Our objective was to reach the Overland track starting out in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park and completing a traverse across the Traveller Range.

The trailhead for the hike was the Mersey Forest Road car park which leads into the Walls of Jerusalem National Park. With wet and cold conditions we followed the Junction Lake Track directly to Lake Adelaide, Lake Meston and on to Junction Lake, at which point the track started to deteriorate. Our main objective was to traverse the Traveller Range to join onto the Overland track. We followed a route from Junction lake, up to Lake Artemis. The track was non existent at this point so relying on our GPS we worked our way around Lake Eros and Lake Merope up to the Traveller Range. At this point the weather luckily improved to give us two days of clear skies as we crossed over to the Overland. The route we followed can be followed on the track map. Dropping down to the Overland we then spent a couple of days at Pine Valley and enjoyed a magnificent hike up the Acropolis before hiking out to Lake St Claire. The hike was a great success, however the Traveller Range is deceptive in its difficulty due to thick vegetation and number of ridges and gullies making for slow going. We definitely underestimated the time required to complete the traverse.

The Acropolis

Getting There

As we flew into Launceston and wanted to get onto the trail the same day, we travelled by taxi from the airport to Deloraine, although depending on timing a bus would be a cheaper option. Deloraine is a convenient spot to stock up on food and fuel before getting another taxi out to the Walls of Jerusalem trail head. The taxi company in Deloraine is used to dropping off hikers at this point and will provide a fixed fare drop off service (about $110). As long as you get to the trail head around midday, there is plenty of time (in good conditions) to hike up to the Walls of Jerusalem.

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Route Description

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Essential Gear

As the Traveller Range has no marked trails a GPS is recommended. The plateau is subject to wet weather and snow at any time of the year some come prepared. There are plenty of river crossings so bring some spare socks and alternate shoes unless you like wet boots.

Lake Adelaide Panorama

View towards Lake Adelaide in the early morning from our campsite

Traveller Range Evening Panorama

Evening view from our campsite on the Traveller Range

Traveller Range Panorama

Heading across the Traveller Range

Images