Walls of Jerusalem from Lake Ada

18 - 21 October 2009

The  relatively calm and sunny weather next day made for pleasant walking as did the lovely surrounds as we wondered past on the northern side of New Years Lake and came upon a most delightful old pencil pine forest beside  an unnamed small lake.  From here it was along the wide valley floor to Zion Gate and then up the valley to Dixons Kingdom hut where a fireplace was noticed at the side of the hut on the peaty soil.  It is very frustrating to see how people ignore the no fires sign, which is just inside the hut; we removed the  partially  burnt pine branches and the rocks and cleaned the mess up as best we could; but nevertheless a black scar remained. Our camp was further on in Jaffa Vale and with plenty of daylight I went for a walk up The Temple whilst Dave and Robyn explored the area closer to camp.

One of the highlights of the walk down the Bernes Valley from Lake Ball was the vast swathes of Hovea which is recorded on the  rare plant list.  It sure would be spectacular to be there a month later when the purple flowers were out. One of the distinct advantages of a GPS is comfort level it gives for roaming through country where there a few distinguishing features, and so on reaching Lake Solveig we headed through low hills and valleys to visit the quite attractive Ah Chees Lake and then over a plain filled with Hovea to meet the Pine River.  Of course the river had grown a bit since the first crossing near Lake Ball and even though a rocky crossing place was found we still got wet feet. The walk down past Silver Lake to Lake Antimony was marked by the large areas of cushion plant.  After finding a dry crossing point for Powena Creek we checked out the hut then headed up the track to camp at Lake Theresa.

A flurry of snow at seven the next morning heralded the end of the fine sunny weather, however it soon ceased and we only had a very light short shower on the walk back to the cars at Ada.


Photo Link

Ah Chees Lake