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Walking at the End of the World

Part 1: Isla Navarino, Tierra del Fuego

by Peter Blackwood

Separated from mainland South America by the

Magellan Strait and Beagle Channel, the Island of

Navarino, one of many which together comprise

Tierra del Fuego, is the southernmost inhabited

place on earth.

Formed by successive glaciations on top of tectonic

shifts of the earth's crust, Tierra del Fuego is a

young land, both in geological terms and culturally,

having been reached by its first human inhabitants,

the Yaghan, only 6,000 years ago. These hardy

souls clung precariously to the coastal fringe of

Navarino, and were known as canoe people because

of their dependence on the bark canoe to extract a

living from the marine pastures of the icy Fuegan

waters.

In 1830 one of their number, given the name

Jemmy Button, was kidnapped along with three of

his countrymen and taken to England by Capt. Fitz

Roy on the first voyage of the Beagle: they were

repatriated a year later when the Beagle returned to

these waters with the young naturalist Charles

Darwin. Thirty years later Jemmy was implicated in

the massacre of missionaries on Navarino for which

The Tablelands Walking Club

Newsletter – June 2012

The Tablelands Walking Club

P O Box 1020

Tolga 4882

www.tablelandsbushwalking.org

info@tablelandsbushwalking.org

President – Sally McPhee - 4096 6026

Vice President – Patricia Veivers - 4095 4642

Vice President – John Dwyer - 0428 604 169

Treasurer – Alex Lindsay - 0427 231 971

Secretary – Travis Teske - 4056 1761

Activities Officer – Wendy Phillips – 4095 4857

Records Management – John Dwyer - 0428 604 169

Newsletter Editor – Travis Teske - 4056 1761 travistt@tpg.com.au

Health & Safety Officer – Morris Mitchell – 4092 2773

If a Walking Trip is Delayed – What Your Emergency Contact Needs to Know.

Occasionally trips are delayed due to unforeseen

circumstances. Before leaving on a Tablelands Walking

Club (TWC) outing you should tell your emergency

contact (family member or friend) where you are going

and give them a copy of the phone numbers of the Committee Members as members of the Management

Committee will be the Contact Officers.

Contact should be with any member of the Tablelands

Walking Club Management Committee. The phone

numbers of the committee members are found at the beginning of the Walks Program or the Newsletter. Move

down the list until you find someone at home.

If there were a situation that required a search or rescue,

members of the Committee would liaise with experienced walkers within TWC and with the Police and SES. They

will also hold membership details for all TWC members,

including the name of a family member or friend to

contact in case of delay or emergency.

The articles and information in this document are printed in good faith. The club does not accept responsibility for errors or omissions in this document or for the manner in which the information contained in this document is interpreted or implemented.

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he was tried by the British at Port Stanley on the

Falkland Islands.

The island's youth is reflected in the jagged and

bare rocky crags and spires of its backbone, the

Diente (lit. tooth or fang) Range. The circuit of the

Dientes and Lago Windhund (a lake on the south

coast of Navarino) is the most southerly walk in the

world, and it feels like it. Remote, without sign of

civilization, for as far as the eye can see and a

weather sky that changes by the hour, but rarely

allows the sun passage .

March is Autumn here: the days are getting shorter,

the high beech forests are turning from green to

shades of red, brown and ochre, night temperatures

are dropping toward zero and the days scarcely get

into double figures. No new snow yet, but it's a

possibility at any time, rain a high probability, and

wind, on the mountain passes enough to blow your

legs from under you, a certainty. And peat moors

made muddy and soggy by umpteen thousand feral

beavers, originally a gift of Canada, now become the

cane toads of this remote place; locals walk in gum

boots for these sections, initially to our

bemusement, but understanding by the end of the

first day!

The Dientes are no mighty alps: the highest peak is

little over 1000m, but this detracts not from their

rugged and at times bleak appearance. They are

formed of fragile and friable rock, their solid

loooking spires shedding massive slopes of loose

rock scree, separated by broad windswept barren

saddles.

Below the snow line, open u-shaped valleys

studded with blue and aqua lakes, their number

increased by the ubiquitous beaver. The valleys

and peaks are separated by bands of beach forest,

cut through with rocky streams, but now under

threat from the ravages of the beaver.

Camp sites fall into four categories: sloping, soggy,

windswept or, often as not, all of the above. But

never with less than spectacular outlooks.

The combination of these attributes – mountains,

lakes, weather, forests, bogs and beaver dams -

makes for stunning mountain walking. Just

enough challenges of exposure, precarious

traverses, long ascents, deep mud, creek crossings,

wind, rain and snow to make each day memorable.

