Rysavy Ridge

After we relocated the day before to O’Neills campground in Gowrie Park at the base of Mount Roland (yes Rysavy Ridge is on that mountain, I made a picture of at my first day in Tassie more than 7 weeks earlier), we agreed to have an early start. So, at the 6th of March 2021 we got up at 5:00 o’clock. The plan was to have a quick breakfast and then start early with the approach, as it’s an about 2h walk from the car park to the base of the ridge. The night was quite chilly and we had some hoarfrost in the morning. The first question of Will was: Do you want to have a real coffee? Hmm…sure, why not 🤦‍♂️. That means: Measuring 15g of coffee beans on the scale, grinding them, prepare the AeroPress, put on the kettle, heat the water to 85°C temperature – monitored with a thermometer, and then press the freshly brewed coffee into the cup. I mean, that’s how we make real coffee right 😜. As the toilets didn’t work on the campground we needed to make a 30min detour via Sheffield as Will needed to take care of his internal pressure. At 7:00 o’clock we were finally at the car park. Ready to start walking…actually not too bad.

Beautiful morning, just after sunrise, and the firefighter helicopters just started flying…well, surprise, surprise

The approach trail is via a private property, but we gained permission to cross it. We just needed to sign into the guestbook. After about 2h we arrived at the base of the mountain. We got the gear ready and then had a bit of a discussion were to start. I said straight away, but Will run into a gully. Then we did some boulder moves and anyway gained the ridge. Will was still in his approach shoes, and as he didn’t want to downclimb he them into the other gully…great idea. I had my climbing shoes with me, but as they’re super aggressive I actually climbed the whole day in my boots. Rysavy ridge is a 12, and contrary to other Tassie climbs it’s not sandbagged. In that instance the grade conversion table works, and it’s an UIAA IV. It’s a long route of 400m and if you climb all on safety gear then it takes a while. Plus we had double ropes with us, which makes perfectly sense for multipitch trad climbing. But sometimes you’ve walking pitches through shrub, and dragging them all the way is really hard. We constantly swapped leads, and Will was now always happy with my gear placement. After about 4h we had our lunch break at a bit of wider ledge. The weather was gorgeous. It couldn’t have been a better climbing day. At about 17:00 o’clock we reached the top, and two other climbers followed us briefly behind. They were a bit more efficient in their rope handling, and thus about 2h faster than we.

Will at our lunch break. Halfway along the ridge line

The final part of the ridge is the most spectacular, but easy to walk on

Me enjoying my rest on top of the pinnacle

Will and I having a good time after our climb…

…on top of Rysavy Ridge, with the normal hiking path to the top of Mount Roland in the background.

We had a nice conversation on the top. Enjoyed the view to Cradle Mountain and Barn Bluff before we started abseiling into the dirty gully. The gully is too steep to walk down, but not steep enough to have the rope freely flowing. Thus, rope got tangled frequently in the bush. We decided to abseil together, and take advantage of our multiple ropes. There was always old tad available for the anchors. That went all well until the 5th or 6th pitch. Then their rope got stuck, while they tried to pull it down. They didn’t get it free. We were already one abseil lower. Hence, Will climbed up, while I was belaying him on toprope. Now I was stuck there. They tried to pull it down with their weight, but it didn’t work. The lightest person then needed to prusik all the way up. Not a nice feeling, if you know the rope is only stuck on a single knot. But in the end, this was exactly was happened. Could happen to anyone. In the end it took us 3h down instead of 2h and it was already dawn when we were back at the bottom. Now, we needed to find Will’s boots quickly before it went completely dark. Walking down with the rest of the light of the day. We finally arrived at 21:00 o’clock at the car park. What a glorious day. That was my best climb in Tasmania!

What a stunning view…with Cradle mountain and Barn Bluff in the background

The smoke of the controlled bush fires is clearly visible towards Cethana

That’s the gully we need to abseil into…not a nice lookout

The next day we slept in. There was a local polo games competition. This just happened to be on the other side of the fence. We had a bit of a hangover after our epic day and then decided to watch a few games. After more than 7 weeks of more or less travelling together (were we had very good times), it was time to say goodbye. Will headed to Hobart to pickup Jon before they went to Flinders Island, and I went to the pub in Sheffield…

“No Will in sight!!” I received this message from Jon the evening they had to drive to Bridport to catch the ferry to Flinders island. I know that place well. That’s the camp kitchen in Kingston, with the open fire on the right…clearly occupied by Will and his equipment. And no…it doesn’t surprise me at all, I guess he got distracted 😂. (in the end they made it)

Climbing in Freycinet

After having late breakfast and coffee (needless to say I guess 😋), Jon decided he wanted to hitchhike to Fingal. As it was late anyway, Will agreed to drive Jon to Bicheno, and on the way out he dropped me so I could climb Mt Amos in the meantime. Despite the fact that it was by the time already 18:00 o’clock or so, Jon got a direct lift to Fingal, all along the east coast. On the way back Will picked me up again.

I had an easy hike up Mount Amos, one of the many granite mountains in Freycinet National Park. The weather was great, so I had a 360° view. After some time on the top, I walked back so I can be on time for my pickup.

