Frenchman's Cap 2020 - Day 3
Wednesday, 8 January 2020
The ranger at Tahune had advised us that day 3 was going to be hot with a fire ban in place in other areas of the state, so I expected to wake up to clear blue skies and sunshine. Instead we woke to an eerie smoke filled landscape. As we collected our moss-flavoured (ugg) water from the water tank the ranger reassured us that the smoke had blown over from the Victorian fires and we had nothing to worry about. So we set off at about 9.15 and made our way back to Barron Pass. The smoke created an eerie atmosphere and the views were very much obscured.   
After about an hour the smoke seemed to have magically turned into heavy clouds and it started to drizzle, followed quickly by heavy rain. We were taken quite by surprise and had to scurry to put on pack covers and rain coats. By the time we were back at the pass we were all pretty soaked and keen to just keep moving. The rocks and roots which were grippy the day before were now slippery so we had to be extra careful descending. 
Going over Barron Pass. The visibility was so bad that Alexa didn't even realise we had done it. 
Zali and Jett thinking about how much they love hiking  
Eventually we arrived back at the Vera Hut campsite just as the rain was clearing. We’d taken about 3.15 hours so we were a bit quicker than the day before - mostly due to not stopping to admire the views I think! Everyone was keen take the afternoon off so we set up our tents on the platforms again and got completely changed our of our wet gear before enjoying lunch in in the hut. Jon and Jett didn't have pack covers so Jon quickly set up his own laundry and hung all their stuff out to dry. 
For the rest of the day we amused ourselves with reading, frisbee and other games - it was a really lovely afternoon and a much deserved break. 
Playing platform-to-platform frisbee. By the evening all the camping platforms and much of the hut space was filled. The clouds were still very low so anyone trying to get to the top of Frenchmans that day wouldn’t have had much view if they tried that day. Despite the downpour we were very lucky. |