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Mount Stronach Walk |
| We were in the north east of Tasmania as it was supposed to be warm
and dry, having come up from the west which was cold and wet. In
the local Information Centre looking for 'what to do' brochures in
the area we talked to an assistant who recommended the Mount Stronach
walk as it had good views and at the top a cairn celebrating
Federation in 1901. We had time that day so we headed off to
locate the walk. We ended up on a dirt track which was a
worry until we saw a small sign which read 'car park'. The car park was of course at the bottom of the mountain so we had a uphill walk to start, but at least it was all downhill at the end when we would be tired. The path was easy to follow and crossed a 4wd track a few times before you got to the lookout 4wd track which was basically bare rock. A few hundred metres later we saw the sign, high on a tree trunk, Lookout this way and summit that way. We checked out the lookout first and retraced our path to the junction and headed to the summit. Near the summit you had to find and follow small rock cairns to the Federation Cairn. The Federation Cairn was big, as expected, but surprisingly no plaques denoting why the cairn was built. We headed back down the track and unfortunately missed a vital turn, which meant we walked an extra 500 m downhill before we realized our error and had to backtrack to find the right path. From then on it was easy going back to our car. |
| Location Map: |
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| Walk Map: |
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| Our walk - 6.5km Time around 3 hours |
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| Car park | Walk track ahead | |
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| Good, we're on the right track | ||
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| Little orange triangles denote the path | ||
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| A 4WD track. You cross this a few times on this walk | ||
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| No one's been up this 4WD track in quite a while | ||
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| Helmet Orchids growing on a log, in fruit | Tiny finger orchids | |
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| Love this lichen | ||
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| This is the 4WD track we need to turn at to reach the lookout | Just rock | |
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| The junction sign | Straight for the lookout | A bit of a rock climb |
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| Views from the lookout | ||
| Panorama from lookout | ||
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| Panorama from lookout | ||
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| Back to the junction - now for the summit | ||
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| Another small sign - just in case | ||
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| That rock leads to the lookout, could've come that way down | ||
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| On track still | ||
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| Still nice views of the valley | ||
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| Near the top - need to follow the cairns | ||
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| More views of the valley | ||
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| Where is this cairn -we must be close | ||
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| There it is! | ||
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| We tried but it was too steep! No need to be foolhardy | Back at the junction | |
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| Must not miss the track downhill | Here it is | |
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| We missed this arrow - cost us 500m down and back | Back at car park | Sun is getting low - time to go! |