The day started reasonably early with the alarm ringing @ 5.15am. After collecting my Brother we headed south west of Launceston to Deloraine, Mole Creek, Lake Rowellan and finally, the cark park on the edge of the Walls of Jerusalam National Park. Our walk was to take us to Mt Jerusalam, some 8 kilometers away and return via the same route the same day.
Here are a couple of maps that show the journey, the second one starts at Lake Salome and its a lot more detailed.
We gathered in the car park around 8am with my brother, my Brother in Law David, his daugher Lou and his buddy from Rotary, John Glenn ( Yes I know and now it wasnt that one...
).The first part of the track was to Trappers hut,
Track basically looked like this, took us around 50 minutes to climb approx 250-300 mtrs vertically, some flat sections along the way that certainly assisted with catching our breath. The car park is at approx 600 mtrs, the plateau we were heading for sits around 1,100 mtrs.
This old boot caught my eye, it was hung at the end of Trappers Hut.
From Trappers Hut our trek then headed towards Herods Gates, which basically signifys the start of the "Walls". Once we reached the plateau the walk became much easier, actually I was suprised how well I have covered the hardest part of the walk thus far, and felt even better as we got our first glimpse of some distant peaks. Im uncertain which this is but it was our first decent view from the plateau.
In the last pic you will see the first of the tarns known as Solomons Jewels, here are a few more.
About an hour after our departure from Trappers, Herods Gates came into view, bloody hell it looked a long way away...
Thats my Brother in Law..think a bloke his age would want to conserve his energy and not scale rocks to get in the shot!
The view in our rear view mirror revealed our first look @ another iconic Tasmanian moutain, Cradle...on the right you can see Clummers Bluff which we came up beside (on the left of)
Thats Barn bluff on the left.
Looking west again Herods gates approached. Met serveal other trekkers (These were serious ones, staying over several nights - one group of 3 were out for 9 days!)
Another climb through the gates and our first look at the Walls!
This is Lake Salome, looking towards the eastern wall, which is Mt Jerusalem.
The water was unbelievably clear and the taste was nothing short of sensational...first water bottle fill from this little creek...the reflections were nice too...
Another rear view shot of Cradle...through the gates this time.
The Western wall, which leads to Solomons Throne was now on our right,
As we moved along the track Damascas Gate came into view, its basically the saddle between Solomons Throne and the Temple and the decent into Dixons Kindom starts their.
Saw a couple of flowers...snapped em!
This looking back across lake Salome just prior to our side track into the Pools of Bethesda.
These next few shots were all at the Pools of Bethesda, an awesome little area.
Thats Solomons Throne in the back ground, the end of the western wall.
After leaving the pools we climbed to the top of Damascas Gate, at the top of this you can wander down into Dixons or climb either the Temple or Solomans Throne.
Unsure why, but I was keen to climb Solomons, only to be scared shitless by the climb, steep drop offs and overall expose to height experienced. Twice i stopped to turn around, and twice I pushed on (after some encouragement)
Posting now to ensure I dont loose my progress to date...
Progress saved...
This from half way up Solomons, Lou is sitting at the junction of the track..done enough walking apparently!
This from 3 parts the way to the top..backs to the wall I can tell you...
The pic above shows part of Lake Ball, the pic below shows most of it, thats basically looking west to the Overland track...
Summit reached after the final climb through a crack in the rocks...
These from the summit..
Looking west to the Overland track, Mt Ossa and others...
Pools of Bethesda.
Lake Salome
Coming down now...I had no other choice...still scared shitless...
Down now and heading to Dixons Kingdom, the Pencil Pine stands were senstational, especially as you walked through them.
Now at Dixons, looking west to Lake Ball
Always time for Cricket...even out here!
We sat an enjoyed lunch here, its was satisfing on two fronts, we got to sit and eating made our packs lighter!
Although our plan originally was to summit Mt Jerusalem, the climb to Solomons summit meant we would not have time (was around an hour further on), now time to head back...
Next few all of Solomons and the Wailing wall (heads due west off Solomons)
The Pencil pines back to Herods Gate
Across Lake Salome to Zion Hill
And finally a few more shots with Herods in the distance, looking across Solomons Jewels later in the day...
The walk took 9 and a half hours, we walked approx 17 klms, I loved every bit of it, except the decent. Knees were ordinary at the end but soon forgotten once home, but I was very very smelly!
Cant wait to go back, this time straight to Mt Jerusalam.
If you get the chance and you have a reasonable level of fitness, its am awesome place to visit. I wished I had gone in Early Jan when the place was covered in blooming flora, it would have been magic!
Next time we will start earlier to catch that special time re light...snow on teh ground would awesome too...
Hope my pics were good enough to indicate how special this place is, its still much better in person!
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