The Frenchman's Cap

The Frenchman's Cap is not a Franco-Dutch contraceptive collaboration. Rather, it is one of Tasmania's most famous mountains, with a distinctive and dramatic white quartzite dome that can be seen from a great distance, from which I returned last night.

On Saturday evening I was collected from Hobart Airport by Melanie (my younger sister) in her convertable Mini Cooper. After a prolonged period of hot weather, the temperature was 7.5, so the hood stayed down! Melanie has in the meantime been demonstrating the superb handling of the Mini as we have roared around the streets of Hobart, Italian Job style.

Sunday was a day of catching up with Melanie and the rest of the Colantoni family and checking whether there might be a window of stable weather to head off to the Frenchman's Cap. Monday and Tuesday were due to be hot and sunny in western Tasmania, with a front coming through on Wednesday. So, Monday morning saw me in Hobart buying stove fuel, a map etc, followed by the +200k drive to the beginning of the track.

I set off down the track at 1.20 on Monday, having read the walkers' notes that state that it is a 6 hour walk into the Lake Vera hut, my planned destination. The problem was that daylight saving ended last weekend and it is dark shortly after 6 pm. So it was head down and go for it. Early into the walk I was climbing up a track of twisted tree roots, when one of them suddenly moved! I am not sure whether the brown snake or or I was more shocked, but I waited while it twisted off the track.

The track is varied. You start by walking through rainforest and then climb to a summit from which the first glimpse of the Frenchman's Cap is seen, a scary distance away.



After some more up and down walking I hit the Lodden Plains, which the map declares is known by walkers as "the sodden loddens". The cap fits! There follows about 2 hours, off and on, of slogging through peat bogs. Then a long climb through a forest before descending to a button grass plain (Rumney Plain). By this time it was getting fairly dark, but this section of the track has duck-boarding, making for good progress. Another short climb led to the descent to Lake Vera hut, which I reached as light was failing.

I had an entertaining evening at the hut with 7 other walkers. One party of 4, all Aussies, comprised 3 engineers and a former senior naval officer who is now a professor in strategic studies at Wollongong University. The other part of 3 was led by another engineer, British but having lived where his work in the explosives field had taken him, his Canadian son who had walked there on a prosthetic leg (putting my modest effort in context) and the son's French Canadian girlfriend. It turned out that the Brit engineer was the first mountaineer to conquer the face of the Frenchman's Cap and the purpose of their trek was to show his son the scene of his triumph. The following day I was to discover quite what an achievement that was!

Tuesday was an early start. The Brit led party had told us that they planned to get up at 6 am to walk out early. After they had woken everyone up at 5 am, one of the Aussie party announcing that the early morning din reminded him of his time in the navy! It turned out that they were not aware that daylight saving had ended! As a result, I headed along the track at 6.50 am. I left my bedding and tent etc at Lake Vera hut, taking food, a survival bag and other essentials, as I was planning to walk the rest of the track and climb the mountain as a day walk.



Walking around Lake Vera I had a hint of what I was in for, as the track meandered up and down the lumpy terrain, through damp rainforest. The going under foot was much easier than the previous day, but the terain meant that progress was slower. After a long climb throught rain forest, the canopy of which was so thick that there was only half light on a bright day, I reached Barron Pass. What a view! Suddenly I was in brilliant sunlight with a fantastic panorama, including the Frenchman's Cap, still some distance away.



After a long traverse, including some up and down around the White and Nicoles Needles, the path crosses a green swamp area with pineapple grass, known as Artichoke Valley. Another steep climb was followed by the descent to the Lake Tahune hut, which is some 25k from the beginning of the track.



Lake Tahune is at the base of the Frenchman's Cap. From there it was straight up, but on the sloping side of the mountain, rather than up its sheer face, which is vertical for 450m. Parts of the "track" up the mountain are near vertical, but the climbing was relatively easy in the dry conditions and as the quartzite provides plenty of handholds.

The view from the summit (1,443m) alone made the 27k trek worthwhile. The day was brilliantly clear with only a light breeze, so I was able to enjoy the vista for some time before descending to lunch on the shore of Lake Tahune, subsequently retracing my steps to Lake Vera.



Tuesday night at the hut was less entertaining than the previous evening, but still diverting. I shared the hut with a member of the computer department at my university, Monash, a Sydney PhD student in economics and philosophy (which led to a healthy debate!) and a couple from the Blue Mountains (who were not used to Tassie walking and asked why we were wearing gaters - looking at their legs the answer was obvious!).

Yesterday I walked out, through the peat bogs once more... I emerging at about lunchtime. I was lucky as there was light rain only. I drove further west to see Strahan and the massive Macquarie Harbour, both of which are impressive and worth a longer visit. But, the weather was closing in with high winds and rain, so I headed back to Hobart, arriving in time to have a pub supper with Melanie, Chloe and Hannah.

James Turnbull arrived to visit his parents yesterday. I shall be calling him soon...