Coles Bay infront and the northern part of the east coast towards Bicheno

The trig point was actually at the next summit a few hundred metres apart

Interesting note what impact dead branches actually have for the wildlife…maybe to be remembered, when you pick up a stick for your own convenience the next time

The next day we finally got some climbing done at Whitewater Wall. Will taught me again a bit of gear placement, and I was even able to lead a 13 or so. I’m not certain, but I think we did again one of his favourite off-width cracks.

On the 5th the weather wasn’t great again. So, we decided to move camp again, and drive to Gowrie Park at the base of Mount Roland. We didn’t too bad. I drove off a bit earlier than Will at early afternoon, but then needed to wait for him in Westbury, as I couldn’t pay in cash for my fuel (and my credit card didn’t work). So I had a short look around town, and since they build the bypass road most of the business for the local retailers is gone, and the main street appeared a bit dead and lonely, but still lovely. The rest of the time I waited in my car. So it was already dark when we arrived, but not that crazy late, as we opted for an early start the next day. Will spotted a bush fire in the distance, and as he was still on Optus I needed to make a call with my Telstra Sim card. The operator said, that’s a controlled burn and we shouldn’t be worried…well we told them, that this doesn’t look like controlled. And they admitted that they didn’t had anyone on the ground to check. Well then…

Drive to Freycinet

I mean you can imagine, that after returning at midnight, that our first coffee wasn’t that early. The weather turned bad again, but the forecast for Freycinet further north was actually not that bed. So eventually, we decided to move camp. We helped Will to pack all his gear into his car. But eventually I took Jon in my car, as Will was still a bit distracted by “sorting things out” (Will is basically always busy with “sorting things out”). We drove off (very) late afternoon, and made a bit of a short detour on the peninsula and visited the Lime Bay Coal Mines. This is a former convict site (there are plenty in Tasmania, or Van Diemen’s Land, as Tassie was know in the past. But as nobody wants to be associated with those times, they better changed the name – not that it would’ve changed anything in the British invasion at all). As so many convict sites, they are nowadays lamenting about the hardship the convict faced. Well, it’s not my fault that your monarch decided to externalise the sentence term outside his small British island, and put badly educated, and cruel officers in charge for its supervision. So stop whinging about the hardship of white British people. You better admit all those genocides which were committed in the name of the British crown. Basically “Australian history” always starts in 1788 (or shortly afterwards), even though the area was inhabited for thousands of years prior to the British occupation. Anyway, in this particular case this peninsula was perfect to control obstreperous convicts, as it only had a small isthmus to the rest of the island. Some tried to escape by swimming, but that didn’t go well. Some drowned, some got caught.

Some ruins from stone buildings at Lime Bay Coal Mines

Clear water at the site of the former jetty

One of the former shafts to access the underground coal mine collapsed

Nature takes back step-by-step the former stone buildings

After leaving the Peninsula, we took the Wielangta Road as shortcut to Orford. The road was muddy due to the recent rain, corrugated, and had some deep washouts in parts…definitely nothing for speeding. We could see Maria island just to the east, but sunset was already way before Swansea. We reached Coles Bay in the evening and made our way to Whitewater Wall campsite. We didn’t had any mobile reception there. We arrived in the dark at about 22:00 and it was bloody windy, when I prepared some dinner in the storm. The last message from Will was, that he just drove back to Sorell to get some Super98 fuel for his Forester…and groceries of course. Will eventually arrived way after midnight, as we should discover the next morning.

Fortescue Bay

At the end of February 2021 and after fixing my car (I even needed to replace my spark plugs, as they started to misfire on Bruny island), I finally left Hobart after about a month. I had an early coffee stop in Sorell and got some last groceries before I drove to Port Arthur where I met with Will and Jon. It was raining quite a bit, and none of us was up to pay hefty entrance fees for the convict site, which is now a tourist attraction. Jon complained about Will, as he destroyed his brand new JetBoil stove, which he never used before, by reversing his car 🙈. So in the end we decided to setup camp at Fortescue Bay and wait for better weather. As it was raining we didn’t camp at the official camp spots, but occupied partly the shelter with our camp kitchen. I slept anyway in my car, and the ranger couldn’t be bothered.

As the weather cleared the next day, we drove to Remarkable Cave car park in Safety Cove. We approached a sport climbing crag, but that meant walking almost all the way towards Mount Brown (well good planning – at least we found the crag). I can’t recall what we climbed there. But we would’ve done a few routes, as it was already dusk once we retreated back to the camp…late dinner included.

