Windy Ridge to Pine Valley
Trip Start
Jan 19, 2006
1
8
20
Trip End
Feb 23, 2006
Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania,
Australia
Thursday, January 26, 2006
The sky was clear as we left Windy Ridge, although we were feeling a bit beat up after our long day in the heat yesterday. Our feet were hurting as well, and we were having blister problems again in the heat (though not as bad as South America last year!)
Our plan today was to head down the track towards Narcissus (next hut on the trail which also has a ferry that can take you across Lake St. Clair to the end of the trail) but take the side trip up to Pine Valley and camp there for the night. We had learned the night before that January 26 was Australia day, and we wanted to be somewhere a bit more remote to avoid the crowds if they were going to occur on the trail. As we packed up the tent we noticed that the mossies (mosquitos!) were in full force, so we decided to hold our breakfast until we could find a quieter spot along the trail
01) Crossing the Narcissus River
. The trail wandered through dry eucalyptus forest and pockets of temperate rain forest, and 5km in we came to a junction in the trail that led to Pine Valley. It seemed like a decent breakfast spot, and we pulled out our stove, oatmeal and tea and had a little picnic on the side of the trail. Unfortunately the march flies found us (flying time started a bit earlier this day), putting a damper on our breakfast! Nadine was on snake watch, and soon along the trail she screamed! There was a crayfish or scorpion on the trail, and it was a bit blue looking!! It was only about 10 cm long, and Theo deduced that it wasn't a scorpion (it was a bit hard to tell at first because the tail was curled under, but when it became visible it was not a stinger), but why would there be a crayfish on the trail? We passed an Australian couple and asked them about the crayfish-thing, and they told us it was a yabee, and it was a small blue crayfish found in creeks. What was it doing over 100 meters from water in any direction?We continued along the trail to Pine Valley, and found ourselves crossing the Narcissus River and then Cephissus Creek over skinny wire suspension bridges. As we crossed the last suspension bridge Theo noticed what looked like a big hairy brown pig, with a guinea pig face, lying in the grass under the bridge. As Aussie confirmed that the big guinea pig was indeed a wombat, and we soon learned that the excrement that we had seen all over the place on boardwalks, stones, any elevated place was that of the wombat
02) Wearing our Giligan hats!
. We had thought it was a little animal, or perhaps something else that would try to steal our food from the tent. And more incredible was that these feces were cube shaped!Soon we received some relief from the heat, because the last 1/3 of the trail is under a deep canopy shielding us from the sun. Winding up and down, over roots, over creeks, and finally onto a piece of boarwark heading us into camp.
In camp we learned what the two areas most commonly visited from here are. The ranger from the previous camp site ("bubbleboy") arrived soon after us, as this area was his responsibility for the day. We talked to him for a while, and found out more. To the west, higher up, there is an alpine plateau known as the Labyrinth, due to how confusing the topography is. Open camping is permitted there. However, we were running out of days before we caught our bus at Lake St. Clair to take us back to our rental car in Cradle Mt. Directly to the north, there was a mountain called the Acropolis which we eagerly wanted to climb. But the climb of the mountain was too much for us and our feet today, and not the right way to start our epic walk out the next day.
Instead, we leisurely hung around, and talked to the ranger. He also showed Nadine various types of vegetation that she had not yet become familiar with, including the King Billy pine (as well as the little seedlings, which look quite different, which Theo quickly named "young prince billy pine") and celery top pine, which does not look like pine at all but does have leaves that look like the tops of celery.
We drank some of our Kahlua Especiale, and went to bed - this time with our much smaller food bag secured in the little shelf inside the roof of our tent, so that the possums would bother us. In the morning, we wanted to be on the trail early so that we could make it to Echo Point before the flies became too bad. Then Saturday morning the plan was to hike out 11km from Echo point to Lake St. Clair to catch our bus at 10am.
