Vale of Belvoir – Sat. 27^th June 2015

The shortest day of the year has come and gone. We’re not quite hanging out for spring yet, but providing we can get there and the roads are open, we are heading for the Vale of Belvoir – a wilderness expanse north of the Cradle road and close to Black Bluff which includes Lake Lea. Again, we will keep this walk relatively short, with an easier option around the lake shore for those who don’t want a vigorous scramble to the nearby high point of the Bond’s Range, so we will cater for all tastes, with the possibility of coffee at a nearby location afterwards for those inclined.

The turnoff for Lake Lea is about 4 km west of the Cradle Mt. turnoff from Cradle Mountain Rd, and the walk begins from a point about 3 km north of the road, which is a dirt access track but passable for 2WD vehicles.

The easier option, a relatively flat walk, will follow the vehicular track further north past the western side of Lake Lea, exploring interesting features such as sinkholes, to the northern end of the lake, perhaps ascending the hillside beyond before returning by the same route. The more challenging route will head east from the same starting point, and ascend about 200 metres over 2 km, before heading north along the range and descending to and crossing the River Lea about 1.5 km north. The route then turns west across the north shore of the lake to meet the route from the easier option. The shorter route is about 6 km return, and the harder circuit about 10 km.

This walk is rated "easy-medium" and is suitable for walkers, including energetic children, who can cope with wintry and changeable conditions and some off-track walking. Being winter, walkers must be fully prepared for poor weather and should carry layers of warm clothing and a waterproof jacket, as well as a beanie or warm head cover. Please see the warnings below. A change of footwear and perhaps even dry clothing on return to car is recommended.

Plenty of fascinating information out there on Vale of Belvoir. Here are some interesting links…

http://www.apstas.com/Vale_of_Belvoir_map.html
http://www.apstas.com/Vale_of_Belvoir.html
https://www.tasmaniangeographic.com/the-vale-of-belvoir-an-introduction/
http://www.domain.com.au/for-sale/cradle-mountain-tas-7306-2007792459
http://www.ifs.tas.gov.au/archive/IFSDatabaseManager/WatersDatabase/lake-lea

Information for Leaders working with Children and Youth:

Boots N’ All, as part of Scripture Union Tasmania, is very happy to work alongside leaders working with children and young people to extend your options for healthy and safe activities for your group. Why not consider whether once or twice a year, your group could participate in a Boots N’ All walk? If you are thinking of bringing a group on a walk, it is a good idea to be in touch well in advance so that we can check safety requirements such as adequate adult-child ratio, availability of leaders who meet Childsafe requirements, transport arrangements, availability of a qualified first aid person and whether the children and young people will be adequately equipped for the particular walk.

Meeting Times and Places:
If you are interested in going on this walk, please phone your walk leaders, Graham Alexander, ph. 0407 436 556 to book in. The departure time is 8:30am from the Door of Hope Church car park, Launceston. Suggested meeting places if coming from elsewhere could be Sheffield at Claude Rd. turnoff at 9:20 am or Moina at 9:50 am. The group should arrive at the Lake Lea turnoff by approx. 10:15 am.
If you would like to arrange to meet the group at these places or elsewhere, please arrange with the leader, and please be at any meeting place 5 minutes ahead of the listed time.
The leader should always be notified of any other people you intend to bring along, and you should always contact the walk leader if intending to participate in a particular Boots N' All walk.

To access this area from northern Tasmania: Roads to Cradle Mt. are well signposted, and the area can be accessed from several directions. From Sheffield, go south along Claude Rd through Gowrie Park and westward down into the Forth Valley (now Cethana Rd.), continuing up the other side to Moina. Turn south into Cradle Mt. Rd. After approx. 20 km, you will reach the Cradle Mt. turnoff. Do not turn south but continue west another 4 km to the Lake Lea turnoff on right-hand side.

Warnings:
The following codes [from our 2015 walks calendar] apply:
    D    Drive distance requires early departure
    S    Steep incline for at least part of the way (if the more challenging walk is included)
   M    Marshy or muddy sections – be prepared to walk with wet feet.
    E     Exposed alpine conditions; can be dangerous in poor weather if not adequately equipped; see www.sutas.org.au/bush-walking/bush-walking for some guidelines.
Unsure of equipment requirements? Visit the Boots N' All section of the sutas.org.au website per link below and read "Clothing suggestions for exposed conditions"

Map details:
Bond’s Hill and Lake Lea area: 1:100000 1:100000 map is Sophia and 1:25000 map is Lea (TasMap 4040).
Map reference (Bond’s Hill):
Short ref. n/a
Zone Easting Northing Latitude Longitude
55G 4 10 710 54 01 670 -41.53164 145.92967

There are no peakbagger points for the area covered by this walk. For listing of peakbagger points, see the Hobart Walking Club Peakbagger's Guide (2000 revision) which can be found and downloaded (as an Excel spreadsheet) from http://tastracks.webs.com/peakbaggers.htm The same web page contains several other listings of Tasmanian peaks.
GPX version of the track: Click here to download. Google Earth version of the track: Click here to download.
Right-click on the file and “save target as” to a location of your choice. (Suggest you click the “Last modified” at top to sort by date to get the most recent at top to find the file for the next walk).

Technical glitch! Some recently uploaded gpx map files on our file repository, when you right-click on them to download and �Save target as� to your computer, identify as xml files due to my mapping software not adding sufficient information to the file “header”. If you come across this, go ahead and save the file anyway, and then go to the folder where you saved it, and change the .xml to .gpx (you would need to have the View settings for the folder set to show file name extensions). You can then import in to your mapping software or device as usual. Let me know, because I can manually edit the files and upload the corrected version to the website.

When you have downloaded the track file, double-clicking on the Google Earth (kml) track should open Google Earth and zoom in to the location if you have Google Earth installed on your computer. The .gpx version of the track should import into mapping software or devices that support gpx tracks and waypoints.

GPS Discussions See http://bootsnall.sutas.org.au/GPS_discussions.htm for discussion about the respective merits of hand-held GPS devices and smartphones with GPS built in, as well as information about how to use a Garmin Etrex10 GPS.
File Repository Boots N' All now has its own file repository on the sutas website. See http://bootsnall.sutas.org.au At the moment, this is only a file repository, and not a proper website, but any of the .gpx and .kml files from recent walks can be downloaded from there. These can be found in folders called GPXfiles and GoogleEarth. Eventually, more tracks will be uploaded there, and hopefully some more detailed walks descriptions for possible future walks.

blessings,
Basil Tkaczuk

Boots N' All - An activity of Scripture Union Tasmania
...Tasmanian wilderness hiking with a difference!

Interested in supporting Scripture Union? See details on the SUTas website.
If you would like to receive the weekly prayer notes sent out by SU Tasmania's office, you can fill in a request asking for this using the on-line form on this page.
You could email me (basiltk@hotmail.com) if you would like to participate in and be reminded of our monthly Scripture Union prayer breakfasts in and around Launceston.