Day 12: 27 September 2019
I (Tim) have been to Lee’s Paddocks many times over the years so there was a lot to reminisce about as we walked the 10 kilometres alongside the Mersey River to the string of private property titles nested inside the Cradle Mountain National Park. We had ended our last walk at the new suspension bridge and had not walked much over the winter (for a variety of reasons). Now in Spring, and 5 months later, it was great to be back on the track putting another few stages down. This was the first multi-day walk carrying a full pack since my second round of surgery in June. I was really looking forward to it. Even with a rather challenging route planned.
On arriving at the car park our interest had been aroused by three double horse floats and the boom gate open. Mountain cattlemen or endurance riders out for the day? As we followed the horse tracks to the river we wondered what we would find. It was too early in the season for cattle to be heading into the paddocks, and we could only see evidence of horses, anyway.
We were wandering through Pine Plain when we came across a mother and young boy who were returning from an overnight hike. We stopped for a chat and saw their photos of a huge fire burning up the valley not far from Lees Hut. It was much bigger than a campfire and they had been quite fearful of a bushfire even though the environment was quite damp. I had images of an almighty mountain cattleman’s party at Lee’s Hut.
After a stop to admire Lewis Falls, which was flowing really well, we continued on to Lees Hut. The horse tracks disappeared and Lees was quiet with not a sign of anyone having been there for days. There was no trace of a fire. No horses under the lean-to stable. I assumed then that they must have been camping down at the corner of the property on a lovely spot I have camped at many times before. Interesting, though, that we didn’t hear anything on the way past. It was raining now, so after a quick morning tea break we donned our waterproofs again and headed due south, first, for the upper paddocks, then into the Mersey Forest for the climb to Kia Ora Hut. We hoped to make the hut for the night. (A pretty big ask for our first day out).
We soon picked up the horse tracks again on the other side of the Warragarra River and realised they were heading to the upper hut (Wadley’s). Six well-cared-for horses (four strong whalers and two thoroughbreds) were grazing around the hut and a few peolebout 8 people were boiling a billy and putting a large leg of lamb into a camp oven. Bushwalkers (often greenies) and mountain cattlemen (often not) do not always see the world from the same perspective, so I was keen to set them at ease, especially if they turned out to be related to the property owners. (There were new signs at several points on the track indicating that this was private property and camping could only happen with the permission of the current owners.)
“Good to see some horses back up the paddocks. Are any of you connected to Judy Kilby?” “Hello, welcome, I’m Judy Kilby!” (Judy is a well known Tasmanian horsewoman and the owner of the upper paddocks.) “Would you like a cup of tea?” We were all soon at ease and chatting about the history of the paddocks, Sheffield, local history, the genetics of Whalers, and high cattle country. We soon discovered that last night’s fire had been the annual burnoff of dried tussock grass on the paddocks which encourages new growth in the late spring and summer before the cattle come up in late December. Judy was keen for us to check it out as we passed the area on the way to Kia Ora.
We had our own lunch while chatting, then, as the rain started again, we headed through the upper paddocks and into the forest. Here the going got quite interesting as the track is not maintained and there were only a few markers and cairns. Thankfully I had a GPX track on my phone to guide us whenever we could not make out our location. It was fairly slow going following the Mersey for most of the way, then crossing three swiftly running creeks including Kia Ora before the final climb, clamber, scramble up the steep hill to the Overland Track.
We were pretty wet and tired when we staggered into Kia Ora hut about 5.30 pm to be warmly greeted by three families all walking together and a couple of father-son groups. Our tent was soon up and dinner made while we chatted to the folk in the hut. As we headed to bed light snow began to fall. We were pretty happy with the challenging 19km stage now behind us.
