Mt Anne is the stuff of legends.
Locals in Hobart have told us that they have driven the 2 hours to the trail head up to six times only to have their plans foiled with horrendous weather. Neale Meredith, who was on this walk, recently preached at a church in Hobart and told our Mt Anne story, afterwards someone came up to him speaking in amazement that a group of people travelled from all over Australia and simply walked the full Mt Anne Circuit with little interference from the inclement weather the area is well known for. There are endless stories about repeated attempts by people to simply summit this, the highest mountain in SW Tasmania, here is just one as an example.
I had just come off the Overland walk with my family of five, a wonderful memory making walk for us all. My mate Stuart’s family and ours did a few days touring the east coast of Tasmania in camper vans before we were dropped off in Hobart and united with Gavin and Lance from Perth and Jason and Neale from Melbourne.
Day One – We couldn’t resist some excited ‘whoops’ as Mt Anne came into view against a clear blue sky backdrop.
Photos taken and bodies re-loaded into our hire cars we sorted out the car drop for the end of the walk (It’s not quite a complete circuit with about 8.5km between trail head and end). We started at Condominium Creek and finished at the Red Tape Creek.
We headed off into a scorching mid-day sun. The ridge line up Mt Eliza is significant and the arrival at the hut with cold water from a tank was a refreshing reward. We decided to make this hut our home for the night. The views of Lake (?) Pedder from the hut were nothing short of spectacular.
On Day Two we awoke to yet another day of blue skies and a warm (hot?) forecast. Some were suffering a little from some sunburn from the previous day. We dragged ourselves up a far less clear trail than the previous day, but with no difficulty knowing where we were going due to the clear conditions and the impressive summit of Anne to guide us. Some scrambling up rocks brought us to the high plain and access to the turn off to High Shelf Camp where we dropped our packs and headed on up to summit Mt Anne.
Clear views of Lot’s Wife and much further afield toward Frenchman’s Cap abounded, this was the stuff memories were made of! To actually summit Mt Anne is no easy task, a fair bit of hanging on to rocks and pulling yourself up, then shuffling around small ledges are needed to make it necessary before finally getting on top of this mountain that looks in some way like a giant truck came by and deposited it’s load of rocks here in the South West. As we returned to High Shelf Camp and cooled off in the high mountain tarns we were aware of moving clouds and a gentle breeze that was slowly increasing. Shelf camp lived up to all of its expectations. Note – free standing tents are best suited. It’s all rock.
One of Australia’s BEST campsites, hands down!
Day Three we awoke to flapping tents and some very light showers. We kind of knew we were ‘in for it’, so we packed up and headed out towards the more adventurous section of this circuit.
Before dropping into and through the legendary “Notch” we stood out on a ledge taking great photos of Lake Judd, down behind us. We moved down the steep sides of The Notch and began to prepare to drag our packs up the other side. Jason scrambled up to the top and dropped a length of rope which we dragged each pack up and over with.
Once around this side of the mountain we begin to notice that Judd is not the only lake in the area, but in fact we are surrounded by high mountain lakes; Picone, Lovely Tarns, Judd’s Charm and many others, very pretty. But it was time to focus on our footing rather than the views, the precarious ridge down off these high parts was a mass of rugged boulders, this, mixed with a now hurricane force gale blowing from our right we held tight and descended slowly. Half way down we decided on a windy lunch break and the challenge of lighting a stove…just so we could say we did it 🙂 .
By the time we arrived at Judd’s Charm campsite the rain was coming in violently sideways. The campsite, already occupied was aflood, water was pouring out from under the tents. Even though it was late afternoon, we had no desire to stay, even though that was our original plan. We chatted for some time around the chance of finding another suitable site to camp further along towards the Lake Judd track. The maps showed no hope, it was either contours or…mud flat. We…well we just kept going through driving rain and at times, waist deep mud. Just after coming off a very overgrown downhill section from Mt Sarah Jane spur with minimal visibility due to rain and low cloud we took a trail wrong turn along the Anne River trail. It was Stuart’s fine navigation skills that showed us the error of our ways and pointed us back out to the main, muddy trail(s) – it’s really messy along there!
By 9pm that night (still in daylight fortunately), we crawled through the trail end, signed the book and headed for the car park. We now had a day up our sleeve, so some exploring around the Scott’s Peak Dam and trail head to the Port Davey Track (save that one for 2020!) and the Arthurs Track.
This was a lot of work and money for just 3 days walking, especially for the guys who came just for the Mt Anne Circuit from Perth, but I have to say, it was one of the most challenging and fun walks Ive ever done. It’s just an amazing part of the world.
iplod 