mt bobs/lake sydney

[lefrojapanfour]

i have a long weekend coming up and i am going in to lake sydney/mt bobs, but with a long weekend what other suggestions are ther to extend this trip, i understand bobs is only an overnight?

[samh]

I got a similar problem got a long weekend ahead and dont exacly know where to go. Do you got any ideas viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1836

[stu]

Mt Bobs is a fairly tough summit, after Lake Sydney it is off-track, steep & scrubby.
3 days is the recommended time frame to my understanding, ie. a day to the lake, a day to summit (you could do a circuit - up to Bobs, across the saddle to & along the Boomerang & back down to Lake Sydney from there which would be a reasonably full day) & then a day to walk out, maybe go & check out Pine Lake as a side trip.

The camping at Lake Sydney, provided the lake has drained (there is a sink hole) looks magnificent on a large, flat grassy area on the north eastern side (obvious in photo 2). If the sink hole isn't drained not sure what the options are, haven't seen it in this state before.

I did Bobs as a very long, hard day trip in December 2007 - I wrote an article about this trip here -

http://www.wildtiger.biz/?tracknotes&id=62

Have fun, the views from Bobs if clear are absolutely awesome!
A few pics to inspire

Cheers.

Stu B.

[KerryJ]

hey thanks for the info, it had been a battle finding anything out about it except that it's views are amaing....cheers for that

[lefrojapanfour]

cheers stu, i think i may have underestimated it, so hard to get any details on the walk
but thanks i have the key and am ready to roll looks like a good time, thanks again.....lefroy

[PeterJ]

I also reckon you are best to take 3 days. You can also include the Boomerang in the middle day

[tas-man]

Here are some photos of the Lake Sydney campsite from a LWC trip I went on over the March long weekend in 2002. It is a spectacular campsite IF the sinkhole below the outfall has drained this area. The grassy areas have a serpentine minature creek flowing through it giving you fresh running water at your tent door. The weather closed in on us so Mt Bobs was abandoned after we got to the saddle and could not see anything in the cloud, so we climbed the Boomerang and headed East until we were above our campsite and headed downhill on a GPS bearing.

[tas-man]

When the sinkhole is full and overflowing, the water level rises to where the edge of the clear areas abut the scrub, which makes it more difficult to find a campsite back under the pandanni and trees.

Traversing the southern edge of Lake Sydney on the way up Mt Bobs.

Decision time on the saddle, and Mt Bobs gets the thumbs down.

Here's what the view was like on the Boomerang.

[flyfisher]

Thanks for these very interesting pics of an area that many will never see.
That campsite is a cracker at low water!
FF

[leebel]

I just got back from Lake Sydney and Mt Bobs with a crazy friend. A fair 3-day trip (23-25/3/2009) for a 60 yo. The Lake Sydney track from the junction on Farmhouse Creek is really badly overgrown for a few kms with cutting grass and mud underfoot (you can't see your feet most of the time!). There is also a fair bit of downed timber to crawl under and over.

The Lake Sydney campsite was fantastic (we were the only ones there). We did the western shore of the lake on the way to the saddle to Mt Bobs but came back the eastern side. The ridge at the southern end of the lake ends in a few cliffs and bush bashing across this was not fun. If you hit the creek and go up it, just on the western side, it seems the easiest route through open rainforest. Stay with it as long as you can for it is a real scrub bash the further up you go. There is no real track to the saddle but occasionally you pick up a slight pad. Walkers have obviously spread out. From the saddle, head up to the SW and you will hopefully pick up a cairned up Mt Bobs. We found it easier to just hit the water in a few places around the eastern part of Lake Sydney on the way back. Wet feet anyway.

[lefrojapanfour]

thanks for the advice, we walked in and were saturated by the time we got to camp, the sinkhole was in flood so we had to camp in the forest as the lake was higher than the campgrounds
then to top it off we set off for bobs, but went around the wrong side of the lake, after a few hours of trying to navigate through the thick bush we gave up at the top of the knob to the right of mt bobs. turned back and headed back for a bowl of noodles and a cup of tea. it was fun but i don't think it will get a return visit, the views of federation were good tho

[stepbystep]

Hi all,
Has anybody been up here lately. I'm planning to head in for a night in the next week or so, camp at Sydney, and try to do Bobs and the Boomerang(time permitting).
I'm wondering about water levels at Lake Sydney in the last week or two.
Cheers

[stepbystep]

Hello,
I guess no-one's been down there for a while.
I'll be the test case in a few days
One other question. I have found pretty good info on a route up Mt. Bobs, but I am wondering if the route up the Boomerang is taped/cairned? I can't find any details online.
Cheers
sbs

[tas-man]

Hello,
I guess no-one's been down there for a while.
I'll be the test case in a few days
One other question. I have found pretty good info on a route up Mt. Bobs, but I am wondering if the route up the Boomerang is taped/cairned? I can't find any details online.
Cheers
sbs

Once you get yourself to the saddle between the Boomerang and Mt Bobs, the route up to the Boomerang is just a matter of following the ridgeline with scraps of a pad in places. I have found my Lake Sydney slides again and scanned a few more.

