Billy Button Daisy
This morning we walked on the Goldseekers Trail. It is a dual purpose trail used for walking in summer and as a cross country ski trail in the winter. Because of it’s ski trail nature it was well signed with tall posts. The trail passes through alpine meadows and snow gum forest with a myriad of wildflowers. A few of the flowers were identified on sign posts; however, most of them are unfamiliar to us.
At the start of the trail we saw a man in a small camper van, and he asked us where the trail was (the trail head sign is actually across the road from where the trail starts on the east side of the highway). We asked to see inside his van as we were thinking about something similar to use in Tasmania. However he suggested that a car and tent would be just as good for a short time. On talking to him we learned that he and his wife have been doing a great number of adventures similar to ours since they retired 15 years ago in Switzerland. He was a very well preserved 73 years old, and said his wife no longer wants to go on wilderness canoe trips as she is concerned about how to manage if something should happen to him. However, he was on a kayaking trip in the Yukon in the last year or so.
At about the mid-point of the hike there are the remains of old gold mines in this area. The area first opened with a short lived gold rush in the 1860’s, but was actively small scale mined until about 1950. There are some old shafts visible, and the decayed remains of old mining equipment.
We hiked to the top of the downhill ski area (Selwyn Snowfields) at the end of the trail and ate our lunch outside the deserted chalet. There are a large number of chair lifts here, but the runs can’t be too long as there is only a little over 100 m vertical drop. It reminded me very much of Saskatchewan’s Table Mountain ski area.
We came back and swam in the lake here. I anticipated it would be cold because of our altitude (about 1500 m) but it was surprisingly warm. As it’s a dam I also thought it would probably drop quickly, but it didn’t and it was just a gentle slope to the bottom. It wasn’t the greatest swimming, but a great way to get cleaned off after the hike. The only problem is the horse flies (they call them “March Flies” here) which are thick and aggressive, especially by the water. We retreated to the interior of our motorhome, which fortunately is nice and cool this afternoon, and spent some time deciding what we will do when we go to Tasmania in February.