I had a free day planned before we start our Walls of Jerusalem bushwalk tomorrow to allow time for us to organise food and fuel. But Greg is never one to sit around so we hit the grocery store late yesterday afternoon after we flew in and quickly got our hiking food organised- all before dinner last night! This morning, we made a quick visit to Aspire Adventure Equipment (great camping store, btw) and got the final few things like a gas bottle etc. So by mid-morning, we were free and what better way to use it than a meaty day walk before the backpacking trip! Greg picked out a ~15km loop that takes in Cataract Gorge and much more. The best part is that we're not far from the gorge so we just walked out of our Airbnb door and started walking! The day looked to turning lovely after a few light showers last night. Once at the gorge, we walked up the east side which meant we started with a bit of a climb. Nothingon a better than a bit of a puff to start the walk. The gorge is quite scenic and there are a number of viewing spots and platforms along the way. There had been a recent bush fire just past the cataract gorge reserve (the green lawn with the large outdoor swimming pool); we didn't see any trail closure signs from the direction we were walking but there was a lot of tree and rock debris, slightly burnt walkways and a downed tree or two. At the end of this section, we came across a fence closing the trail section that we had just walked through! I’m not sure how we walked into the closed section but we probably would have ignored the trail closure signs anyway and walked up to,see for ourselves. In our view, there was nothing seriously unsafe on this section but one needs to take care and I might not take children on the burnt walkway section. Walking on, we reached the Duck Reach Power Station suspension bridge. We crossed over and checked out the historical and pioneering Duck Reach Power Station. The power station, built in the late 1800s is now sort of an open museum with signage and exhibits- well worth a look. Walking on, we had a steep climb up the ridge behind the power plant and followed the ridge up and down until we reached the Trevallyn Dam where we took a lunch break at a lookout above the dam. We were visited by a friendly but mischievous dog named Jack, who kept trying to steal our lunch off the bench we were sitting on! From the dam, we looped back through the Trevallyn Nature Recreation area through a series of forest trails before finally dropping down to the gardens on the west side of Cataract Gorge and walking out through the gorge boardwalks. We observed massive schools of fish in the tidal river below us, dark with flashing silver, which was pretty cool. All in all, an excellent day walk and a great way to spend our day in Launceston. Door to door, our walk was 16-18 kms and a ~600m climb, depending on which tracking device one believes! Pilgrim / Carl

Walking

Tasmania, Launceston

Launceston, Tasmania, Australia

time : Mar 21, 2025 10:30 AM

duration : 5h 13m 17s

distance : 16.3 km

total_ascent : 586 m

highest_point : 229 m

avg_speed : 3.5 km/h

user_id : gstreet

user_firstname : Carl

user_lastname : Greenstreet

I had a free day planned before we start our Walls of Jerusalem bushwalk tomorrow to allow time for us to organise food and fuel. But Greg is never one to sit around so we hit the grocery store late yesterday afternoon after we flew in and quickly got our hiking food organised- all before dinner last night! This morning, we made a quick visit to Aspire Adventure Equipment (great camping store, btw) and got the final few things like a gas bottle etc. So by mid-morning, we were free and what better way to use it than a meaty day walk before the backpacking trip! Greg picked out a ~15km loop that takes in Cataract Gorge and much more. The best part is that we're not far from the gorge so we just walked out of our Airbnb door and started walking! The day looked to turning lovely after a few light showers last night. Once at the gorge, we walked up the east side which meant we started with a bit of a climb. Nothingon a better than a bit of a puff to start the walk. The gorge is quite scenic and there are a number of viewing spots and platforms along the way. There had been a recent bush fire just past the cataract gorge reserve (the green lawn with the large outdoor swimming pool); we didn't see any trail closure signs from the direction we were walking but there was a lot of tree and rock debris, slightly burnt walkways and a downed tree or two. At the end of this section, we came across a fence closing the trail section that we had just walked through! I’m not sure how we walked into the closed section but we probably would have ignored the trail closure signs anyway and walked up to,see for ourselves. In our view, there was nothing seriously unsafe on this section but one needs to take care and I might not take children on the burnt walkway section. Walking on, we reached the Duck Reach Power Station suspension bridge. We crossed over and checked out the historical and pioneering Duck Reach Power Station. The power station, built in the late 1800s is now sort of an open museum with signage and exhibits- well worth a look. Walking on, we had a steep climb up the ridge behind the power plant and followed the ridge up and down until we reached the Trevallyn Dam where we took a lunch break at a lookout above the dam. We were visited by a friendly but mischievous dog named Jack, who kept trying to steal our lunch off the bench we were sitting on! From the dam, we looped back through the Trevallyn Nature Recreation area through a series of forest trails before finally dropping down to the gardens on the west side of Cataract Gorge and walking out through the gorge boardwalks. We observed massive schools of fish in the tidal river below us, dark with flashing silver, which was pretty cool. All in all, an excellent day walk and a great way to spend our day in Launceston. Door to door, our walk was 16-18 kms and a ~600m climb, depending on which tracking device one believes! Pilgrim / Carl