Watts Hut Maintenance

On Tuesday Trevor, Annette and I headed out to Watts Hut for a bit of maintenance work, and of course some sightseeing. We loaded up the bikes and the sled and headed out not long after smoko. The plan was to replace one of the heaters, change over at least one gas bottle, change out the jerry cans of fuel that are at the hut, install a new kick board in the cold porch and check all the turnbuckles on the hut.

Trevor and Annette packing the sled

The heater was the first job, and the sooner I got it done, the sooner we could boil some water for a cuppa and get the place warmed up. While I was doing that, Trev and Annette got to work on the new kick board. Some of the studs were a little difficult to locate to fix the board to the wall, leaving Trev to claim that all the extra holes were due to termites.

Trev on the saw, Annette acting as the wood vice

When we had finished all the work to be done on the hut, we made the decision to head up Mount Tarbuck. Trev wanted to head up to check out some of the rigging on the radio repeater antenna. It wasn't a great day for photos, but as it was not windy at all we went for it. This was to be my second time on top of Tarbuck, the first was in the summer when we landed on top in a helicopter. This was to be my first time climbing it. We made it up no worries, and Trev was happy with all the comms gear so it was a successful day all round. We got back to the hut pretty tired after a big day, but that didn't stop me winning two games of chess against Annette! (And drawing one and losing one, but don't worry about those games.)

Mount Tarbuck - the peak in the middle of the photo

Me on top of Mount Tarbuck

Annette and Trevor on top of Mount Tarbuck

The plan for day two was to head out for a spot of sightseeing. We headed up Lake Druzhby for a bit of a look, with the aim to head over to Crooked Lake to get to some of the gorges over there. Both Druzhby and Crooked Lakes freeze clear, allowing you to see straight through the ice which is an absolutely amazing experience. They also have the tendency to freeze completely flat which makes it hard to get traction on the quads at times. Usually this is a bit of fun, but when you have a strong head wind it can make it difficult to get where you want to.

The crossing point between the two lakes is known as Tierney River, and during the summer it flows from Crooked to Druzhby (I walked across this river when it was running during my field training trip). Of course at this time of year it has frozen, so you can ride up the river for part of the crossing.

Tierney River crossing

Just as we crossed onto Crooked, I looked back and saw that the sun was finally starting to peek out from behind the clouds. The following photo is just a gratuitous sunrise shot that I quite liked.

The three main targets of ours on Crooked Lake were the three gorges: Talg, Hidden and Grimmia. We did them in that order, and it turned out quite well, as each one was more impressive than the last.

Annette heading back down Hidden Gorge

The highlight was definitely waiting for us at the end of Grimmia Gorge - it contains a frozen waterfall. It is truly an amazing sight to see. It's very hard to imagine the fact that a running body of water can finally be suspended like that. Even in the photo it almost looks like the water is still running. It was a brilliant way to end a fantastic trip away.

Waterfall in Grimmia Gorge

Looking back down Grimmia from above the waterfall