Tuesday December 13, 2.3km/1.4mi

Fish River Carpark (0.0/690m) to Trappers Hut (2.3/1060m) (TAS)

It was a 4 hour drive to the trailhead, mostly heading north, and then a little west. I had heard from a few locals that the best place to see a platypus was in a small creek behind the Mole Creek Hotel & bar. Mole Creek isn’t convenient to get to, but it was actually on my way to Walls of Jerusalem National Park! After 3 hours of driving, I stopped in for an early dinner.
Their kitchen didn’t open until 5pm, so I killed time looking for a platypus in the creek. I spent 30 minutes looking, but I only found a confused bird, who was squawking at a rock. No platypuses (platypii?), darn.

Dinner was a delicious pulled pork sandwich and chips, and I was thoroughly entertained by the bartender who was explaining all the different Australian words for beer and drinking culture. I drove the last hour to the trailhead, which had a fancy little shed for the trail sign-in register.

I could easily do this loop hike in just 2 days, but I wanted to hike a little and didn’t feel like camping at the carpark. The trail climbed steadily for 2km, thru a tall forest.

After 45 minutes, I reached a clear area near Trappers Hut, an old disused shelter. I was in my sleeping bag within 20 minutes, since I didn’t have any cooking/cleaning chores to do, and because it was a cold 6C outside.