Mountain sights in Australia
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A
Island Cycle Tours
Island Cycle Tours, with its office inside the Pickled Frog backpackers, offers a van ride to the summit of Mt Wellington, followed by more than 20km of downhill riding (mostly on sealed roads, but with off-road options) back to sea level. There is also the option of combining a bike descent with kayaking trip - this 'pedal 'n' paddle' outing lasts about five hours and includes a meal.
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B
Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park
Tasmania's best-known national park has spectacular mountain peaks, deep gorges, lakes and wild moorlands. It's one of the areas affected most by glacial activity in Australia. There are plenty of day walks, but it's the spectacular 80.5km (50mi) walk, known as The Overland Track, between the Cradle Valley and Cynthia Bay regions that has turned this park into a bushwalkers' mecca.
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Bungle Bungles
The Bungle Bungles are a truly otherworldly sight. Scored with improbably bold russet and charcoal bands, they feel like the spine of the earth. The 'discovery' of the Bungle Bungles is a testament to the sheer size and inaccessibility of Western Australia.
This vast ochre range of wind-worn sandstone nubs, a latterday icon of the state that covers 450 sq km (173 sq mi) of a 2000 sq km (772 sq mi) national park, was unknown to European Australians prior to the 1980s. Known as Purnululu (meaning 'sandstone' in the Kidja language), the bizarre, banded bulges were formed by deposits of sand and other sediment laid down up to 375 million years ago. The park is also noted for…
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Mount Sorrow
The Mount Sorrow ridge trail provides opportunities for fit and experienced bushwalkers to take in spectacular views from an elevation of 680m. The trail starts in a lowland rainforest valley, full of trees with large buttress roots and a canopy woven with large woody vines. As the ridge ascends, feather-leafed palms become more common.
On the ridge, the vegetation is dominated by acacias (wattles). The wind-sheared forest canopy becomes lower and more open towards the mountain summit. From the lookout, you can watch spangled drongos and small flocks of topknot pigeons in the air, while a variety of butterflies drift around on the wind. On a clear day, the beautiful Daint…
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C
Namadgi National Park
Namadgi National Park includes eight peaks higher than 1700m and offers excellent opportunities for bushwalking, mountain biking, fishing, horseriding, rock climbing, abseiling and viewing Aboriginal rock art. There is camping available at Honeysuckle Creek, Mt Clear and Orroral River; bookings must be made through the Namadgi visitor centre.
There are numerous Aboriginal sites in the park, including paintings at Yankee Hat, some dating back at least 21,000 years. The area's European history dates back to the 1830s when settlers cleared the valleys for farming. Namadgi National Park was created in 1984.
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D
Snowy Mountains
The Snowy Mountains is the highest section of Australia's Great Dividing Range. Kosciusko National Park covers most of the mountains and includes ski resorts, rugged alpine scenery, caves, glacial lakes and forests. Although renowned as a winter playground, the park is also popular with bushwalkers in summer.
Ski resorts include Thredbo, Perisher Valley, Smiggins Hole and Mt Blue Cow. Mt Kosciusko is the highest peak at 2228m (7308ft). The main town in the region is Jindabyne, situated just outside the park boundary on the edge of a beautiful lake.
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E
Old Signal Station
If Mt Wellington is under a cloud, the much lower Old Signal Station on Mt Nelson still provides excellent views. When Port Arthur was operating as a penal site, a series of semaphore stations were positioned on all the high hills and used to transmit messages across the colony. The one on Mt Nelson - first established in 1811, though the current building dates from 1910 - served as the major link between Hobart and the rest of the colony.
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