Matt Down Under

Route: Car park — High Camp

Last weekend I walked Mt Anne Circuit in Southwest Tasmania, one of the hardest, most difficult walks in Tasmania — but also a very spectacular one.

I wasn’t actually planning to do this walk, it happened on short notice after I saw a post in the Bushwalk Tasmania forum, where someone announced to walk Mt Anne Circuit and offered to others to come along. It turned out we had actually met before, he (Nick) had bought my old Vango Helium tent a few weeks back.

Since I had the time and some hiking food left from my walk in Walls of Jerusalem, I decided to join Nick. I didn’t really know much about Mt Anne Circuit and didn’t do much preparation — in the end it turned out to be a lot harder than I expected.

Nick picked me up on Friday afternoon after he had finished his work. We drove for about two hours past New Norfolk and Maydena into the Southwest National Park.

We stopped a couple of times to enjoy the views from the side of the road, it was fine weather and the views over valleys with old-growth forests were great. However we also noticed the smell of smoke in the air, probably from a forestry burn-off somewhere nearby — something that is probably as stupid as it is common in Tasmania.

A few kilometres after Maydena we were driving past a forest protesters camp. It was the Still Wild Still Threatened camp in the Upper Florentine Valley. I had read a lot about it in the news ever since I came to Tasmania, I just didn’t expect it would be on our route. We decided to stop and check it out on our way back after the weekend. Sadly, logging of ancient high-conservation-value forest is still happening daily in Tasmania and close to the borders of the Southwest World Heritage Area. It’s an absolute disgrace and a shame for Tasmania.

We arrived at the upper car park around 6.30pm. There are two car parks for Mt Anne Circuit — the upper one where the track to High Camp starts, and the lower one about 8km further down the road where the circuit walk ends. 6.30pm may seem rather late to start bushwalking, but it was a very sunny and warm day and there would be daylight for at least another two hours. We only wanted to walk up to High Camp hut, which is just about two hours of climbing.

Pretty soon after we left the car park it became clear Nick and I had different levels of fitness — while I carried quite a heavy backpack and camera and always need a day or two to get used to walking, he was traveling lightweight and fit, therefore he was almost running up the hill. It probably wasn’t helpful that the track was a steep climb right from the start, but I was really slow and soon Nick was walking far ahead.

I also took plenty of photos on my way up, there were beautiful views over Lake Pedder and with every metre that I climbed higher, and every minute that passed, the sunset looked more spectacular.

At some point I didn’t see Nick anymore, I thought he was probably at the hut already, while I was taking it really slowly. It wasn’t hard to follow the track, however I didn’t carry any maps and didn’t know exactly where the hut was located, so with darkness setting in I got a little bit concerned.

It was actually quite interesting to walk in the dark and it wasn’t cold at all. But I hoped to find the hut soon, after two hours of climbing up a steep hill I started to get tired.

At some point I saw light ahead, it was Nick walking down the track with his headlight on, to search for me. I was glad to see him and a few minutes later I was at High Camp hut. It’s a small stone hut, two-storey, it would probably accommodate a maximum of 5-8 people. There was a group of four guys sleeping on the upper floor, so Nick and I camped on the benches on ground level.

I ate a few sandwiches I carried, before going to bed. It was a starlit night and quite cold in the end.