Our last formal walk for the year is to visit the numerous lakes on the Hartz Plateau and maybe Hartz Lake.
The weather forecast was for strong winds and some rain so based on the last few walks we were confident that the weather would not be worse than previous walks.
So a well rugged up and waterproofed group of 17 headed from the car park towards Lake Osborne.
Initially the sun was shining and the wind not very strong.
However on getting closer to the Lake the grey clouds started building.
We still seem quite happy.
The first King Billy pine beside Lake Osborne.
Still happy although we can't go any further because the Lake is quite high and its difficult crossing the outlet to do more exploration.
Striped eyebright.
Heading back towards the Hut for morning tea.
Richea Scoparia before flowering.
Lichen.
Rubiodes Bauera.
More Rubiodes Bauera.
Hunting for the old track that used to lead back to the Hut.
Looks like more weather is coming in.
Richea Scoparia in flower.
Nearly back to the Hut.
The creek that wanders alongside the Hut.
Blue sky again.
The wind starts to increase.
The clouds get lower and darker.
We arrived at Lake Esperance as the weather comes in, sleet rain and very strong winds.
Resulting in rain/sleet on the camera lense.
At this point our leader makes the decision to return to the shelter of the Hut.
Although there are some short breaks in the clouds the wind continues unabated resulting in a number of the walkers being blown of the boardwalk.
Maybe we should have taken noted on the way out of how close the date was to this incident.
After safely returning to the Hut where we had lunch we decided to walk to Arve Falls and on the way in we came across this beautiful example of the Tasmanian Waratah Telopea Truncata.
And a short way across the creek was this Melaleuca.
The start of the Arve River prior to descending the Fall.
Mountain Berries.
Then there were the Falls with a good amount of flow.
Testing the construction of the view deck.
Looking at the falls from the viewing deck.
And then just of the track in.
We had 17 walkers who covered just under 6 kms but who experienced probably the worst weather we have walked in for a number of years. Usually the weather gods are with us on our Tuesday walk.
Our illustrious leader Mendelt sent me his assessment of the walk:
In his performance review, the leader Mendelt missed out badly in most of his KPIs:-
a) The promised sparkling summer weather with sun glistening off the lakes just did not happen
Instead we had to put up with wind, rain and sleet.
b) We missed out on two of the intended lakes.
c) Several members including the leader were blown off the board walk.
d) The promised demonstration swim in one of the lakes did not happen.
e) Instead of the splash of red colour across the landscape, he could only show one Waratah in bloom.
On the positive side we lost no one to exposure and we decided to return in January.
PS - Thanks Mendelt for your leadership and the extra photos.
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