Aspley Gorge, Douglas - Aspley National Park - April 2010

The view from the lookout looked promising.

Over the years I've had my eye on a little known track down in Tasmania called the Leeaberra Track, a three day walk through the Douglas - Aspley National Park. While this stroll has always been in the back of my mind the logistics have always pushed it into the too hard basket. This is another of those one way walks and to make it even more difficult the northern end of the track is a fair way off the highway along fairly rough roads. All those issues combined have basically sucked all my enthusiasm for the walk away, so when I heard that there was a short walk in the south of the park that was fairly easily accessed I decided that I'd head in and check it out. With us on a short break down in Tasmania in early 2010 it provided the perfect opportunity to check out, what ended up being a surprisingly rugged Aspley Gorge.

The Aspley Gorge walk is a rugged little walk.

I'll be struggling to pad this post out to any great length as this was a fairly short walk done a fairly long time ago. What I do remember though is that Sam and I had spent a few days over at Freycinet and were on our way down to Hobart, so the short detour up to the Aspley Gorge wasn't too far out of the way. As seems to be a bit of a habit Sam decided to stay in the car while I headed off on the walk. This walk crosses through some private land before arriving at a lookout high above Aspley River. The lookout gave me the first view of the rocky river bed as well as my first look at the very tempting turquoise pools that would torment me for the rest of the walk, this is another walk that I've now earmarked for a return visit on a warm day with a bit more time up my sleeve to enjoy some of these magnificent swimming spots.

The Aspley River was barely flowing on this visit.

After climbing over the end of the spur that the river gorge curves around, the tracked dropped down this gully to the river.

I passed straight over the river today though, almost immediately passing the end of the Leeaberra Track I started a fairly easy climb. The climb passed through fairly dry forest before I topped out and started a steeper benched descent back down to the Aspley River. I was now at the north western end of Aspley Gorge and from here on the scenery would ramp up as I rock hopped my way down the  rocky river bed. From here until I arrived back at the bottom of the gorge the walk was effectively off track, although with the dolerite walls of the gorge hemming me in there was no real navigation problems. The rock hopping and large slabs, along with the frequent pools of water gave me plenty to admire and the gently trickling river didn't hold any terrors for me on this early Autumn day. After around an hour of rock hopping the gorge opened up a little and I once again found myself back at the big pool beneath the lookout, all that was left to do now was to retrace my route back to the car while I plotted in my head how I could get myself back here for a longer visit, something that I've yet to manage...

Once back in the river it was just a matter of rock hopping my way down stream through the gorge.

I really enjoy this type of walking.

The Dirt.

According to my old guide book I walked 6.1 kilometres and climbed 190 metres, although these are Chapman measurements so you probably need to apply the Chapman factor. I'd rate this as an easy walk although it does involve a rough off track section through the gorge that wouldn't be suited to everyone. As I mentioned this walk was written up by the House of Chapman in their Day Walks Tasmania book, I used the first edition but assume that it's in the latest edition as well. I think this walk would be a good one to do in the warmer weather, the swimming spots in the Aspley River looked very tempting and I'm guessing that it doesn't get as crowded here as it does on the east coast beaches over summer.

Relevant Posts.

Mount Anne, Southwest National Park - April 2010.

Mount Jerusalem, Walls of Jerusalem National Park - March 2010.

Overland Track, Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park - August 2003.

I had to pass by numerous excellent swimming spots....not an easy thing for me to do on a warm day.