Dad, Emily and I tackled the track to Rat-a-Tat Hut campsite on an overnight walk in February, in preparation for our upcoming Tasmanian adventure.
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| Not alone on the Border Track |
Before long we branched off on the Albert River Circuit, this time heading anti-clockwise to take in the longer but more scenic waterfall section on day 1. Despite being Summer there hadn't been a lot of rain so there was no trouble with the river crossings and it was actually fairly dry. We stopped a few times along the way to Echo Point campsite, the end of the graded track.
Unfortunately for Emily, she had been struggling for the last hour or so and basically collapsed at this point. Fortunately for Emily, she had two big, strong and handsome males willing to sacrifice their own comfort to carry most of the contents of her pack the rest of the way. Unfortunately for Munch, dad had planned appropriately for this contingency and brought a small and well-stuffed pack so the burden conveniently slipped to 'the boy.'
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| Oh gosh, maybe we could just sleep here tonight... |
Lamington's remote bushsites are all closed from December to January to allow rainforest regrowth. Being February, we were probably one of the first groups to walk the off-track section to Rat-a-Tat Hut since being reopened. Therefore we weren't surprised to find large sections of storm-ravaged forest high up on the escarpment. A few tree falls here and there generally aren't much hassle, but throw in a good dose of wait-a-while vine over a vague path and the journey becomes much more challenging.
Apparently our navigation skills had improved because we avoided getting lost this time around, so we arrived at camp with enough time to set up the tents and start cooking dinner before dark. Had it really only been 7 hours since we started walking? (note: don't ask Emily this question next time).
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| Setting up camp at the old Rat-a-Tat Hut site |
As we crawled into bed, it started to rain. If our chilly Tasmanian-Autumn rated sleeping gear didn't seem absurdly over the top for steamy, humid Queensland-Summer conditions when we were packing our gear at home, they certainly did now.
When we woke up, it was still raining. Or at least we thought it was, until we got out of the tent and realised we were sitting inside a cloud.
None of us felt like getting the stove going for a warm breakfast, so we ate our cold snacks/lunch and pushed on with the intention of stopping to eat a proper meal once/if it fined up.
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| Who's ready for more adventure?! |
We noted further damage that had occurred on the track overnight, as we ducked, crawled, climbed and bashed our way over Mounts Wupawn and Worendo to reach the graded track again. Since it was misty, we now had the added bonus of thousands of leeches to contend with, as well as steamy, hot and humid weather.
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| Rainforest fungi |
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| Dad bashing his way through the thick bush... |
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| ... and Emily not far behind |
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| Not sure why but I remembered this particular tree from last time |
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| Miniature gramophone? |
The descent back down Mt Worendo felt never-ending, but we eventually made it back to the campsite at Echo Point. Emily, always optimistic, pointed out that had we camped here, we could have slept in another couple of hours. We took a nice long break and cooked up breakfast at the now-vacant site.
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| A well-deserved break |
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| Walking stick palm berries |
From here it was an easy walk past the lookouts to the Border Track and back to the car.
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| Looking over New South Wales from Echo Point |
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| Mt Wupawn hiding in the clouds |
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| Beautiful Antarctic Beech grove on the Albert River Circuit |
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