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Thunderstorms ~ Storm Chasing ~ Severe Australian Weather  ~ Tasmanian Wilderness ~ Media

...from Aussie Storm Chaser David Simpson ~ Australia

STORMPLANET - Tasmanian Wilderness Photography
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Walls of Jerusalem - Long Tarn
June 17th - 18th 2006

The Walls of Jerusalem is dominated by alpine vegetation and endemic conifer forests amid a high plateau of dolerite peaks. The dolerite within the park is derived from dramatic tectonic activity during the Jurassic some 165 million years ago. Much of the beauty of the present day landscape is the result of Pleistocene glaciations. These resulted in many of the landscape features found within the park, such as moraines and numerous tarns and lakes.

The alpine vegetation within the park includes bolster heaths which play a major role in determining local topography. Stands of pure pencil pine forest are found in fire-protected areas; however much of the park's native conifers were destroyed by fire in the early 1960s.

We walked in to camp the night in our tents adjacent to the Long Tarn. The walk in took 5 hours under superb clear skies. The evening sub-zero temps froze everything but we soon thawed out the next morning under another brilliant clear sky. The tarns were frozen solid and the walk back was slippery in places. This is a pristine area that needs to be seen to be believed.

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Below: The waterfalls provide a terrific place to stop for lunch and a break, as we did. The 3rd image shows the Walls of Jerusalem, the 4th image shows our track as we wind our way through the saddle to the plateau at Long Tarn.

Below: Long Tarn, adjacent to our camp site, in full glory (and frozen!)



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Below: Sunday morning and everything is frozen!


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Below: The walk back down on Sunday offered sensational conditions and views, here we make our way back down through the saddle with the Walls to our right.


 

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