Bushwalk Australia

Advanced notice - likely to appear on PWS website later today

Walkers on the Overland Track face an extra two hours’ walk to Echo Point if they require a pick-up from the Lake St Clair ferry, due to flooding at Narcissus.

Senior ranger for Lake St Clair and the Overland Track, Trevor Norris, said the Narcissus jetty, traditionally the finish point for walkers on the Overland Track, is flooded due to the high water levels on Lake St Clair and the ferry is now collecting and disembarking passengers at Echo Point.

Although there is no ferry radio at Echo Point, walkers can make ferry bookings at Narcissus Hut via the radio, with the ferry collecting passengers from Echo Point at 2pm each day, if bookings are sufficient.

Trevor said this level of flooding hasn’t been seen for about a decade and it will have to be endured for days, if not weeks.

“We expect that water levels will remain high for at least another fortnight until levels in hydro dams further downstream are lowered.”

Curious- Why dont they pickup closer to the hut? Happened in the past...

Thanks for the "heads up".

Bit confused why they would change the Winter pick up times (off the website) http://www.lakestclairwildernessholiday ... -and-ferry

Ferry Timetable (Winter)

Cynthia Bay Narcissus River Return
11.00am 11.30am 12.20pm*

Suppose it allows for the additional time to walk to Echo Point

Will ring, confirm and post - we are there next week.....

This was the jetty on Thurs 10 Sep. We had to wade through water about thigh deep


Roger

A related photo that might give you all a chuckle:

“Why it pays to obey signage – Fergie’s Paddock, Lake St Clair 12 September 2009”

The preferable alternate to a forced swim in 3.5 degree centigrade water; Jetty @ Echo Point 12 September 2009

You are going to have to tell us the story...
Surfer Shane by name and by nature perhaps?

@ Tasadam

Will do soon – just got back and still recovering from travelling!

Cant wait for this story.... That tent pic cracks me up......

That is a classic shot. I laughed out loud. Is that your tent, Shane, or somebody else's? I'm assuming it's not yours.

Son of a Beach wrote:That is a classic shot. I laughed out loud. Is that your tent, Shane, or somebody else's? I'm assuming it's not yours.

It belonged to a party who finished the Overland Track at Lake St Clair on 11 September 2009 who I ended up camping next to at Fergie’s Paddock that night. The next morning I went down to get a couple of shots and one of the guy’s thought it would be fun to float his tent out past the sign. As I told them, if they didn’t publish a few images of the same, I sure would; the semi-submerged sign was fun enough and this really put in the perfect finishing touch!

One thing I really noticed was the difference in temperature between the water here and at Narcissus Jetty. While the water at Fergie’s Paddock was just cold, the water coming out the Narcissus River which was draining recent snowfalls was near *&%$#! freezing. (Quoted as being 3.5 deg C) The parties I met who had to basically strip off and swim from the boat where not at all pleased about this fact!


Still – make sure you warn everyone about the freak high tides at Lake St Clair!

Did I forget to warn about the giant swells that lap the lake?

I think I might have met you at Echo Shane. I was at Echo on the night of 12/9.
I was camped out in the blue tent.

Roger

norts wrote:I think I might have met you at Echo Shane. I was at Echo on the night of 12/9.
I was camped out in the blue tent.

Roger

Rodger – the Wilderness Equipment tent with your son?

Thanks for being hospitable and hope you both enjoyed the trek!

Thats correct
Hope your walk was good.
Roger

SurferShane wrote:Did I forget to warn about the giant swells that lap the lake?

The surf does get fairly impressive at times. I took a trip up the Lake to start the OT approx 15 years ago. The waves were at least a metre high and the Lake was flooded to a similar height that was seen last month. This made the boat bounce around alarmingly and bash the very highest section of the Cynthia Bay Jetty dramatically.

Due to driver issues, our 9am trip was delayed 2 hours and when we fronted up at 11am, we were told there would be a further delay of 30 minutes waiting for a group of VIP visitors who were coming along for the ride.

The group turned out to be a bunch of government officials and camera club people with some American-sounding special guest. Once we got underway, progress up the lake was very slow as we battled the impressive waves. My guest and I were asked if we would mind stopping at Echo Point for a while on the way up so the other visitors could have a short break. They were not handling the rough conditions very well.

The high lake level meant the Echo Point jetty was completely underwater so we had to climb on and off at the bow where had tied up against a tree. This meant sidling carefully around the side of the boat. As we reboarded, I was following the special guest. Just as he bowed his head to go in the door, he leant backward and went straight into the deep water. Once we hauled him back in, the reaction of the other guests was extraordinary. They fussed over him in the back of the boat and started extracting massive amounts of camera equipment from the inside pockets on his jacket. They would cry out in excitement when they found the odd piece of equipment which had stayed dry. At one stage there was a suggestion that perhaps the 'walkers' (I guess that was us) may be happy to go from Echo Point to Narcissus via Cynthia Bay! Thankfully the driver squashed that idea very quickly and we proceeded up the lake and into the Narcissus River where we continued all the way up and tied up right in front of the hut.

Once we escaped the rest of the crowd, I had a chance to ask the boat driver about the grpup. Apparently the VIP guest was Galon Roul (spelling could be miles off) and he was a 'world-famous' wilderness photographer whose work regularly featured on the front cover of Readers Digest Magazine. I've not heard anything more about this since. At some stage I will dig back through my archives and look for my photos which may give a more accurate indication of the date and conditions (my memory may have caused some embelishment over time).

It was a great trip through the OT. I was guiding a German teenager who had walked extensively in the European Alps but was unsure about Tassie conditions. We did the trip in three days and my guest was amazed at the variety of weather extremes experienced. We encountered thunder storms with torrential rain, floods, deep snow, hail, gale forced winds and, incredibly, sunny blue sky.

tastrekker wrote:..................... Apparently the VIP guest was Galon Roul (spelling could be miles off) and he was a 'world-famous' wilderness photographer whose work regularly featured on the front cover of Readers Digest Magazine. I've not heard anything more about this since. At some stage I will dig back through my archives and look for my photos which may give a more accurate indication of the date and conditions (my memory may have caused some embelishment over time).
.................

Galen Rowell perhaps
http://www.mountainlight.com/

BarryJ wrote:Galen Rowell perhaps

That's him! I can't wait to find my happy snaps of this member of wilderness and adventure photography royalty going about his business. The bio on his website says he is famous for photography which "transcends being an observer with a camera to become an active participant in the image being captured." Rather apt I think.

It's sad to see on his site that he died 7 years ago aged 61.

That was very quick of you Barry J. Were you on that trip or is it just your superior knowledge of famous photographers?

tastrekker wrote:..............................

That was very quick of you Barry J. Were you on that trip or is it just your superior knowledge of famous photographers?

None of the above. Just used Google and a bit of "lateral thinking" with some spelling variations.