DERWENT BRIDGE & LAKE St CLAIR

 

1/ The Wall is a massive 100 metre sculpture on the hardships and achievements of the early pioneers of Tasmania. It is located just east of Derwent Bridge and is a must see. The telephone number is (03) 6289 1134 and the Internet contact is www.thewalltasmania.com

2/ The modern visitor centre on the southern edge of Lake St Clair is where all the walks begin and end. This complex has a ranger office , restaurant, toilets and showers. You must clean your boots before you enter the national park to prevent the spread of harmful fungi as this is a pristine area.

3/ This sign near the Lake St Clair visitor centre directs you to some of the trails. Note carefully the times. Your return time is double this time, plus your rest time.

4/ This bridge marks the end of the Lake St Clair part of the famous Overland Track. It is also the start of the short Platypus Bay trail.

5/ This photos shows the clear waters of a creek near Lake St Clair.

6/ The waters of Lake St Clair give off a very serene ambience. This is the viewing area of Platypus Bay. If you are lucky you can see platypuses resting on the grass.

7/ This is a little beach near Platypus Bay on the beautiful Lake St Clair.

8/ This is looking south from the beach at Platypus Bay at the southern end of Lake St Clair. The two dots on the horizon are old the pump station.

9/ The pump station at Lake St Clair was a good place to see platypuses. It has now been turned into a luxury hotel.

 

1/ The Lake St Clair ferry boat is an easy way to reach two exotic locations; Echo Point and Narcissus Bay. The latter is the exit point for the famous Overland Trail.

2/ Mount Ida towers 1240 metres above Lake St Clair on the eastern shore. It is a major landmark.

4/ In every direction of Lake St Clair you see towering peaks. This cloud hid the face of the spectacular Acropolis Mountain.

5/ Echo Point has a hut located in a mysterious myrtle grove. It is half way up Lake St Clair on the western shore.

6/ This is the view from the Echo Point hut across the beautiful Lake St Clair.

7/ This photo shows the approach to Narcissus Bay on the northern edge of the Lake St Clair. Towering over the Bay is Mount Gould, which is 1490 metres high.

8/ To the east of Narcissus Bay is Mount Manfred, which is 1382 metres high.

9/ Looking to the south east of Lake St Clair, you see the famous Mount Olympus, which is 1450 metres high.

10/ This is the Mount Olympus that you see from Narcissus Bay on Lake St Clair.

11/ Mount Olympus is a wall that towers down on Narcissus Bay. At the top of this page is a view of Mount Olympus on a more favorable day.

12/ This is the southern end of the Overland Trail on Lake St Clair. The Narcissus Bay hut is beyond these trees.

 

1/ The last leg of the famous Overland Trail is the Lake St Clair Trail. You can access it by catching the ferry either to Narcissus Bay at the top of Lake St Clair or to Echo Point half way down Lake St Clair. You then walk south through a beautiful forest with great views of Lake St Clair. This photo shows the ferry passing the pinnacle of Mount Ida. A group of German climbers were climbing it the day that we visited Lake St Clair in 2015.

2/ As the ferry approached the Echo Point jetty, I was fortunate to gain this view of the Acropolis. This is a spectacular mountain north of Lake St Clair. It was covered by cloud the last time that I visited Lake St Clair. I intend to visit it again soon.

3/ This is the view from Echo Point on the eastern shore of Lake St Clair. These two trees are symbolic of the location.

4/ The Lake St Clair Track goes through a beautiful myrtle forest. The trees are so dense that they darken the trail. It is a really enchanting place.

5/ There are many giant trees around Lake St Clair. This one had to be cut through to allow access to walkers. This cutting is higher than a man.

6/ This is a view of the forest that surrounds you.

7/ The forest is punctuated by views of Lake St Clair. In this view you can see Mount Ida.

8/ Huge manferns are also prolific on the Lake St Trail. These manferns were taller than a man.

9/ This photo shows you the combinations of manferns and trees that you see on the trail.

10/ Lake St Clair is blessed by having an number of beaches that can be accessed from the trail. The lake's water is pure and transparent.

11/ These saplings have been blown over by the wind to drag up their soil to make this strange shape. The Lake St Clair Trail is to the left of this photo.

12/ The Lake St Clair Trail is punctuated by places where you can walk down to experience the Lake. The white dot on the horizon is the old pump house, which is now a luxury hotel.

13/ You see a plethora of vegetation on the trail that towers around you.

14/ This is the Overland Track Monument at the visitor centre at Cynthia Bay. It describes the Track and shows where the huts are located.

 

1/ This gallery shows photos made on a trip to Mt Hugel in the summer of 2015. We camped over night on Mt Hugel and then continued north to Mt Little Hugel, before we journey home via Shadow Lake. This image shows Shadow Lake and it is looking north towards Mt Little Mt Hugel.

