I was visiting Tasmania for a few weeks, the plan being to spend Christmas at my sister and brother in law’s near Ulverstone. I was able to do a few bushwalks while I was there. The first was a nice walk to Turrana Bluff in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park.
This was being led by my brother in law, Shane, for the North West Walking Club and he invited me along as a visitor. In the party were Shane and my sister, Alicson, and Cathie, Sonia, Joshua and myself. We set off from the Walls of Jerusalem car park.
We first walked along the usual track to Trappers Hut, then we took a faint side track that led to Lake George Howe. This was very pleasant walking, at first through sub-alpine forest.
It was nice to see some Tasmanian Waratahs –
I was nice when we got into the alpine zone – lots of small lakes and cushion plants. It was great to get back to this sort of country.
At Lake George Howe, we stopped for s short break. And after refreshments, we continued on, crossing the gentle valley of Wild Dog Creek and climbing up through the Golden Gate. This route from Trappers Hut was all new to me – and it was certainly very nice. Easy walking in a beautiful environment.
A bit further on we left our rough track which continues on to the Vale of Hinam. We crossed some open moors of the Zion Vale and headed towards Lake Thor. We made our way around the eastern shore, again on a faint pad, to reach an open area. Here we looked around for campsites. It was quite windy at the lake, so we looked a little further back in a more sheltered area. We found some reasonable sites – but they were a bit spread out. Shane and Alicson made an exploratory trip beyond our campsite to check out the route up to the Daisy Lakes for the next day.
The next morning, we left early for a day trip. The original plan was to visit both Mersey Crag and Turrana Bluff. However, Shane, realised that this was a bit ambitious, and it would be better to just visit one peak – Turrana Bluff. This was wise as it turned out to be a fairly long day to the Bluff and back to our camp at Lake Thor.
Our route was to climb up to the Daisy Lakes, pass through a small gap between the lakes and then drop down to the Long Tarns, cross them and then continue to Turrana Bluff.
We had beautiful weather as we climbed up through light scrub to the tops near the Daisy Lakes. I knew the Daisy Lakes and the Long Tarns well from my previous trips to the Walls of Jerusalem from Higgs Track. It was good to return to this bushwalking paradise. The country is generally open, but there are thickets of prickly scrub around. You need to route find your way through and also keep an eye on the maps to ensure you are trending in the right general direction. But it is easy to get distracted by the amazing beauty on offer. The wild beauty of the numerous tarns, the pencil pines and the wild flowers – in particular the scoparia which was just starting to flower.
As we descended to the Long Tarns, we passed some beautiful campsites.
It was easy to cross the Long Tarns. We then continued on through the alpine country, gradually climbing up to Turrana Bluff.
We were soon high enough to get a good view of the distant peaks of the Reserve.
It was not much further to the summit and more good views.
We then made our way back to Lake Thor – the same way as we had come. The next morning we set of back to the carpark, but via a different route. This time we headed back to Zion Vale then followed the original track to the Vale of Hinam then climbed up to The Jaffa Gate and down to Dixons Kingdom. We then walked through the Pencil Pine forest and made a quick trip up The Temple for some more great views.
Lunch was had at the Pool of Bethesda.
From there it was an easy and pleasant walk through the Central Valley and out through Herods Gate and then past Solomons Jewels – a beautiful series of lakes, and down to Trappers Hut and the last section back to the carpark.
This was a really pleasant walk. Thanks to Shane for the invitation to join the party. More photos from the walk can be found on this page.