From Wombat Moor it is about 2.5 hrs down to the mighty Humbolt river, the track really needs some work in the section up to the Mt Mawson saddle, it has sustained a fair amount of damage over the last few years, I suspect too many tourists trying to avoid wet feet. From the river crossing you walk up the main trail/bog towards lake Belcher until you come across a star picket which has a sign saying lake Belcher. The track to Lake Belton turns off to the west here. On the 1:25000 Dobson map it says 'approximate walking route' when describing this track and that is pretty accurate, it is not easy to follow. That is of no great concern as it is pretty hard to miss Lake Belton. You come in at some lovely tarns around the southern end of the lake, Tyenna looms to the SW, and the whole ampitheatre of Florentine, KCol and the Rodway range makes for an impressive setting.
- Tarn at the southern end of Lake Belton
From the tarns you basically set your own course for Tyenna, it is off track so no more descriptions from me other than that I went up one way and came down another, both very straight forwards and quite pleasant for the most part. It took me about 90 minutes to get to the summit of Tyenna from Belton, and I was fortunate to have a lovely clear day, superb views in 360 degrees. The summit itself is not too grand but the setting is inspiring.
- Tyenna Peak, looking to the SE
From here I wandered towards Florentine until I found a small patch of flat dry ground near a little tarn and set up camp.
There a lots of interesting rock formations around the area, these two figures are like a Henry Moore sculpture
The night was cool, probably 3-4 C and a bit breezy, which brings me to a couple of gear comments. The MSR Reactor set (it has an integrated 1.5 ltr pot) is not the lightest stove around but boy is it quick, with no breeze boiling half a litre of water from the Humbolt, less than 1 minute, the same half litre with a fair cross wind 1 minute 10 seconds. A gas canister will last a long time with this puppy. The tarptent Contrail is very quick and easy to set up, I used the minimum 4 pegs and there was a fair degree of flapping with the breeze (I had set the tent across the wind to see how it worked in less than ideal position). I suspect adding the 4 optional guys and pegs (another 50gms) would stop this. It is single skin and despite the mesh sides low down it does accumulate a little condensation resulting in the odd splash in the face when the side flapped. It is also not a warm tent because of the side meshing. The combination of this tent and the Summerlite was just a little cool, I ended up putting on some extra clothes overnight, so I must be a wuss. The other thing about the light grey of the tarptent, in a full moon it glows, I kept waking up and thinking I had left the light on.
- Moon over the Rodway range
From my campsite it took a few minutes over 3 hours to get back to the track head on the Lake Dobson road. Coming off the plateau I found a nice set of cascades and some lovely tarns on the western side of Belton. Doing Tyenna as a single peak I would score it 3 out of 5, definitely worthwhile. If you did a circuit of Tyenna, Florentine, KCol and the Rodway range returning via Lake Dobson I would put the trip up to a 4, this is nice country.
I was wondering how the terrain from the lake would be, but 90 mins with an overnight pack sounds pretty good.
