Day 34: Rain, rest, blogging, short & mid-term planning, Montezuma falls & fireworks (26 km)

Today I had planned a side-trip to Montezuma Falls, Tasmania’s tallest waterfalls, before eventually continuing my way North towards Tullah. The weather, however, was very unstable, alternating permanently between heavy showers and bright sun. I decided to wait for a “good weather window” and used my morning to update the blog, plan my journey on the Overland Track and on a longer term, in New Zealand. It is fairly difficult to share my free time between these 3 “objectives”. Writing this blog takes a lot of time and sadly, keeping the day by day format is not sustainable. Once in New Zealand, I will quit this format and opt for a reporting per big leg of the trip, probably with one post every 3-4 days. I was important to plan my Overland Track journey in Rosebery because it was the last town where I could buy food for the hike. After completing my food inventory and studying the map, I concluded that I needed food for 2 evenings and 7 lunches. While doing all this stuff I got to know Takahiro, a young Japanese who had spent the night at the same camping. It was a good occasion to make a cultural exchange between Belgium and Japan. The exchange extended to food and drink, but not in the way you might expect: I offered him a Japanese Miso soup, and he offered me a beer “brewed in Belgium” 😃.In the afternoon I finally felt a good moment to make my 3 hours excursion to Montezuma falls. After a 9km-long climb on asphalt, I reached the start of the track, which is in fact the old tramway line to transport the ore from the Mt Read mines to the smelters in Zeehan.

The track to Montezuma Falls follows an old tramway line. At some place the old tramway sleepers (les traverses) are still visible

The ride was really enjoyable and I had the chance to admire the falls in sunny conditions (perfect to take good photos!). 

Montezuma Falls, Tasmania’s tallest waterfalls (104 metres)

I was back at my tent for not even five minutes that it began to rain heavily again. Perfect timing! Either it was pure luck, either I have developed a deep understanding of the fast-changing Tasmanian weather 😜.

In the evening, Takahiro and I went to the “town center” and had a look at Rosebery’s mine. This mine is still active, thanks to the fact that it is a polymetallic base metal mine: because it produces at the same time gold ore and zinc, lead and copper concentrate, this mine manage to be profitable and is less affected by the stock fluctuation of one or another metal.

Rosebery’s mine (mining activities happen underground)

To conclude the evening, we enjoyed a surprisingly long and beautiful fireworks that were shot on the occasion of the town’s festival.