After some interest in this walk everyone piked so I ended up being the only one to turn up at Heathcote station at 9:40. I decided to do the walk anyway as the weather was perfect and thus the trip become a re-con mission for my next visit.
Greg and I spent a total 9 days walking up the Tasman glacier and then down the Murchison glacier in Mt Cook National Park, New Zealand. We initially travelled over the lower moraine (huge piles of different sized rocks which lie on top of the glacier) before reaching the knobbly ice-topped section of the glacier, and finally the smoother snow covered section higher up (with larger crevasses that must be walked around). This was all reversed as we walked down the Murchison glacier, except there were some easy rocky river flats at the end of the Murchison glacier in the valley.
After getting the taste for South West Tassie this time last year, a handful of curious bushwalkers flew down to the Natural State to do some more exploring. The idea was to traverse the Eastern Arthur Range and climb Federation Peak.
A thunderstorm over the Kanangra region on Thursday influenced the decision to do a Kanangra trip on the weekend, as there was the prospect that the storms may have recharged parched waterways, filled pools and made waterfalls flow again. So a trip to the upper reaches of a well known creek in this area was in order.
We met up in front of the Women Sports Centre on the beautiful Sunday morning. Kate kindly dropped round to make sure we have enough cars for the trip. After a bit of a chit-chat, we headed to Heathcote Station and left a car behind, and then drove to Waterfall Station where the walk started.
– Day 1 – Bullfrog Ck to Ettrema gorge After a car shuffle we began our walk heading for a side creek that would take us down into Bullfrog creek. Just as wed started to descend in the side creek Joe had a fall and was injured. First aid was provided and after some deliberation Joe decided not to press on. So after just 15 minutes we were already down one person. Luckily this wasnt a sign of things to come! I walked Joe back to his car and bid a very sad farewell while everybody else continued.
Our aim for this week was to head into an area that neither of us had been to before and explore for canyons and other places that are nice to be in a hot dry week of summer. It was an excellent trip, and we certainly found what we were looking for.
That gave me a bit of time for a walk – so I went by bus to Lewis Pass to do the St James Walkway. “Walkways” are fairly easy walks – and this one certainly wasn’t hard – but it was very pleasant. The walk was a loop. I had chosen to start from the Boyle River end and this meant that I would finish at Lewis Pass itself.
Leaving Sydney on a Friday night we met in the Kanangra Boyd National Park at the start of a fire trail late that night. We unwillingly woke up with the sun, and after some preparation set off on a clear day at 7:30am. A couple of kilometres later we reached our turn-off and started along a walking trail into the scrub along the ridge top. After battling…
Ok, it may be a little belated and not that exciting…and i probably missed half the stuff that actually went on…but its probably handy to have some info before the showing of the video at the slide night tonight (with Dave’s editing capabilities and what not…). Oh yeah, in case you didn’t pick up on that …you can see the video of the PBT at the slide night tonight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTTMSX9JClI …
Needless to say I felt quite sure it was 1946 so I hunted out my old bushwalking log books only to find we were both wrong! It was 29 th January to 8 th February 1947. So much for the memory when you are over 80! I followed up by typing with my two fingers, the old log, copying the old black and white photos and sending a copy to both to Quent in Holtville and Vern in Toronto, Canada. I had…