Mt Bowes

Sunday 27th July 2014

The second week back of semester and it was time to get some walks going for all our new members!  I decided to do something a little bit unusual and off the beaten track!  Get all the exchange students to a part of Tasmania they never would have heard of! So I decided Mt Bowes in South-West National Park....in my opinion the most superb part of Tasmania and one of its best kept secrets!

Approximately 17 of us ended up going and I enjoyed getting to know some of the clubs newest members in the 2 hour drive to the start of the walk.  We headed along the Gordon River Road and turned left onto Scots Peak Rd and then parked our cars at the first left hand turn just before a locked yellow boom gate.

We walked along the road for 10 minutes or so until we came across the cairn indicating the start of the walk.

Walking along the road to the start of the track

Initially the track was through scrub but then we started to walk through forest which looked like something out of a fairy tale!  The vegetation was a vibrant green, there was many colourful fungi and the tree branches were all twisted...any moment I was expecting goblins to jump out at us!

Initial Scrub

The forest

Through the forest and over the creek!

We walked through the forest for what seems like hours and hours and never started to climb uphill.  We thought that perhaps we had walked straight past the turn off for the summit track as we didn't think it should be taking us this long. However, eventually we came to the obvious cairn that indicated the start of the walk uphill.  It was quite short compared to the long section through the forest. We eventually came to the summit and were relieved to be here!  Everyone was tired and enjoyed the excellent views from the top!  Mt Anne stayed hidden in clouds but all the other lower peaks could be seen clearly.  One party member unfortunately lost one of their boots on the walk in, but nevertheless made it to the top despite having a rather cold foot!  It then turned out that someone else had a spare pair of runners in their bag and was able to lend him one slightly too small shoe to make the walk back to the car less painful!  A lesson in ensuring your equipment is good enough to handle the mud of the South-West! 

Summit group shot

View from the top!

We retraced our steps back to the cars and managed to walk much faster on the way back!  The walk was longer than I had anticipated but that was probably due to the size of the party. The track was easy enough to follow but you spend most of your time in the forest so it can be hard to try and work out where you are.

Grade: Medium
Map: Wedge or Bowes
Time: 6 - 7 hours.