Matt Down Under

Route: Judds Charm — Mt Sarah Jane — Lake Judd

Nick got up early and climbed Lots Wife — there is a track that leaves near the Judds Charm campsite where we stayed. I didn’t even notice him leaving in the morning, after the tiring previous day I preferred to sleep longer and have a slow start into the day.

I wasn’t even finished with breakfast yet when he arrived back. We packed up our gear and left Judds Charm. The weather looked unpredictable, but fine for the moment.

We walked past the lakes and past Lonely Tarns and climbed up to Lightning Ridge. I expected it to be windy up there and prepared with additional clothing, and it was really necessary. It was very exposed with strong winds.

Up there the track was slightly more difficult to follow and I once walked into the wrong direction — but I then saw Nick walking far ahead again and found the right track. It crossed a small valley, past another lake. Parts of the track were very muddy there, and once the track ascended again on the other side of the valley, it was at times hard to follow.

Once we had crossed the valley however we picked up a clearly defined track again, sections were even prepared with boardwalk. The track ascended to Mt Sarah Jane and by the time I arrived at the turnoff to the summit, Nick had already gone up, even though the whole mountain was covered in clouds and visibility was zero. I didn’t bother climbing up and rather used the time I waited for Nick to relax a bit. It quickly got colder and clouds were passing by on ground level left and right from us.

The climb down from Mt Sarah Jane to the swampy plains — I just call it that way — easily were the most annoying part of the whole track. The first half an hour was alright, steep descending over rocks and rubble, all the time while facing clouds and cold wind towards us. After that however the track turned into a never-ending jungle of thick scrub, wet slippery rocks, more thick scrub, muddy sections, and even more thick scrub. The longer it took to walk through there, the more annoying it got — it just wouldn’t end.

I think it took me about two hours only to climb down from Mt Sarah Jane to the point where the track finally left the scrub and crossed muddy open plains. After that experience I didn’t really have much reason to complain about the mud.

I was hoping to catch up with Nick again, all I knew was that we had to wade the Anne River at some point to get on the sidetrack to Lake Judd campsite, but I didn’t know where exactly — he was carrying the maps. I found him waiting at the river and together we crossed it. I didn’t bother taking my boots off and just walked through.

The sidetrack to Lake Judd campsite was horrible. Until then the muddy sections of Mt Anne Circuit had mostly been limited to the swampy plains after descending Mt Sarah Jane, but on this sidetrack we probably encountered some of the deepest and widest mud holes in the Southwest. It also started to rain.

I just wanted to get to the campsite, jump into warm dry clothing and warm up in my sleeping bag. It took longer than expected to find the campsite however, I once took a wrong turn and had to retrace. I got there eventually, and even had the luck to set up my camp during a break from the rain.

Everything was wet. Clothes, shoes, socks, and it was cold. I set up camp and when it started to rain again we both disappeared in our tents.

I didn’t feel too well, I had trouble getting warm. Somehow I was looking forward to getting home, this walk had been a lot more difficult and tiring than expected. Maybe I just had a few bad days, I don’t know, but I felt like an old man.