Launceston

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EARLY in the morning, I left the hostel to explore Launceston. My first stop was the Tamar River, but before reaching it, I came across King's Bridge, built in 1861, which crosses the outlet of the South Esk River into the lake of the main river. Upstream, the South Esk River passed through a spectacular gorge of volcanic rock. As I entered the bridge, I noticed a rough track heading up the gorge, but upon crossing it, I found the main Cataract Gorge Track.

The track was well-formed, constructed in the early 1890s, and had an old, long-closed toll building at its entrance. About forty metres along the track, a cottage sat perched above the track, no doubt the toll caretaker's cottage.

I followed the sealed track along the gorge, passing spectacular dolerite rock formations rising above the still and deep water below, where rowers were training. The formations were created during the Jurassic period as volcanic intrusions, and are part of what I would later find out to be just a small part of much of Tasmania. The local Aboriginal people believe the vertical formations are the sentinels of their ancestors watching over the gorge. I passed a lookout with the Duchess Shelter built from logs in 1926. The rock formations on the other side of the gorge were even more spectacular than those on this side.

Continuing upstream, the track negotiated its way around more of the 200 million-year-old rock formations, crossing bridges over small ravines and passing more lookouts before reaching a point where the calm water gave way to a cascade roaring down large boulders. The track continued upstream above the river until arriving at a large open clearing known as The Basin. Across the middle of it was the world's longest cable chair spanning 308 metres across the valley.

After exploring a rotunda, I descended to a low bridge where the lake, filling much of The Basin, flowed into the gorge. From there, the track rose to a building servicing a large swimming pool before continuing along the start of the Duck Reach Trail, passing more interesting dolerite formations, including a rock with very interesting zeolite crystal formations. I turned off the track following the Alexandra Suspension Bridge across the river, where the cascades flowed into the small lake.

Once across the bridge, I continued heading around The Basin, passing the rotunda again before following the Cataract Gorge track back to the bridge. From there, I headed downstream along the Tamar River lake before returning to the town centre.

Later in the morning, I explored the town centre, walking through the mall and several streets around it. In the early afternoon, I attended the briefing for tomorrow's trek along the Overland Track. The meeting point was the local Macpac store, but it was closed for renovations due to water damage. Nevertheless, we headed to another store for the briefing.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent making final preparations and getting the last of the supplies I needed for tomorrow's trek.