A Loopy Walk on the Plateau 3

Day 3: A Trip to Cairns

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware.” – Martin Buber

 

What a difference blue sky and time on a summit can make! We descended from Turrana Bluff gradually, happily; delighting in the lack of full packs and the wide vistas all around us. We were back at our campsite around 11am, and quickly finished packing before setting off for destination not-quite-known. In theory we should find Ritter’s Track by mid-afternoon. A few years before, a little east of Pencil Pine Tarn, we had located some of the cairns that marked Ritter’s Track. That time we’d followed them south and west towards the Walls of Jerusalem. This time our plan was to go the other way. We would pass east of Lakes Lexie and Gwendy in search of some of the northern markers of Ritter’s Track. We were now thinking of the walk as Ritter 2.0.

 

[Tim D finds water and shelter]

The day had become warm, the sun strong. Full-pack, off-track walking, with its attendant high leg-lifting, is thirsty work. By lunchtime we were in need of both water and shade, and found them in the delightful shade of some pencil pines beside a small pool. If we’d been told two days ago that we’d be sweating, putting on sunscreen, and hiding in the shade from fierce sun, we’d have shaken our heads in disbelief. Welcome to November in the high country: freezing one day, burning the next!
 
Over lunch our GPS geeks, Tim D and Larry, began comparing data on the whereabouts of the nearest Ritter cairn. We were supposed to be walking directly towards one, but we knew we weren’t guaranteed to find it. Ritter’s Track is not like a conventional bushwalking track: mostly easy to follow, with markers and an obvious ground trail. Rather, at least from our previous experience, it’s a vague route, marked by sometimes hard-to-find rock cairns, and with little or no ground trail. After all, it was created over 100 years ago to drive cattle towards grazing grounds in the Walls of Jerusalem area, and it‘s been many decades since it’s been used for that.

[Looking down towards Lake Lexie]

We crested a scrubby high point overlooking Lake Lexie, a lake we’d wandered past on previous trips. We did so again, making for some low rocky hills, beyond which lay Lake Gwendy. After that, Larry told us, we should be getting close to a Ritter cairn. By now some of us were growing weary, and even low hills felt like hard work. The prospect of finding a cairn was less thrilling than that of finding a good campsite. We plodded on, eventually dropping down through scrub towards a small open lake. A few of us were ready to stop, but this looked like a campsite only for the desperate. After a brief discussion we walked on.

[TimO at Lake Lexie, with the "low hill" behind]

We clambered over another rise and found a larger, unnamed lake. Larry said we were only a few hundred metres from a cairn, but in this sort of country that can be half an hour’s work. We compromised by continuing up the eastern shore of the large lake vaguely close to the direction of a cairn. By now most of us were only interested in finding a campsite, at least for today. 

[Our eventual campsite: a hidden gem]

We'd been spread out searching for a while before Libby walked upslope from the large lake, and called back that she’d located a promising possibility. It proved to be more than that! She’d found a lovely small lake, fringed by pencil pines, and with a group of ducks bobbing near the far shore. What bliss! We each managed to find a spot for our tent, and settled in “tired but happy”, as the cliched school composition had it.

[Libby celebrates a card game win]

Indeed we were happy enough, and the weather was fine enough, that we sat around playing cards after dinner. As we finished our games, a waxing moon rose into the clear evening sky, a change of the guard signalling bedtime. With this wonderful campsite it seems we’d landed on our feet. That said we'd be even happier once we were off them and in our tents.