Traveller Range

[ILUVSWTAS]

We had a trip to the Travellers over the show weekend, I was going to write up a trip report, but it's off track and a somewhat sensitive area, so a few pictures will have to tell the story. The last night was one of the coldest I have ever had, we all had ice forming on the inside of our tents, all boots were frozen solid.
A truly beautiful place.

[ILUVSWTAS]

Problem with water everywhere meant eventually we would come to something to wide to go around.....

[ILUVSWTAS]

Campsites were amazing.

[ILUVSWTAS]

More river crossings, and a panorama of the Ducane range.

[tasadam]

Nice work!
That "Cold" photo, I see that and I REMEMBER that feeling!! I remember the feeling of cold numb hands trying to do things. It hurts thinking about it.

With all that frost, were the skies clear? Did you have a good starry night?

[ILUVSWTAS]

It was so cold we had a brief snow storm, but there were no clouds, it was just moisture in the air freezing.
Clear nights, but no stars due to the full moon. I found it hard to sleep with the moon lighting my tent up.

[HitchHiking]

Looks like a great trip, nice collection of tents there! good to see em getting a work out with the chilli temps

[Mickeymoo]

Great photos, looks like a great trip! The Ducane Range looks pretty impressive from there, nice pano. We were a few kms west on the Tyndall Range over the same weekend, unfortunately we had a fair bit of rain fri/sat, doesn't sound like much made it as far as you guys!

[Son of a Beach]

Fantastic stuff! Great pictures - makes me want to get out there (but can't see that happening any time soon due to other non-walking commitments).

Looks like you had some pretty good weather (apart from the cold).

[ILUVSWTAS]

Thanks Micheal.
I am very keen to get up to the Tyndalls, how did you find it up there?? We had a little rain on Friday night and some light drizzle Saturday morning, but it was fine and warm the rest of the time.

Cheers Nik, it was a really nice walk!! Not too difficult and most of the scrub can be avoided.

[eggs]

Nice photos.
Strange about Ida - I thought your group would have been able to work that one out?

And the panorama? - how did you get the Acropolis to be bigger than Geryon and the Ducaine Range?

[abowen]

Hi Mark,
Nice photos. Be at Mt Ida this weekend. Hopefully it won't be as cold and we will be able to camp somewhere on the Lake St Clair side of Ida. Is access to Ida from the east?
Cheers
Andrew

[ILUVSWTAS]

Brian, Scrubmaster had been to Ida before some time ago, so we all followed his lead. Unfortunately it seems he couldnt remember which way they went last time, and we ended up doing a ridge traverse which ended in impassable cliffs.

Andrew, apparantly Ida can be accessed from either side, I hear there is a difficult section near the top which requires manouvering around a rock with some exposure.

[stu]

A few of mine from the same trip.
Brian, Ida was aborted due to the lateness of day, a safe turn around time was necessary to get to packs & further along the range to camp 3.
Scrubmaster unfortunately must be getting older as his memory of his previous visit 15 years prior was a little hazed & we found ourselves on the quite exposed & difficult subsidiary peak. Attempting a back track & re-ascent of the true peak would have taken much more time than we had available.
Despite this we had a great side trip day & the trip as a whole was fantastic. Ida can wait for a boat based trip now I think.

Another panorama of the DuCane Range from the rim of the Traveller Range.

Beautiful alpine scenery.

Tarns & Pencil Pine forest everywhere - really beautiful.

[stu]

And a few more...

Overlooking camp 2 on the ascent of Mt Spurling.

Looking toward Mt Ida from the summit of Mt Spurling.

Beautiful wilderness on our day trip attempt on Mt Ida.

[eggs]

Stu

You're not supposed to talk about memory failure with age.
Anyway - at least your panorama has the Acropolis a bit better proportioned with respect to Geryon.
And I take it from the order of photos that you took a boat up and then traversed from north to south along the range?

I would love to do this walk with the fagus in colour.

[ILUVSWTAS]

Started and finished at Narcissus by way of the ferry.

[stu]

Yes, sorry Brian - I forgot to not mention memory failure, I must be getting older too

We had originally planned to traverse the full range north to south, but plans changed & we thought it quicker to head back to Narcissus.
Scrubmaster led us with precision off the edge of the rim to the OT - barely any scrub on the full descent which was quite amazing -
all mostly beautiful open forest; we ended up on the familiar long, snaking section of new boardwalk north of the bridge.

The full southern section of the range looked a little boring, I'd highly recommend a route similar to ours, a great walk

[Mickeymoo]

Nice pics too Stu.

Thanks Micheal.
I am very keen to get up to the Tyndalls, how did you find it up there?? We had a little rain on Friday night and some light drizzle Saturday morning, but it was fine and warm the rest of the time.

Yeah, a steep couple of hours to start with but fantastic walking once up on top, there is certainly a plethora of campsites to choose from, although most are reasonably exposed. We had planed to stay up there a couple more days to explore around Tyndall and Lake Huntley but the weather was pretty ordinary (it started blowing and raining friday evening and was still sleeting/ hailing sat afternoon!) so we ended up heading out a little early. Definantly an area I want to get back to for some better photos/ exploration though.

[MJD]

Nice pictures guys. Good to see a nice cold morning to wake you all up. Looks like you had more fun than my weekend of gardening and looking after the other half's broken ankle .

I reckon, after looking at my old photos and maps, that we went up the gully between the two peaks from the south east side; then out onto the north west side and around to the summit. The small waterfall that I have a picture of is probably on the stream flowing out of Rim Lake.

[juju]

What a fantastic place Tassie is. Beautiful pictures!
ILUVSWTAS Were you with a BW group? (as there are so many tents)
No wonder peak bagging is so popular in Tassie, you probably have to be one to get anywhere!

[stu]

What a fantastic place Tassie is. Beautiful pictures!
ILUVSWTAS Were you with a BW group? (as there are so many tents)
No wonder peak bagging is so popular in Tassie, you probably have to be one to get anywhere!

Not a formal group juju (ie. not a walking club trip), just a bunch of mates with a common interest.
Quite a few of us originally met through BWT & have since become good mates

Peak Bagging is a great way to discover places you never want to go back to
This trip was not one of those instances tho, thankfully the great places seem to far outweigh the bad places.

[Azza]

Not a formal group juju (ie. not a walking club trip), just a bunch of mates with a common interest.
Quite a few of us originally met through BWT & have since become good mates

I thought we're known as Team Awesome aka The Southern Posse... Slayers of Sea-to-Summit Gaiters.

[ILUVSWTAS]

Lol.
Team Awesome... that and/or team retarded.

[Ciaran]

Great pics fellas!! Love the panorama of the Du Cane Range by stu.

Looking more forward to the "Range" trip in late november.

Thanks for sharing.

[Azza]

that and/or team retarded.

Actually yea.. thats the one I meant...

[Ian62]

Hi just reading your post of a few years ago. Very interested in you route off that goes to the OT just north of the swing bridge. If you still have the way points and gpx route that would be great. Thanks Ian