Grail Falls and Moses Creek Falls Sat. 22nd August 2015

This walk did not go ahead due to insufficient numbers.

Note: due to a medical condition, the originally listed leader will be unavailable for this walk. Basil is leading instead (contact details below) and may need to take a cautious approach in deciding on the day (weather and scrub conditions) how much of the off-track work (Horeb and Meribah Falls) is actually possible, given that he has been unable to visit those parts. Grail Falls should definitely be reached!

With plenty of water in the rivers and creeks at this time of the year, Grail Falls promises to be a spectacular sight.
The walk begins at the very end of the Mersey Forest Road, south of Lake Rowallan. A kilometre south, after crossing the Jackson Creek footbridge, the route heads west for a few hundred metres to reach Moses Creek, which is then followed uphill, rising nearly 200m, for just under a kilometre to reach Horeb Falls. The best part of another km upstream, with a further 150m climb, brings the walkers to Meribah Falls, which is less than 200 metres from the north end of Chalice Lake. The going is somewhat scrubby from Meribah Falls to the Grail Falls track, a little over a kilometre away via the eastern shore of the lake. From Grail Falls, the Junction Lake track is followed back to the Jackson Creek crossing and the car. Total walk distance is about 10km. Because of the off-track walking and patches of scrub, this walk should be considered medium-hard

Meeting Times and Places:
If you are interested in going on this walk, please phone Basil Tkaczuk on  [removed] or  [removed]  to book in (or reply to the circular email by Thurs. evening)  The departure time is 7:30 am Sat. 7th March from Door of Hope car park. If you wish to meet with the group at any other place, please arrange with the leader.  Please be at any meeting place 5 minutes ahead of departure time. However, you still need to contact the walk leader per details above if intending to walk. The leader should be notified of any other people you intend to bring along.
To access the area 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 up hill to the western exit, and to the roundabout at start of Mole Creek Rd. A further 24km will bring you to Mole Creek (sometimes used as a meeting place for our walks - check with leader). Continue west past Mole Creek, on what is now Liena Rd, making sure you turn south at the caravan park 4 km from the town. The road continues west until about 14 km from Mole Creek, it branches south, now called Mersey Forest Road. A little over 6 km south, you will pass turnoffs to Cradle Mountain and Devil's Gullet (Lake Mackenzie) but keep going south, crossing the Mersey at Lake Parangana and passing the turnoffs for Bare Hill and Arm River. Another 17 km should see you cross below the Rowallan Dam. Continue south along the east side of Lake Rowallan, for about 16 km, by which time you are south of Lake Rowallan, until you reach the very end of the road and the beginning of the Moses Creek walking track.

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
    L    A long days walk in excess of 3 hours each way
    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 above and read "Clothing suggestions for exposed conditions"

Map details:

Grail Falls area: 1:100000 map is Mersey (Tasmap 8114) and 1:25000 map is Cathedral (Tasmap 4236)
Map references:
Short ref. n/a

Horeb Falls:
Zone      Easting        Northing   
55G      4 30 438    53 66 121  

Meribah Falls:
Zone      Easting        Northing   
55G      4 30 164    53 65 372  

Grail Falls:
Zone      Easting        Northing   
55G      4 30 685     53 64 128  

No peakbagger points will be visited on this walk. For listing of peakbagger points, see the Hobart Walking Club Peakbagger's Guide (2000 revision) which can be downloaded (Excel) from http://tastracks.webs.com/peakbaggers.htm  The same web page contains several other listings of Tasmanian peaks.