Belton Florentine Circuit

Tuesday 15 March 2016

I had been trying to organise a circuit walk to Lake Belton and up to Florentine Peak for several months, but weather and other circumstances intervened.  Finally, it was on and completed successfully. The walk was from Wombat Moor to Lake Belton, alongside the eastern shore and ascending by a narrow and very distinct ridge to the plateau between Tyenna and Florentine Peaks. The return journey to go via k Col and the Rodway Range.

Greg and Neville at morning break at Lake Belton

Being a long walk we needed an early start and were on the track at 8:00 am. Wombat Moor was as usual a bit wet in parts but not as awful as sometimes and the track from the saddle down to the Humboldt River in very good condition, due to the work of the Friends of Mount Field. A previous visitor had recently placed pink ribbons on trees along the way, which seemed a strange and irritating thing to do as the track is very obvious.

After crossing the river, a route through the bush was taken, as it would be good to find a better way to Lake Belton than the existing poor track. The bush was a bit wet but by the time we arrived at the lake some 30 minutes later it was sunny and trousers quickly dried during a pleasant break near the shore. The walk beside the lake is mostly quite easy with lots of open spots and it is scenic with even a few spots giving views down the Lake Belcher valley. There are numerous Pencil Pines on the banks.

Lake Belton from high on ridge, the lunch time view

Belton has a long narrow isthmus jutting into it and this could now be seen and soon after it was time for the brief descent to cross the outlet creek and climb onto the ridge that goes all the way up to the plateau.  We were now on new territory for us and it proved to be about as expected; light scrub interspersed with relatively open country. High on this narrow ridge we stope for lunch at a spot giving very good views and a different perspective of Lake Belton. Above awaited a further short climb then we had to locate the way down to the route that would take us to K Col. Two things stood out, one being we had all forgotten the need to pinpoint the rocky descent location and the other being the minimal pad between there and Clemes Tarn; clearly it does not get high usage. As we had all been more than once to Florentine Peak and did not bother going to the top.

The remainder of the walk was via the Bobs Peterson hut for a break, then over the Rodways to lake Dobson followed by the trudge up the road to the car at Wombat Moor. It was fair to say by then we were somewhat tired.

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Belton Florentine Circuit