Western end of Lake Sydney from half way down the Boomerang.

Eastern end of Lake Sydney from half way down the Boomerang. The outflow from the lake into the sinkhole is just visible.

Looking west over Lake Sydney from the outfall with Mt Bobs hiding in the clouds behind.

[tas-man]

The main "plug hole" that drains the sink hole below Lake Sydney.

One of the other sinkholes that drain this area.

Looking down into the sinkhole in photo above.

[north-north-west]

Has anyone ever dived those sinkholes?

[tas-man]

Has anyone ever dived those sinkholes?

Not that I am aware of NNW - they would only be accessible when the sinkhole basin is empty, and you have to be careful of the weather forecast while exploring them or you would truly go "down the gurgler!" It would be a spectacular sight to be there when the basin was in the final stage of emptying - I am imagining the sound of a thousand baths emptying at the same time.

[South_Aussie_Hiker]

Would want to be careful walking around at night when nature calls...

[north-north-west]

Has anyone ever dived those sinkholes?

Not that I am aware of NNW - they would only be accessible when the sinkhole basin is empty...:

That's the thing with diving, it doesn't really matter if the water level's really high . . .

I bet Stefan's been in there.

[mr majestik]

recently walked mt bobs after perusing this threads (dec 567), the sink hole was amazing, when we arrived it was full to level with the lake, when we left a day and a morning later it had drained soo much (pics to follow)

i would be concerned that if i dived via one hole i would return to find the water level two meters below the edge of the hole!

as to track conditions, muddy around farmhouse creek up to knees in places (rain on the first day), mud up to knees downvalley of lake syd, lots of fallen trees on the ridge crossing inbetween, we took about 7 hours to walk from the car park to lake syd both ways (stopping for lunch).

[tas-man]

Have just been exploring some of the latest higher resolution imagery in Google Earth over Tasmania and was interested to see that Google captured a very full Lake Sydney in October 2010. Unfortunately the previous crap imagery is no longer accessible which sort of showed a blurry sink hole.

[tas-man]

As a comparison, here's a part of an aerial photo from the Tas Gov LIST website that shows the lake at a lower level but still with the sinkhole not emptied.

[tas-man]

It is interesting to compare my photo above with this one I found on the web in a Panoramio album by "Raki_Man" amongst his scanned slides of early bushwalking in Tasmania in the 1960/70's. His image had been scanned in reverse so I have flipped it and colour enhanced it a bit so it is more easily compared to my photo approx 40 years later. Link to original photo is - http://www.panoramio.com/photo/42266428?tag=Tasmania

[tas-man]

Peter Franklin has posted a recent trip report and photo album on his blog about a three day trip in March 2012 to Lake Sydney and Mt Bobs. Great photos here!
https://plus.google.com/photos/11265952 ... banner=pwa

[mr majestik]

quite nice, the sink is crazy full, my camp site from last november is 3 feet under!

[tas-man]

Here's some photos from a Launceston Walkling Club trip to Mt Bobs on the June 2012 long weekend. The weather was your typical rain and cloud and they were wet all weekend, but did get to the top of Mt Bobs although there were no views in the cloud. They found a campsite along the edge of the very full sinkhole.

The Lake Sydney sinkhole - left - with Mt Bobs behind.

The Lake Sydney sinkhole - right

A waterfall on the way up to the saddle between Mt bobs and the Boomerang.

[tas-man]

Climbing up to the saddle between Boomerang and Bobs.

Looking down from Mt. Bobs to Lake Sydney and the full sinkhole with Pine Lake behind.

Decending Mt. Bobs.

[tas-man]

Back at the saddle between the Boomerang and Mt Bobs.

View on way out from lookout to Federation Peak.

Telephoto shot of Federation Peak.

[creeping_moses]

Thought I'd add some photos of this interesting area:

[tas-man]

Thanks creeping_moses for posting these photos - extremely jealous of the weather conditions you had there! Looking at the lake level, the sink hole could have been empty. Did you get any photos of that area you could add?