Alum Cliffs and Lobster Falls – Sat. ^9th July 2016

With all the rain over the past couple of months, we have had to change plans for yet another walk. While we will still be able to visit Alum Cliffs as advertised in our walks calendar, the Wet Caves reserve (Honeycombe Cave) is closed due to flood damage, so we are instead offering a return to Lobster Falls. Hopefully, we will be rewarded by a spectacular flow of water at both places. Both these short walks are in the Chudleigh-Mole Creek area, less than an hour from Launceston, and about 10 km apart by road. The Alum Cliffs walk is about 2 km return, and Lobster Falls about 3 km. See http://molecreek.info/activities/walks/lobster-falls/ and http://www.tasmaniacampers.com.au/tasmania-great-walks/north-west-king-island/alum-cliffs.html 
for information about each of the walks. Both walks are suitable for energetic younger children. Neither is rated as wheelchair friendly. Families with young children might choose to do one or other of the walks instead of both, but discuss this option with walk leader. Alum Cliffs is the easier of the two tracks, rated Level 2 by Parks and Wildlife.

The plan for the day is to do Lobster Falls first, have lunch at Chudleigh and then head for Alum Cliffs.

This walk is rated "easy" and is suitable for walkers, including energetic children, who can cope with wintry and changeable conditions and undulating and partially rocky tracks (Lobster Falls). 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 suggested.

Thinking of bringing along a children's or youth group? Click for Information for Leaders working with Children and Youth

Meeting Times and Places:
If you are interested in going on this walk, please phone your walk leaders, Basil Tkaczuk, ph.  6331 1155  to book in. The departure time is 9:00 am from the Door of Hope Church car park, Launceston. Suggested meeting place if coming from elsewhere could be Mole Creek Rd. roundabout at western end of main street of Deloraine at 9:40 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:
From Launceston, proceed along the Bass Highway to Deloraine (about 51 km), but do not turn off at the eastern exit into Deloraine. Instead, continue across Meander R. and uphill to the western exit, and to the roundabout at start of Mole Creek Rd. The signposted Lobster Falls track is about 10 km along Mole Creek Rd. from the roundabout, on the right side if coming from Launceston. (See website above for further details).
A further 4.5km will bring you into Chudleigh, where the car park, picnic shelter and playground are on the right.
Continuing to Alum Cliffs, follow Mole Creek Rd. right from the prominent turn in main street of Chudleigh, and a little over a km further, take the right turn into Mersey Hill Rd. After 3.5 km, you arrive at a T junction, with the car park for Alum Cliffs on the left, and the continuation of the road south towards the Mole Creek area on the right. The walk begins from the car park.

Warnings:
  The following codes [from our 2016 walks calendar] apply:
   M    Marshy or muddy sections – be prepared to walk with wet feet.

Map details:
Chudleigh area:  1:100000 map for both falls is Mersey (TasMap 8114) and 1:25000 map (Lobster Falls) starts on Deloraine (TasMap 4640) and continues into Gog (TasMap 4440) which is also the map for and for Alum Cliffs.
Map references:
Short ref. n/a
Zone      Easting        Northing    Latitude      Longitude
n/a
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).

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.