Mount Field East Circuit

Date: 2007-02-17 to 2007-02-17 
Location: Mt Field National Park, Tasmania - Google Map
Party: Rimas Statkus, Vytautas Krivickas, Ginta Statkutė, Nathan, Phil

Mt Field East Plateau

Our flight out of Melbourne on the 14th of February was rather interesting as after checking in we decided to waste some time by having a quick coffee. As it turned out the coffee was not that quick and we were the last two to board our Virgin Blue flight into Hobart.

The first few days of this trip I and Ginta spent doing 'touristy' activities in the southern part of Tasmania, a quick visit to Port Arthur Historic Site, Hastings Caves, etc. During these travels we also had a fantastic opportunity to sample some of the Tasmania's fresh fruit and berries. Still to this day I remember the sweet taste of fresh blackberries we got from a roadside stall on the way to Hastings.

This trip was also not without its fare share of incident, some of which will remain unmentioned and hidden away in the memories of those present. However one of the more annoying incidents would have to be the fact that shortly after arriving in Hobart I discovered that my camera had decided to stop working, and thus all of the photos on this trip were taken with my phone, and as such the quality of the images is somewhat less that perfect.

OK, I must admit that hitting the Salamanca bars the night before heading out to Tasmanian wilderness might not have been the brightest idea, but at least we picked up two extra hikers. Once again we headed out into the ruggered southwest of Tasmania later than we had planned. By the time we arrived and set up base camp it was already past midday and we were finally ready to hike out.

The park ranger suggested we walk this track in the reverse direction as that way you get to return to your car on the downhill section of the road. So we headed up the windy Lake Dobson road for about 9km past the campsite at the entrance to the Mt Field National Park. The track initially lead up a steady climb which soon evened out and offered fantastic views of Lake Nicholls especially if you decided to climb onto some trackside boulders.

No much later we made our first pit stop on the shores of Lake Nicholls, where after replenishing our water supplies and splashing around for a while we set off again. Checking out the little hut on our way. Next came a steeper and more challenging climb towards the peak of Mt Field East. After what only seemed like a few minutes of scaling a boulder field we glanced back to see Lake Nicholls which now appeared more like a puddle than a lake.

After that the track levels out a bit and curves gently towards a track junction. Here I had a bit of a rest stop to allow my blood sugars to restabilise again as they were playing up a bit today, as the rest of the party headed up to the summit of the mountain. It took the rest of the group just over half an hour to reach the summit of the mountain and its castle tower like cairn.

After the group rejoined we moved on thought the flat marshy plain, crisscrossed with numerous creaks and ponds. On this flat terrain I was for the first time no longer slowing down the group, if anything I was racing away as I headed the group. This is also where I ran into one of the native inhabitants of this wilderness, a juvenile brown snake. Just as we were about to cross it's path it decided to dash in between my stride, and let me tell you having one of the worlds most poisonous snakes slithering between your legs really does get your adrenalin pumping. It was scary enough meeting him never mind his 2 meter big brother I stepped over the following day on the way to the Lady Barron Falls.

The track over this marshy plateau was at times a bit difficult to follow and one did have to depend on the track markers most of the time. A few kilometres later we started our descent towards Lake Fenton. The track took us past quite a few giant rocks, and Rimi as always didn't waste this opportunity to climb most of them.

Before we reached the shores of Lake Fenton the rest of the group did another detour to a lookout over the lake, while I tried to subside yet another hypo. We reached the shores of the lake just as the sun was beginning to set, and I was really annoyed at not having a good working camera as the views over the lake were quite spectacular.

After a well deserved rest we followed the 2 or so kilometres down the Lake Dobson road back to the start of walk. The beauty of this place is not only in the beautiful landscape we had the privilege of visiting, nor the crystal clean waters of the river and lakes of the Tasmanian wilderness we refreshed ourselves with, nor the wondrous fauna found here. It is the combination of all these things or maybe it is the realization that we are just a tiny part of this wonderful planet we call home.

So go on pick up a backpack, slip on a pair of boots and go for a walk into the less seen and yet more precious corners of out earth.