Klondyke Spur – Klondyke valley (Rahu Right Branch)

18 – 19 January 2020

Culverden coffee stop meant that we arrived at the carpark near Rahu Saddle around 10.30. A steady 600 m climb through attractive bush up Klondyke Spur led us to a spell above the bushline in bright sun.

A further 200 m or so up the spur - which was easy, but narrow enough to be interesting - led to Pt. 1541m. At this point it occurred to me that, since gravity is merely a consequence of curved spacetime, I had no excuse to be so knackered.

We continued north along and down the ridge, then turned off eastward down snowgrass slopes to reach the basin at the valley head; total time about 6 hours. In wet weather this would be a rather boggy spot, but we had no problems finding good tent sites near the big tarn in a very attractive setting.

A froggy serenade and a starry night sky made night-time widdles profoundly rewarding. A leisurely start on Sunday gave Sue a chance to swim in the tarn. Then we headed to the true left of the outlet stream, thus skirting the steep tricky slopes directly below the tarn. Once on the valley floor, the occasional boggy bit marred an otherwise delightful track which led us though beautiful bush back to the road shortly after midday.

We were: Norman Burden, Sue & Mark Piercey, Alison MacColl, Graham Townsend, Bett Koch (undercover agent for CTC), and Chris Leaver (leader) (GT)