～流。浪。子。的。部落格～: Tasmania, the hidden jewel of Australia 2011/08/01-15 day 6

Sunrise over Mt.Oakleigh, Barn Bluff & Cradle mountain in the far distance!!! Click for enlarge photo!!! I wished i can stay there longer…sigh

Zoom shot of sunrise over Barn bluff (1559m) & Cradle mountain (1545m).

The right pic above depicts a comic easy to understand teaching people on minimal impact bushwalking while you are sitting or peeing in the toilet which is a good way to get people’s attention because most people will need to go the loo somehow. SO what is minimal impact bushwalking, hmm…trying to remembere: register your walk, bring in and out your own rubbish, keep to the track, don’t erect cairns or blaze trees, use a campsite (not camping anywhere), don’t cut live vegetation, respect other’s privacy to zzz, never feed the wild here, avoid gastro and never loo in the nearby stream which people used for drinking/cooking (dig a hole15cm deep, lol), do not wash your stuff/dishes in the nearby stream too, no open fire, keep group size small.

Well, the time doesn’t stop, and it’s always time to go. The moss in this forest is damn amazing as depicted in the upper left pic, unfortunately, i don’t have much time to stop and shoot many of these photos due to the lack of light.

The vegetation changed again to scrub like. Heaps of pandani trees!!! The famous plant in Tasmania!!!

This section was very nice when you hike through myrtle-beech rainforest. A huge pulled out tree root on the upper left pic while Jono and Alex were inspecting a dead carcass, haha.

After the strenuous climb up to pelion gap, the vegetation gradually changed to alpine communities and even though it was quite strenuous, but my heart was so excited to see the snow again in the open!!!

This is pelion gap (1126m), the intersection to Mt.Ossa, yeah!!! Though the weather didn’t look great but we decided we gona ascent Mt.Ossa, another Yeah!!! However, it’s not recommended actually, because normally when you can’t see the summit of a peak, the chances of that changing is nil later too. It’s not recommended to scale to the peak when/after rain or snow as it involved steep scrambling at the end of the climb.

Clouds clouds go away, haha. But the view was still awesome!!! Looking at the alpine plants blanketed with FRESH SNOW!!! Just like ICE-CREAM, lol.

Me with a nerdy look, all rugged up from the cold, left our pack aside and getting ready to GO!!! haha.

(Photo from Jiun Hui) Jiun Hui, the Taiwanese girl was here at the same time, so she helped us to snap a few photos and emailed it to me, Thanks Jiun Hui!!!

(Upper left photo from Jiun Hui) Pandani covered with snow looked very pretty!!!

(Photo from Jiun Hui) This was Jiun Hui’s expression: I was surprised to see you guys up there suddenly so far already after a few minutes of shooting the surroundings, you guys must be going at a very fast pace!!! Yes indeed WE WERE, LOL.

Approaching the southern slope of Mt.Doris. We brought our snow shoes up but only use it for a tiny section because the snow is not very deep plus it’s still very fresh and powdery, therefore not icy. Therefore we left it at one section.

The nut!!! Mt. Pelion East (1433m) !!!!

Mt Doris.

Click for enlarge view!!! The view in front of us and next to us!!! It’s just so mind blowing, breathtaking and surreal!!!!

Jono with the Nut as backdrop.

Alex with the false peak of Mt.Ossa as backdrop.

What can i say??? This kind of view is worth dying for, LOL!!!!!

Click for enlarge view!!! The panoramic view to our left on the way up to Mt.Ossa!!! Castle Crag (1482m) on the far left, followed by a valley in between, then Du Cane range, Mt.Massif which sits on Du Cane range (1514m; not sure which peak it was) followed by a valley and a no name peak, haha. Below the mountains is the Pine Valley which clearly depicts its heaps of pine trees right below.

The view was really blowing me away because it’s partially snow covered, and it’s not too very high up that you can only see snow, mountains and nothing else, but this one you can see patches of green, shades of blues, and you can distinctly see the pine trees below because of the snow. Best of all was everything is in close proximity, and surrounded by mountains of different jagged peaks!!! Now that’s what make this view unique!!!

Ice-cream on pine trees, haha.

False peak of Mt.Ossa and fresh pure white powdery snow!!!!

Looking back again on the way we came through while ascending the gully!!!

As we climbed higher, Lake McFarlane was in sight!!!

Click for enlarge view!!! Trying to capture another stunning moment, though not very successful, LOL.

Going up the gully

Frozen rocks, amazing eh??

Spot Jono and Alex on the upper left photo and Alex on the upper right photo??? haha. After the gully, there’s a descent then walking up gradually to the bouldery summit of Mt.Ossa!!!

Jono walking amongst clouds towards the summit of Mt.Ossa. I was eating snow all the way to quench my thirst, haha.

Finally, LOL!!! the rooftop of Tasmania, though unfortunately, we couldn’t see a single thing as expected, LOL. The upper left pic showed we were sitting on the chair like rock on the summit. We didn’t stay long, very quickly we were sliding down the slopes down the gully on our bums, though it’s not a smooth painless ride because some parts were too rocky, lol.