Matt Down Under

Route: Lake Judd — Lake Pedder (lower car park)

I felt really bad in the morning, everything just hurt from the previous days. It was cold and my clothes hadn’t dried during the rain at night. The prospect of jumping into cold, wet clothes wasn’t great. And the Lake Judd campsite was hidden in cold, wet forest, I wasn’t keen to have to cross the giant mud holes again.

But then, it was only two or three hours from the campsite to the car park. Never before had I been so looking forward to coming home — Mt Anne Circuit really beat me. I just wanted to have warm clothes and something great to eat.

When Nick was ready to leave I wasn’t quite ready yet, so he walked ahead again, planning to run the 8km to the upper car park, get the car and pick me up at the lower car park. I couldn’t really object to that…

Jumping into wet clothes felt horrible, but eventually I left the campsite. A good half an hour later I had crossed all mud holes and was back at the river crossing. Since my boots were wet already, I again simply walked through.

I was hoping for relaxed walking from there, but the following 3km or so were quite frustrating to walk — very muddy open plains, sections of thick scrub, deep mud holes — exactly what Southwest Tasmania is so famous for.

Nick had told me the track would gradually improve in quality, the closer to the car park we came. Some people he met while waiting for me at the river crossing had told him. And it was true, the last 3km of the track included many boardwalk sections, and it was nicer to walk in general. What was nice too was that the weather turned sunny again, making the last part of the walk quite nice. It’s always good if the last hour of the walk is very nice, because it lifts your mood and you come home with a much nicer overall impression.

I hadn’t seen any wildlife on the whole walk, but at one point the track crossed a small section of light dry forest, where plenty of birds could be heard. I switched to my 500mm lens on the camera and took the time to take some bird photos. I finally got a nice photo of a Green Rosella.

The track then crossed a suspension bridge, and about half an hour from there I arrived at the car park, where Nick and the car were already waiting.

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It was only a weekend, only 22km, but Mt Anne Circuit really killed me. There were probably a few bad circumstances, such as not getting any sleep on the first night, then doing two day sections in one day (many stay at Shelf Camp rather than walking on to Judds Charm), a very hot day and my failure to carry enough water — but in the end the track was quite frankly the hardest track I have walked in Tasmania so far. And also the most risky and dangerous — there were several sections, where I really didn’t feel safe.

You should never attempt to walk Mt Anne Circuit alone, you should be at least two people who are comfortable in heights, have no problems with rock climbing / free climbing, and you should carry a strong rope. The sort of rope that climbers use as safety rope. Not everyone will need it, but many will feel much more comfortable in some situations.