Frenchmans Cap in 2 and a bit days

A quick trip to the iconic Frenchmans Cap with two regular walking buddies and two others I had not walked with before but some of the others had. My mates trusty Triton double cab squeezed us all in as soon as work finished and we where on our way. The plan was to walk into the Loddon River campsite Friday night and get an early start Saturday morning. It was hot and humid walking into the Loddon River campsite. We arrived as it was getting dark. We setup our tents and ate some snacks. A couple of trivia type games and off to bed.

An early start had us through the famous Loddons mud quagmire and having a break at Vera hut by 10AM. Rested we pushed on through the Barron Pass and had lunch about 12:30 on the high point next to Nickols Needle. We arrived at Tahune Hut in fantastic weather around 15:00 and decided that we could not waste the good weather and prepared for a summit.

The sumit was fantastic as we arrived around 16:30. Great views in all directions. We spent plenty of time exploring, taking photos and just relaxing on top. We got back to the hut around 19:00 and set about the evening meal and some card games. Two of our group had an amazing meal of Quail and all the trimmings.

The last day was a potential trip to Clytemnestra but the weather forecast was bad and the front could be seen building in the distance so we decided to walk out to the Loddon River. On the way out I drank some water from the Vera water tank and within a short while was crook and steadily getting worse the further out we walked. We regrouped at the Loddon River and I was getting really bad by this stage. I made the decision it was better to try and get out rather than stay. I would rather take some pain to get home and be sick their rather than out on the trail.

I could barely walk by the time we got to the creek crossing about 2km from the track end. My pack was taken from me and I just managed to stagger back to the car park. I could not even get my shoes off as I was completely spent sitting in the shelter. I was pretty sick for a couple of days after this walk and it really knocked me around. A very unpleasant experience walking out. The rest of the trip was fantastic with the front and rain only hitting us for the last few KM on the way out. It turned out to be a big day walking all the way out. We arrived back at the car around 16:30 and had an uneventful trip back to Launceston except for somebody spewing out the window at 100Kmh shortly after we left the car park, it made me feel much better though. Apparently it did not blow back in the window to the guy sitting in the back seat. The seatbelt locked as I tried to thrust my head out the window.

Another interesting trip with plenty of stories to tell and memories to be had.