Tasmania - Traverse of the King William Range, Spires and Prince of Wales Range - Jan - Feb 1977

All images © David Noble. No image can be used for any purpose without permission.

Section 3 - Prince of Wales Range - Northern Section

We had now been out 12 days. We had started from the Lyell Highway and traversed the King William Range and then traversed the Spires. After that we headed down to the Denison River to camp before making our way onto the northern peaks of the Prince of Wales Range.



Above - We climbed out of the rainforest and were able to follow open buttongrass leads most of the way onto the Prince of Wales Range. Here - not far after setting off - looking back down to the Denison Valley. You can see the weather is stormy. We could see a bushfire, probably started by lightning - burning far to the south in the Prince of Wales Range. We were worried that it may have burnt our next airdrop of food. But the fire was soon put out by rain.



Above - Our first close view of Diamond Peak



Above - On the way up the spur - we met a party of four other bushwalkers from UNSW Bushwalking Club. They had started from the Denisons and were heading out via Mt Algonkian.



Above - That aftrenoon - Ian and myself headed out to climb the very northern peak of the range. Looking south to Diamond Peak.



Above - Our campsite



Above - The next day the weather was bad in the morning - and we didn't leave till after lunch. As we walked the weather improved a lot. Here is a view towards the Spires.



Above - Approaching Diamond Peak - the "jewel" of the south west. The walking was quite reasonable through light scrub.



Above - Our next campsite. This one had been cut out of the scrub by another party many years before.

At that campsite we had to syphon water out of yabbie holes. For the remainder of the trip - finding water would be a major problem.



Above - Looking to the Spires



Above - The next day - Ian looking towards our next objective - Diamond Peak. The peak is actually overhanging on three sides - which makes the summit routefinding easy - as there is only one more way to try.





Above - Fine weather brought out the March flies. Here they are bothering Peter. Later on - on the very dry, scrubby section further south - Peter extracted "liquid" from them to ease his thirst.

After climbing Diamond Peak - the range was more broken - and we had to negotiate a chasm.



Above - Peter in the chasm



Above - looking back to Diamond Peak

Late in the aftrenoon - we reached a summit with a large stone stone survey trig on top. Nearby was an expired airdrop - so we camped on the open tops nearby.



Above - Looking south from the trig towards Mt Humbolt.

Except for the descent from this peak - the going the next day was quite  easy - mainly through buttongrass.



Above - Looking back to Diamond Peak and our campsite



Above - Dusk - Mt Humbolt and the Hamilton Range on the far left



Above - Ian and Peter cooking at the campsite



Above - The next day - Ian checking the maps on the way to Mt Humbolt

Continue to next section - the southern Prince of Wales Range

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