WESTERN ARTHURS, TASMANIA – FEBRUARY 2010
I’d heard a bit about the Western Arthurs … “fantastic”, “magic trip”, words like that. I’m not sure I remember whose idea it was, could have been any of us, Peter C, Jeff B or me but I thought if ever I was going to do the trip it had better be now, I wasn’t getting any younger. Jeff said that he’d be my “support” on the trip, if I really wanted to do it. But if we did, we’d need to take a tent good enough to withstand all that Tasmania could throw at us, our bomb proof MSR Olympus, weighing in at a massive 3k! We’d also need to carry all our food for 11 days, the full trip. Jeff said he’d carry the tent, I’d carry as much of his food as I could and steadily my pack would get lighter! So, six months out I started to train at the gym, we dehydrated a shit-load of food and Jeff and Peter researched what the trip would entail. We took along the sat phone, plb and a good handline for pack hauling.
Before I realised it, we were down in Hobart at the Astor, packing our packs and buying gas, renting a car and on our way!
The trip notes are all over the net but these are my impressions of the walk.
DAY 1: Highway > Junction Creek. The first day was tedious, there thankfully weren’t many hills but our packs weighed a ton! We eventually made it to Junction Creek by 3pm and set up camp for the night. The campsite isn’t much but we were thankful to get those packs off our backs. I had some hot pink crocs that I use as camp shoes, when I went to bed I put them in the foyer and before I could turn my back a bloody spotted Quoll made off with one. I was flabbergasted, Jeff got up and tried chasing him but he was too quick. I could just hear him going home to the missus “honey, look what I’ve got”. I figured I’d find it somewhere in the morning, and we wouldn’t worry too much about it, but unfortunately when morning came, not a sign of my pink croc, so, anyone if you come across one in the area, you know that I didn’t carelessly drop it, it was stolen by a Quoll!
DAY 2: Junction > Moraine A > Lake Cygnus. Next morning we were introduced to the toilets which are a feature of this walk. They look a bit like you would imagine that a UFO looks, about 2m in diameter, round with a flat base and top (with a sort of hole/lid) and a rim around the middle. I took one look at this contraption and thought I’d never be able to use that AND I’d fall over backwards in the big hole! I went back and told the guys and they explained how it was to be used, I never did get used to those toilets, they are flown in and out each season by helicopter and they are chained down for the rest of the year so avalanches don’t take them down the side of the mountain!
So, we were off to Moraine A, tedious at best, mostly up hill for 600m, but once you’re on top it’s great, you know that the worst of the up hill is behind you! We had lunch at the top amongst the tarns and moss covered banks.
It was misty with the odd squall but we soldiered on and arrived at Lake Cygnus at about 4pm. We pitched our tents in the rain!
DAY 3: Lake Cygnus > Lake Oberon. The day was overcast with the occasional rain squall. We crossed some alpine moors and eventually came to The Climb Down, we could see the lake in the distance. The track notes say that it’s steep, it was practically vertical! I went down first and didn’t take my pack off, half way down I realised that this should have been a pack haul (or lower), it was down-right scary, and I thought Peter would fall on top of me at any moment, didn’t help that the granite was wet! However, eventually we were all down and remarked to each other that “we should have lowered the packs!” Hindsight is 20/20! We made it into camp at 5pm pitching our tents on the platforms provided.
DAY 4: We decided to have a “lay day” at Lake Oberon. We all agreed that the trip notes from yesterday weren’t at all good at describing what the terrain was like. So we did a recce that afternoon to see what was ahead, there was a small climb up and we realised that it wasn’t as bad as described. But, we saw what was ahead, rocks, cliffs, mountains, you name it, it was there and we couldn’t imagine how we’d get through it and out the other side. We all had a restless night’s sleep now that we knew what was ahead. I had nightmares that night about falling off the track and falling to almost certain death, and I was the one carrying the sat phone, they wouldn’t be able to call for help!
Having a lay day in fact turned out to be a good decision as the weather cleared and was perfect for the following two days.
DAY 5: Lake Oberon > High Moor. A 10 hour day with perfect weather, some people will wonder why it took us 10 hours, but we were very, very careful, as far as we knew, we were the only ones up there on the range, and we weren’t going to rush trying to beat some sort of record. The day was a marathon effort consisting of many very steep gully descents, pack hauling, climb downs aided by the rope, walking along extremely narrow exposed ledges, high above the ground. 
When we reached the bottom of a gully we then had to turn around and walk up another gully. 
Half way through this day we decided that we were allowing ourselves to swear. Peter of course is an old hand at swearing but Jeff and I hardly ever swear but on this day we were saying a lot of really bad words. We’d get to a “steep descent” and say “WTF how do you get down there?” We were in awe of the first bushwalkers who had opened up this route, how they found their way through this maze was beyond our imagination. The route was tough, exposed, dangerous and complex, we limped into the campsite and set up our tents but it didn’t take us long to recover, and we had clear skies and a fabulous sunset.
DAY 6: High Moor > Haven Lake via the Beggary Bumps. Another perfect day weather-wise and another 10 hour day. The descents down the bumps were unbelievable, most of 
the time we were descending almost vertically aided by the rope on a track that had footsteps dug into the fibrous tough soil and only shrubbery to hold onto. You’ve no idea how pleased we were to finally arrive at Haven Lake, we pitched our tents on the platforms with relief knowing that the toughest part of the walk was over.
DAY 7: Haven Lake > Moraine K > Two Mile Creek. We woke next morning to rain and set off around 10am. It was wet and windy and you couldn’t see a thing. Whilst our original plan had been to do 11 days, by this time we were all pretty much over the Western Arthurs, particularly as the weather had closed in. 
So when we got to Mt Scorpio we Reassessed The Situation and decided to exit via Moraine K. We’d seen the best of the Arthurs anyway, and with the bad weather, another couple of days up on the ridge wouldn’t be great. So, we started down the Moraine K track, much easier walking now despite the fog. Half way down we walked out of cloud into brilliant sunshine. It was a fairly easy descent apart from the final climb down. 
We were in camp at Two Mile Creek by 6pm, another big day.
DAY 8: Two Mile Creek > Junction Creek > Lyell Highway. We decamped at 10am and walked through rain that was almost horizontal at times with very cold strong winds. The walk is along valley flats, very uninteresting but the view to the left of us of the Arthurs was impressive. I kept thinking as we walked along, I was up there yesterday. There was no reason to stop for more than lunch and we were back at the car park by 2.30pm and back in Hobart by 6pm.
We had intended to do the Mt Anne Circuit after the Western Arthurs, but frankly, we were stuffed after our 8 days, so, instead we opted to go up to Lake St. Clair and our to Pine Valley to show Jeff the Acropolis.
The Western Arthurs has to be one of the best walks I’ve done, it was an adventure, and a real accomplishment. You had to work together as a team at almost every step of the way, and it was way challenging. I’d definitely recommend the walk to anyone with a high level of fitness, it’s not to be taken lightly, nor is it for the feint hearted and you probably should do it when you’re younger.