20-Feb-2025
After an early flight to Hobart Cath picked us up. Then a three hour drive to the start at the Gordon Range. The car park already had three cars on a Thursday. So this walk had become more popular than we expected.
We organised our gear and headed off down to the crossing of the Gordon River. This turned out to be easy. An enormous tree had fallen across the river and made a perfect bridge.
We left a food drop on the other side in case the river was up on our return. James had a new Possum Proof bag made of wire mesh to store the food drop in.
We managed to do 9km across a beautiful button grass plain before stopping about 6pm to camp in the last of the forest before the climb up to Lake Rhona. The light rain that was forecast for the afternoon had held off. And we had a pleasant night camped among the burnt trees.
21-Feb-2025
Up bright and early after a cold night. We headed off about 8am to blue skies and some high clouds. After a couple of km of button grass plains we arrived at the 400m climb up to Lake Rohna. It was a steep climb for 2km up a broad ridge. Followed by a traverse around to views of a beautiful lake surrounded by huge cliffs. With the added bonus of a long white sandy beach.
We managed to get good dry weather tent sites in the scrub just back from the beach. I think they would become a creek if it started to rain.
After we set up tents and had morning tea we headed off up to the Great Dome. A steep 300m climb. Spectacular views from the top. We could see all the way back to Frenchmans Cap in the north. And to the Frankland range and the Western Arthur’s to the south.
After lunch we headed south along the Ridge for great views of Lake Gordon.
To finish the day off we had a long decent back to the camp.
We had new neighbours that had arrived while we were away. And many more arrived after we got back. There was steady stream went past while we had dinner on the beach.
All up there were 11 tents on the beach and 8 in the bush.
22-Feb-2025
Woke up to beautiful blue sky day. Breakfast on the beach.
We headed of to explore the ridge to the north west of Lake Rhona. Pretty big climb back up towards the Great Dome, then on to scramble up Reeds Peak. Spectacular views from the top.
From here the route went north to Bonds Crag. There was a lot more shattered rock which made for slow going. We arrived at the Crag at about lunch time. James managed the descent and return to Lake Malanda while we started to head back. The route was hard to find in places as there were too many Cairns.
We arrived back at camp to find even more campers.
Dinner on the beach was very pleasant but the wind was starting to pick up.
Expecting rain about 11am tomorrow morning as we walk out.
23-Feb-2025
Very windy night. We were OK as we had a sheltered spot back from the beach. A lot of the other campers had left early after a tough night. We saw one tent with a bent pole.
The forecast was for rain later in the morning. We wanted to make the crossing of the Gordon River before it rose. There is a huge tree across the river that serves as a bridge. When the river is up it is submerged. We had left a food drop just after the crossing in case we had to wait for the river to drop.
Fifteen km in five hours got us over the river before any significant rain. Then a slog back up to the car and back to Maydena for a huge hamburger.
