It may be late autumn in Tasmania but the weather this past week was surprisingly mild. Thursday was clear and fairly warm in Hobart (18C), so I decided to take the day off work. I headed with my wife to Hartz Mountain National Park in south-central Tasmania. I have visited this park on four prior occasions since mid-summer and always, the weather was bad with snow or heavy cloud cover. I took this photo during a snowstorm in mid-February (late summer). Obviously, conditions were not good for sigthting reptiles.
On this visit, there was a light wind and it was mostly clear. My wife and I decided to walk to the summit of Hartz Moutain. This was only a five hour walk and the gain in altitude was not much at all, only about 400m.
... habitat near the start of the walk:
Further along, we could see Hartz Mtn (centre). The trail passed mostly through open, alpine country like this.
This is a photo of the Ladies Tarn, a glacial lake. King Billy Pines and Pandani were numerous around the shore of the lake.
These small shrimps were common in the Ladies Tarn. They often swam inverted near the surface of the lake.
Further along, the trail passed another tarn known as Hartz Lake.
Cushion Plants were common in this area.
Here is a view of the 1255m summit of Hartz Mtn.
The upper slopes of Hartz Mountain were rocky:
We had a fantastic view of the surrounding wilderness from the summit of Hartz Mtn. It was a stunning place.
... the southern ocean can be seen in the distanc:
This is Federation Peak, a popular trekking and climbing destination. It is only about 1300m high but it is surrounded by cliffs. In addition, it is remote and it takes up to 9 days to walk in, climb it and then walk out again. This peak is located near the southern tip of Tasmania and it is often cold with foul weather.
One of the reasons that I have repeatedly visited Hartz Mountain was to try and find the Mountain Skink (
Niveoscincus orocryptis), a species that is new to me. This is one of the 7 species of snow skinks that are found in Tasmania. Mountan Skinks are restricted to a few mountain tops in the southwest of Tasmania. On this visit, I was finally lucky enough to find and photograph these lizards. They became active on the upper talus slopes of Hartz Mountain around noon. The air temperatures would only have been in the low teens (C) but these are cold-adapted skinks and they emerged to sun themselves.
We had a very enjoyable outing.
Regards,
David
....cheers buddy
