23/3/2008 - Lees Paddocks
TasTrekker, Mrs TasTrekker and 3 junior TasTrekkers (9, 6 and 3 years old) left the Mersey Forest Road at 11:30 Sunday morning. Pushbikes helped our older 2 children make a speedy descent to the Mersey River and up to the end of the vehicular track that crosses Pine Hut Plain. Here we stashed the bikes safely behind a man fern and continued on foot. TasTrekker junior number 3 spent most of the time on his mother's back but occasionally hopped down to do his own small share of the walking.
Bikes made the start of the Lees Paddocks Track a bit easier.
At 12:15 we detoured to visit Lewis Falls and soon after 1pm, we arrived at the dry slabs of rock above Oxley Falls for a gloriously lazy lunch in idyllic surrounds.
 Lewis Falls (top) and Oxley Falls. Lewis and Oxley Lee were the original brothers who first took cattle up to 'The Paddocks' as they have been known to several generations of mountain cattle folk.
Between Oxley Falls and Big Creek we had the pleasure of meeting TasWaterfalls on his way out. We also met 2 of the Lees descendents on horseback accompanied by their dogs. They reported that of the 40 cattle that should be present, only 27 were spotted. They planned to return at a later date to try and reunite the herd.
We estimated that Big Creek was the half way point of our walk and this encouraged the children who were starting to wonder what they were in for.
When the children arrived at the Survey Creek gate, they were over the moon and announced that they had arrived. They didn't care when I said it was a bit further to where we would camp. Their sense of accomplishment was tremendous.
From here, our group seemed to change up a gear and it was no time before we strode out onto the glorious grassy plains with Pelion East, Mount Massif and Dean Bluff all standing sentinel over this most beautiful of valleys. We arrived at camp to join Son of a Beach, Corvus and FlyFisher at 4:15pm. We were immensely proud of our achievement.
I was stoked when a couple of Hobart walkers we passed said "Your missus is doing a great job carrying the young bloke." High praise indeed. When you add 15kgs of boy to the weight of the Macpac Possum and the various drink bottles, snacks and jumpers that ended up on her back, it was a fine achievement.
 Our campsite at Lees Paddocks below Dean Bluff. I'm not sure where it came from but the children seemed to find some spare energy to run around at the end the day's walk.
After a pleasant meal in the company of fellow forum members, we retreated to the downstairs bedroom (the lower river flat) to give some separation in case our junior walkers were noisy during the night.
The next morning dawned cool and clear with a tiny hint of mist shrouding Dean Bluff. Breakfast, packing up and farewells were dispensed with by 8:30am when we hit the track. The promise of fishing from Grandad’s boat at Moina later in the day was the commitment that kept us from staying longer. In any case, the chorus of "I want to go HOME" from our youngest walker suggested we were on borrowed time.
 After flowing west through the Never Never, the Mersey River swings north to flow through Lees Paddocks before swinging east toward Lake Rowallan. The effect at The Paddocks is a four sided valley with Mount Pelion East (top) to the west, Mount Massif (above) to the south, Mount Pillinger to the north and the ridge between Dean Bluff and Cathedral Mountain to the east. If you look closely at the top photo, you can see the 27 4-legged bovine bushwalkers munching peacefully in their mountain paradise.
The walk out was impressive. We made excellent time and there was not even the slightest hint of, "Are we there yet?" from anyone. The only concern was that middle TasTrekker junior wondered whether her bike would still be there.
Indeed the bikes were still there and we had to chase the speedy cyclists over Pine Hut Plain before recrossing the Mersey. The last climb up to the cars extracted its fair share of sweat from us in the midday heat but our speed barely eased off. Junior number 1 proudly announced that we arrived 3 hours and 33 minutes after leaving the campsite.
By 1:30pm, we had joined the in-laws for an afternoon of boating, fishing and barbecue fun on their bush block at Moina, beside Lake Gairdner in the shadow of Stormont and Mt Jacob. Junior number 2 was most proud to land the only trout of the day.
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