from the flies! After about a hour they seemed to lose interest in us, and we went for a bathe in Lake Windermere, whose water was brown from the tannins of the buttongrass. Dinner at our site early, with a well deserved swig of Kahlua Especiale brought from Canada (more potent Kahlua with less sugar). As we slept we occasionally heard the sound of possums running over our tent platform!