And the views: on a clear day all the way south to

Cape Horn itself, and every day, a moving horizon

of sharp rocky spires above, and below, threads of

valley lakes and the waters of the Drake or Beagle

passages in the hazy distance.

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Over eight days the route makes its way across

open valleys, along soft trails of silence through the

beech forests, across steep scree slopes, scrambles

around precipitous bluffs, over wide passes devoid

of all but the most microscopic of vegetation,

around lakes separated by flowing streams and

rumbling cascades.

The crux of the walk comes on the second to last

day. After a long climb through the ascending

strata of vegetation and across another wide, rubbly

and windswept saddle, a tricky exposed traverse off

a high col across loose and seemingly vertical scree,

with a 600 metre drop beneath.

This is followed by relief and the exuberance of

scree running the steep descent to a lake, named

Guanaco, for the local variety of Llama whose sure

footed tracks can be seen criss-crossing the slopes

way above its namesake lake. Like the beaver and

much other fauna, it remained stubbornly unseen

by our eyes, unlike the soaring condor, with

nowhere to hide once on the wing from the heights

of the Dientes.

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Myrtle Rust Update

There have been detections of myrtle rust in a

number of significant new sites in Far North

Queensland since the last e-newsletter, including:

the Mossman Gorge section of Daintree National Park; the Barron Gorge and Kuranda National

Parks; the Smithfield Conservation Park; a

residential garden in Mareeba; and the Herberton Range State Forest west of Atherton on the

Atherton Tableland. These recent detections

confirm that myrtle rust is now established and widespread in Far North Queensland.

Biosecurity Queensland is continuing to work with key stakeholders in the area, including Cairns

Regional Council, Department of Environment and

Heritage Protection and Department of National

Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing, to help implement strategies to manage the impacts and

minimise further spread.

A joint Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry/Department of National Parks,

Recreation, Sport and Racing media release was

distributed on 14 May 2012 to alert the public in Far North Queensland to these new detections,

advise ways they can help to minimise the risk of

spread, particularly into other national parks and World Heritage areas, and to seek their assistance

in tracking the disease's spread, host range and

impacts.

Myrtle rust represents a significant risk to North

Queensland's national parks and World Heritage

areas, including the Wet Tropics and islands on the Great Barrier Reef, due to the hot and humid

climate which is ideal for disease development and

spread, and the number of potential host species in the area. Many rainforest species are known to

be susceptible to myrtle rust and there is

increasing concern as to the long term impacts of the disease on the values of Queensland's World

Heritage areas.

Myrtle rust also represents a significant risk to the natural regeneration of the Wet Tropics and the

resilience of these vegetation communities

following significant cyclonic and other

environmental events. While the impacts are yet to be determined, it will be critical to track and

quantify the disease's impacts on regeneration of

the natural environment to the development of long term management strategies for the disease.

The impact and spread of myrtle rust is evidenced

by the growing number of myrtle rust cases in Queensland. The Myrtle Rust Program is currently

receiving on average around 20 reports a day of the

disease.

Please continue to report sightings of myrtle rust -

it contributes to our understanding of the

geographic and host range of the disease in

Queensland and will help us to develop more effective strategies for managing the disease and

its potential impacts.

Report myrtle rust by calling 13 25 23 or filling out

the online reporting form.

Evelyn Creek Falls and Valda’s Waterhole

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Annual General Meeting

The AGM will be held at Barabeen Scout Camp, Tinaroo Dam on Sunday August 5th starting at 11:30 for a

share meal followed by the AGM at 1:30 pm.

The club will provide sausages and steak but asks members to please bring either a salad or dessert to share.

Members may like to bring swimmers, canoes etc.

Partners welcome to join us for the day but we probably need a rough idea of numbers to purchase the meat.

It may pay to bring a chair, plates and cutlery but we will have access to a BBQ, covered area, toilet block

and possibly a kitchen. The club will provide tea and coffee.

Contact info@tablelandsbushwalking.org with numbers etc.

Nominations for positions on the Tablelands Walking Club Committee close on the 16th July.

Nomination Form

The Secretary

Tablelands Walking Club Inc

PO Box 1020

Tolga 4882

We………………………………………………………………………………………………

Proposer’s Name (Block Letters) Proposer’s Signature

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Seconder’s Name (Block Letters) Seconder’s Signature

Hereby nominate……………………………………………………………………………….

For the position of……………………………………………………………………………...

Candidates Signature…………………………………………………………………………...

Date……………………………………………………………………………………………

I accept the nomination and if elected, I agree to act in that position for the ensuing twelve (12)

months.