2/ We began by trekking west on the Mt Rufus Track.

3/ The first landmark we met was Shadow Lake. This image is looking west towards Mt Hugel. We would be leaving the Mt Rufus Track and ascending the slope on the left. We would then be walking north along the denuded spur line of Mt Hugel towards Mt Little Hugel.

4/ This image was made as we were ascending Mt Hugel. It is looking north east towards Mt Olympus and Lake Petrarch, which are on the left of this image.

5/ This image looks north towards Mt Hugel, which is the peak to the left. We were no longer following a track. You can see a small tarn on the right of the image. This journey was possible, because much of the spur line of Mt Hugel is only covered by sparse, alpine vegetation.

6/ This image is looking down from the spur line to the east at Forgotten Lake. In the distance is Mt Othrys.

7/ This image from Mt Hugel is looking towards the east at lakes, from right to left, Forgotten and Shadow. The third lake is a temporarily submerged swampy area. On the distant horizon is Lake St Clair.

8/ At sunset we camped at a tarn near Mt Hugel. This view looks to the north. On the right is Mt Byron and the peak to the left is Mt Cuvier. They are reflecting the last light of the sun.

8/ This is the tarn near Mt Hugel at sunrise. Note the rich colours of the morning.

9/ We then set out to cross Mt Hugel. This image looks north towards the summit of Mt Hugel. In the distance on the right is Mt Olympus.

10/ This image was taken near the summit of Mt Hugel and is looking west of Mt Hugel towards Lake Hermione. Beyond it are the peaks of the Cheyne Range.

11/ This is another view looking south west past Lake Hermione to the many peaks of the south west of Tasmania.

12/ This is the view from the summit of Mt Hugel looking to the north east. The lake is Lake Solitude and the mountain beyond it is Mt Olympus.

13/ This image looks across the denuded spur line of Mt Hugel towards the mountains of the north west. It shows what the vegetation cover looked like on most of the spur line we were following.

14/ The summit of Mt Hugel is a rocky and denuded area. This image is looking east from Mt Hugel at Forgotten Lake and Shadow Lake.

15/ There is a gap in the spur line between Mt Hugel and Mt Little Hugel, so we had to make our way through an area of thicker vegetation. This image shows pandanis, which are common in this area.

16/ This is a large unnamed tarn west of Mt Little Hugel that we passed.

17/ This image shows the rough country that we had to make our way through.

18/ This image shows a hill west of Mt Little Hugel. The image also show you the diverse terrain that we were making our path through.

19/ We were very happy to reach the track west of Mt Little Hugel. This image shows us ascending Mt Little Hugel.

20/ This image shows the view of the plateau south east of Mt Little Hugel.

21/ Finally we reached the cairn on Mt Little Hugel. We then followed a Tasmanian tradition of each of us adding a stone to the cairn.

22/ This image is looking south east from Mt Little Hugel. The lake in the distance on the left is Lake St Clair. On the left is a track marker. We would now be following the Mt Little Hugel Track back to Forgotten Lake.

22/ This image shows our route back to Forgotten Lake. It looks towards the north west at Mt Olympus.

23/ This image shows some of the well sculptured rocks that we found on the Mt Little Hugel Track.

24/ This image looks back to the area of sculptured rocks. You will notice how these rocks almost look like they are cairns. Note too the lovely wild flowers that we saw in this area. We then followed this track back to the Mt Rufus Track, which took us back to the visitor centre at Cynthia Bay on Lake St Clair.

 

1/ Shadow Lake is west of the southern shore of Lake St Clair. Our journey in March 2021 took five hours to reach it and return to the visitor centre. Our trail continued on to Mt Hugel, Mt Rufus and Forgotten Lake. This image shows Shadow Lake. Beyond is Little Mt Hugel.

2/ The trail was well signed and fairly easy to follow. However, it was very rough and wet in many places. The journey was very interesting as it passed through many very different areas of vegetation. In this image we passed through a eucalyptus forest.

3/ This image looks west towards Mt Rufus, which is 1416 metres high. It looks across a meadow and illustrates the very different belts of vegetation that we passed through.

4/ The vegetation in this area was dominated by mosses and had a strange mystical ambience.

5/ This strange shaped tree was covered in moss.

6/ In some areas ferns dominated the landscape.

7/ We saw many different types of fungus. This one was the size and shape of a human buttock. It was colloquially called the "bum fungus". Many of the interesting things that we saw were very small.

8/ Finally after two and a half hours we reached Shadow Lake. We then stopped for lunch and as we left I took this photo of Little Mt Hugel in the soft afternoon light. It took another two hours to return to the visitor centre.

9/ This is a lovely tarn that we passed on our return. I was lucky to capture the reflections.