The next day we started walking to The Moai…at midday. After about 2h of approach (Again, I wasn’t planning it, and hence not aware of the lengthy approaches here) we finally reached the abseiling point down to The Moai. Just when another party came towards us, and wasn’t sure why we would start now…well, now I know why they were dazed and confused 🤔. So after abseiling the two pitches, Will and I were at the bottom at about quarter past four. But Will didn’t want to start climbing until one of his other friends (who is a stronger climber) arrived, so he could lead a harder route…well nice plan for the morning, maybe not for the late afternoon (perfect organisation, if you’ve to manage 6 people and consider all their individual wishes). Thus, I waited for at least another hour or so. They abandoned the 24 graded route, and opted for a 20. I think we only did the first pitch. Will succeeded eventually over the crux. And I second it with some swearing and collecting all the gear (as far as I can remember I did it clean). Seconding is not always easier in trad, in particular when you can’t get out the cam or the nut. But it’s typical always nicer to have a rope from the top. On the way down I collected some other gear from the abandoned route. Thus, at about 20:00 o’clock we were ready to climb the cliff up again at the fixed rope we left earlier. Jon and his friend went first. Then I let Will go, as he takes longer for walking back. And I was the last to be on the top of the cliff at about 21:30 o’clock, way after sunset. I coiled the rope and had a short break from the uphill climb. I caught up with Will much later just on the beach shortly before the campsite.

Will is preparing the fixed rope to abseil…

My view, while I was waiting for the others “to sort things out”

We returned at midnight to camp…then we started preparing dinner. I think that was the night, when Will grabbed a naughty possum by its tail and threw it into the ocean. That happens to naughty possums when they try to steal our food from the kitchen. And yes, thanks to that scientific experiment, we could prove that possums can also swim in salt water and clearly find their back ashore 😜.

At least we had a nice view to The Candlestick and Totem Pole (two other popular climbing monoliths – the middle ones, partly covered)

Bruny Island

After fixing my credit card issues I went to Bruny Island end of February 2021. Will, Jon and a few others already stayed about a week at Cloudy Bay to do some rock climbing. The day I got the ferry to Bruny island they were supposed to pitch down camp. So at around early afternoon, I was on the road to Cloudy Bay, when all of a sudden Jon cycled towards me. We caught up briefly on the road, and then decided to wait for Will in Lunawanna at a cafe…well, we were way finished with our coffees, and the cafe wanted already to close…when Will finally arrived (any surprises here 🥲). As it was already late (I mean obviously), we decided to stay at The Neck campsite. Where we would setup camp again, which again could take a bit of time. Will prepared dinner that night, and he even had some beef tongue in his fridge from a local market, which he shared with all of us.

Jon and his bike on top of Will’s Forester (after Jon blew up his carbon rims, as he put too much air in the tyres, Will basically drove his bike the rest of the trip 🤷‍♂️)

The next day Will, I, and another friend went to Fluted Cape from Adventure Bay. Well, it was sought to be a short approach. In the end we tried to find the crag for about 5h. We even abseiled a very steep cliff. but couldn’t find any of those described lines. But we found an anchor and some bolts from another route, but not the one we were looking for. So, in the end we had a “nice” walk around Fluted Cape for several hours, with heavy backpacks and all the gear inside, but not any success to do some climbing. The weather was fine though. In the evening Will went back to Hobart and I stayed for another night.

The next morning I drove from Adventure bay to Lunawanna via Coolangatta Road (how aptly) and got a flat tyre there, as the road was quite rough. I visited Cape Bruny Lighthouse (only from the outside), and had luck as the weather cleared a bit.

Cape Bruny Lighthouse just cleared from the clouds

View from the lighthouse to the mainland

Then I went to Jetty beach to do the Luggaboine Circuit walk, where I realised that my tyre has not much air. The people from the next car, had a manual pump. So I gave it a go, and pumped the tyre up before I started the walk, but not with much success. When I came back, the air was gone again. So I thought, alright no problem, just another tyre change. That was when I realised that also my spare tyre didn’t have enough air. So anyway, I changed it, and then with the help of another car, I pumped that tyre up. Lucky me, it only was slowly leaking, and needed a refill once a week or so. But it’s not a good feeling, when your spare tyre is also flat in remote places.

Lonely beach along Luggaboine Circuit Walk (it wasn’t that warm, that I would’ve had any desire to swim)

On my way back to the ferry, I made a quick stop at The Neck lookout. There is a memorial statue for Truganini. She was from Bruny island and one of the last living Aboriginal Tasmanians after the genocide by the British empire. She was displaced to Flinders island in the 1830s. However, only 44 Aborigines of the 220 who arrived on Flinders island survived, and were transferred to Oyster Cove in 1847. In 1876 Truganini died as the last full-blood and tribal Tasmanian Aboriginal. Most Tasmanians with Aboriginal heritage are descendants of e.g. Fanny Cochrane Smith and other woman, who had children with white settlers. Anyway, don’t care about too much about this tiny statue, just enjoy the amazing view of the Neck from the Lookout.

Afterwards, in the late afternoon my last walk was to Cape Queen Elizabeth. Along the way there are some interesting rock formations, called the Arch directly on the beach, where I did some boulder moves (that’s all I did in terms of climbing on Bruny island). From the cape I could look back all the way to Fluted Cape, where we had been the day before stumbling around in the hope to find a crag. In the evening I went back to Michaela in Hobart. I needed to go to the workshop to get some small repairs done on the suspension of my car and get a new spare tyre from the wreckers obviously (I just had my fingers crossed that the air would stay inside all the way back).