Aboriginal Name - Not Found
The adventure begins with four hours sleep, a plane flight, a 3 hour drive across the highlands of Central Tasmania in the first snow storm of the season, in order to get to Lake St Clair and begin the journey into the wild.
The Range lies in Central Tasmania and is accessed from the southern end of the Overland track via Lake St Clair and Pine Valley Hut. It’s about a 3 hour drive from either Hobart or Launceston. There are options to bus, self drive or hitch hike (at your own risk) into this beautiful part of Tasmania.
We neglected some minor details while preparing for this trip, like sourcing appropriate maps. Turns out, TasMap don’t actually print The Du Cane Range map anymore. It requires a special order to print. So if you’re thinking about this hike, then think about maps well in advance. We did however get hold of a GPS route from another keen Tassie hiker, downloaded PDF versions of the maps to our phones and found a substitute map for the one we actually needed. This meant we were pretty much covered, except for the fact that some days and nights were spent walking and camping ‘off the map’. We also neglected to bring the charging cables for the power bank that we brought with us. You could say the lemons were stacking up, but we brushed it off and kept on laughing.
The route can be conquered in 4-7 days depending on weather and your motivation to climb to summits for no particular reason other then to take in the view. We spent 6 days out on the trail with minimal unnecessary summiting. The trail is partially tracked but mostly just marked with rock cairns. Aside from the first days walk up into the Labyrinth, there is no actual trail depicted on any map, thus, route finding and navigating are must have skills for this hike. The route takes you up onto the top of the range and keeps you there for the entire time until you descend back down onto the Overland Track just north of Bert Nichols Hut. The views are breathtaking and provided the wind stays at bay the sunsets, and sunrises are majestic.
Traversing the Du Cane Range can be likened to crawling up and down a very repetitive ladder with huge gaps between rails that are really just jurassic dolomite boulders which feel like they're covered in shards of glass. With every touch, another layer of skin is lost. But, it is 100% worth it for the solitude, campsites and regained sense of adventure. Campsites are mainly found in big bowls that are littered with small tarns, thus water is generally not an issue, but finding soft, dry ground to pitch a tent can be. The days were short in kilometres, but long in time and mentally exhausting. There were times when we’d only be travelling 4km but the technicality of walking and exposure that was experienced meant slow and careful manouvering. Falling was not an option. Parts of the range are so steep that you are climbing up the side of mud clad mountains riddled with boulders and wet shrub. There are moments when a summit is reached and you wonder how on earth you are going to get down the other side. Off in the distance a rock cairn is spotted and the down climb begins. You pass by natural monuments named things like Big Gun Pass, which should be interpreted quite literally. The final ascent onto Falling Mountain proved to be a knuckle breaker. The higher we climbed, the bigger the boulders became. Some the size of a big yellow school bus. Conveniently, the rock cairns started to disappear and the GPS route was impossible to follow (possibly due to user incompetence). The four of us were now trying to find a way through this mass of boulders perched on top of this huge mountain in order to make camp. It took a bit of route finding, pack and human hauling to find our way out of what was quickly becoming a maze with no end. There were sighs of relief when we were able to touch down on vegetated land and the huge, panoramic views right out to Frenchman’s Cap and over to the Walls of Jerusalem made it worth it. The descent of the same mountain was just as trying. Rather then having precarious bus sized boulders to negotiate, we now had head high and dense vegetation to bash through in order to make our way out onto the Overland Track. With every push through the scrub, more and more skin was lost. We burst out onto the track and practically got down on our knees and kissed it.
After the initial snow storm that left icing sugar on the peaks of the surrounding mountains, we were blessed with almost perfect weather. Still days, cold nights with skies full of stars and the rain at bay. You spend so much time above 1200m when on the Du Cane range that you certainly wouldn’t want to venture out there if the forecast was looking inclement. If you are keen to attempt this traverse, many others suggest trying your luck on the Western Arthurs first. It is a longer, but similar style of trail. One that requires full body walking, with long days and short distances. The Arthurs is formally tracked and mostly maintained by Parks Tasmania.
The breathtaking views of the DuCane Range will be etched onto this mind forever, as will the giggles of fear, the card games, the 5 o’clock dinners and the 14 hour sleeps. Go walking in Tasmania, you won’t ever regret it.
To order paper maps head here:https://www.tasmap.tas.gov.au/Search.do
For GPS imagery of a similar route look here: https://rockmonkeyadventures.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/du-cane.jpg
By Georgia Nelson
LFRF acknowledges all the Traditional Owners and pay our respects to the Elders, past and present of all Central Tasmania and urges you to please do the same.
