I like to think I can tolerate the heat all right, but I'm not exactly fond of it either. Truth be told, its kind of a kryptonite for me really - climbing feels hard, running feels hard, water sports would be alright....except for the dry part. So in such drastic circumstances I needed someplace to go for relief. I went to the Southwest.
In general, the soutwestern part of Tasmania boasts the most rugged and wettest country in the state and probably the country. The mountains provide a bit of respite from the heat and with a yearly rainfall tally well above the 2 meter mark (Yeah, that's right, I said between 6.5-9 feet of a rain a year) 'dry' becomes a more relative term.
So in the end of February I did a trip down to Mt. Fields with Leanne. We'd been to this national park previously to check out some of tall lowland trees and the waterfalls, but this time we headed up to the top of the mountain. There are some nice trails up there if you get good conditions. I understand a lot of the time you'd just be hiking around in a big cloud, but Leanne and I had some really nice weather and were able to get some great views of the surrounding landscape.
The next day we drove out toward the town of Strathgorden through more really nice country,
went for a very short walk through some thick rain forest vegetation,
found a nice swimming whole next to a pretty impressive log bridge,
Saw where some of this Leatherwood honey comes from that's somewhat of a trademark down here,
and then drove out to check out a potential climbing area called Adamfield, aptly named for it's location in the Adamsfield conservation area on the eastern side of lake Gordon. I'd read a little about the place before and had been intrigued There was suppose to be some hard climbs there that were really steep (always a plus), but the long drive, finicky weather, and potential for a locked gate at the start of the access road had always dissuaded me from having a look. However, as we were in the area, I figured I'd do some reconnaissance and was not disappointed. The place looked really good, some of the best stuff I'd seen in the state in fact, so I knew I'd have to make another tip back down to do some actual climbing.
Two weeks later I'd russelled up a few climbing partners for a long weekend and back down I went, this time to climb. It ended up being really humid, still kinda hot, and I was a bit out of shape from not touching rock since late November, but we still managed to do a bunch of good moderate climbing in the 7a+ to 7b+ range.
The area is really beautiful (if it's not raining) and I did give a couple harder things a few tries and would be quite excited to get back down there again to have a real crack. Unfortunately, its moving into a rainier season, so I'll just have to see how the weather plays out, but hopefully I might get one more tip in before winter. Still getting used to the gopro and editing software, but it's coming along I think.
Tomorrow morning if the wind doesn't kick up to badly, Leanne and I have made plans to go and do a dive at the 10th Island seal colony off the north coast. Its said to be really spectacular, so fingers crossed it will be a good trip and I'll get some good stuff for the next post. Till then-
