Mount King William 1

The other day we bumped into our friend Libby Jackson at Fuller's Bookshop. While we were having a coffee together she told us about her recent walk up Mt King William. It sounded like a pleasant outing, we hadn't been there before and felt due for a walk somewhere different so we decided to check it out.

Here's what the King William Range looks like partway along the the approach track ...

Classic southwest Tasmania. Buttongrass plains with peaks rising above. You've got to love it - at least on a day like this.

The first part of the walk consists of pleasant strolling following an old,  gently rising four-wheel drive road, initially through old logged country and then through buttongrass and the unlogged lower slopes of the peak. At the end of the road the track up to the top of peak steepens immediately, and gets steeper the higher you go.

Here's a glimpse of some cliffs that appear about halfway up ...

Nearer to the top you traverse upwards to the right of the summit block ...

As an excuse to catch my breath I paused to take a photo of some Mountain Rocket a little past its best ...

and some Common Gentian ...

Views towards the west start to open up at this point. Here is the Lyell Highway disappearing into the forest and mountains and those of you who are more sharp-eyed might just be able to see Frenchman's Cap appearing towards the right of the picture just behind the hill in the foreground ...

As we approached the summit we were surprised to discover a collection of solar panels, antennae and small buildings ...

I thought this very odd fibreglass dome might have been used in the past for spotting fires ...

... but really wasn't sure.

We had a great lunch at the top and enjoyed the alluring views across the King William Range ...

... but I think my days of carrying a fully loaded pack through this sort of off-track terrain have come and gone!

There was a reasonable view of Frenchman's Cap, despite the light not being great over that way ...

On the way back down I paused to take a photo looking across Lake George towards Lake King William which, along with the rest of the Hydro Tasmania storage dams, is very low at the moment ...

Here's a panorama of Lake King William taken a little lower down the descent ...

Although it covers a large area, it doesn't look to me like this lake holds a huge volume. I wonder what the depth is in the deepest part at the moment?

Here's a view of the King William Range that I took when we did the nearby Rufus - Hugel Circuit back in 2006 ...

Finally, for folks not familiar with the geography of Tasmania, here is an image that will orient you as to the locations of Mt King William ...

We thought is was quite a pleasant walk but would recommend doing it as a part of a multi-day stay in the area.