24/4/2007 - Mount Victoria
Yesterday my family teamed up with another family to climb Mt Victoria in Tassie's far north east.
Once upon a time, I thought the western half of Tasmania had a monopoly on rain forest and 'decent' mountains. In more recent times, I have discovered that the north east of the state has some beautiful areas of sub-alpine rain forest and some very nice mountains.
The walk up Mount Victoria starts with a gradual climb through mossy and ferny rain forest on the southern slopes. At the top of the climb, a rock shelter and tunnel provided much amusement for the 5 children who are 8, 7, 6 and 2 years old.
Beyond the tunnel, the track flattens out but is quite overgrown and scratchy bushes were a pain for the children and for gaiterless short wearers. A highlight of this section was an unusual flowery thing. We only saw 2 of these on the whole walk and it would be great if someone could tell us what it is.
What is this thing? Is it a fungus? Can anybody tell me?
Once the mountain proper is reached, some boulder scrambling leads up through bushes to another section of scratchy track. A few more boulders provided a good lunch spot just below the cloud line. All the north east mountains were visible and they also had their heads in the clouds.
Lunch just below cloud and rock scree level
From our vantage point, large areas of logging are evident on the amazingly steep slopes surrounding Mathinna. The huge contiguous chunks of national park in western Tasmania are a real treasure. While the north east has its share of reserves, they are like little islands in a sea of forestry operations. Maybe one day some of these islands could be joined up to help promote the remaining wilderness values of the area while still allowing the north east community to benefit from a well managed forestry industry.
After lunch we continued to the next section of rock scree. At this point, we decided to call it a day and turn around. The weather was closing in and some of the children were tiring of the scratchy scrub and rock scramble.
Back at the car park, fresh baked chocolate cake was a popular post walk treat. We bundled back in the car just in time for a heavy shower to chase us along the road. Perfect timing! Despite threatening cloud hovering all day, we were blessed with a dry walk.
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