What a New Years Day! Leaving Windy Ridge it took some convincing to get everyone to agree on ascending to the Labyrinth as part of the days plans but we met a single girl (Genevieve) who had also camped at Windy Ridge on the same night we were there up at the Pine Valley Hut as we were taking our lunch break. Genevieve added weight to my case that we ought to camp in the Labyrinth at Lake Elysia and so we did. The ascent to Lake Artemis although not as far in altitude was much tougher as there was some effort to push through the blazed trail. The route up to the Labyrinth was an anaerobic push but we arrived at the top sooner than expected.
Once again beautiful blue skies gave us clear views to Lake St Clair and the Eldon Range to the west. The plan was to walk to Mount Massif the following day camping next to beautiful Lake Elysia tonight. I will make myself a poo tube next time I come here so as to not leave human waste in this beautiful alpine region in future. The hut at Pine Valley has a demonstration model and recommends any campers up in the Labyrinth to take them to preserve the pristine environment.
Arriving early afternoon we made camp at nice grassy locations but swarming with ants. Apparently they always swarm on the south west corner of Lake Elysia and may or maynot be indicators of rain as some in our group believed. My opinion is the jury is out on this one and as it will generally rain some time in the future how can any ant soothsayer ever be wrong! The day was very warm as we had experienced most of the walk so a swim in lake Elysia was a necessity. Our thermals and polartec fleeces proved on this entire trip to be unnecessary bulk but who can say in Tasmania whether the next day will bring a blizzard even in summer.
The ants were correct in this case and the next day had a few showers and so Mount Massif was called off. We went down to stay at Pine Valley instead. The next day was our last day of walking. This involved rejoining the Overland Track and getting a ferry from Narcissus Hut to Cynthia Bay. We camped one night at Fergies Paddock and met up with Lee from Tiger Wilderness Tours the next morning.
THE END
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