Windermere to Pelion
Trip Start
Jan 19, 2006
1
6
20
Trip End
Feb 23, 2006
Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania,
Australia
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
It rained through the night and we awoke to find grey cool weather and a wallaby eating foliage by our tent! We were feeling a bit sore from our last days efforts and had a few blisters to show as well! The trail rambled its way up through buttongrass moorlands and exposed areas with scraggy trees to Forth Valley lookout. We climbed a bit through a forested hill and crossed Pelion Creek, and then began to skirt our way along Mt. Pelion West though a wetter forest with ferns. Stanwee got to hang out with his buddies for a bit. We descended into Frog Flats, a tenting only campsite, where we really could hear the sound of frogs chirping in the wet mossy flats. The trail climbed again on the opposite side of the valley through forest towards the Pelion Hut. We passed a junction to the old Pelion Hut, the oldest hut in the park, built in 1892 following the discovery of copper in the area. Today it serves as an emergency hut. At Pelion hut we found a nice mossy spot to put our tent down (a lady said to watch for leeches in the moss!), and made our way to the hut to avoid the march flies temporarily and have a soup. At the large hut we found dead marsh flies lining the inner window panes, and Theo had to take some pictures! Then a 1km walk to old Pelion hut to a great swimming hole, where we washed up and did some laundry in the creek, with Theo spotting a platypus momentarily before it flipped over and swam away. Back at our site we ate our dinner and nestled into our tent for a cooler nights sleep, with again the sound of likely possums playing nearby our tent!
