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Showing posts from 2014

Thark Ridge Rock Slab Circuit

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Monday 22 December 2014 Several years ago while walking on Thark Ridge Sue and I discovered a largish cairn in an unexpected spot and sometime later we went back there to find where it lead.  Below the couple of cairns it went down a sloping rock slabs and through some snow gum woodlands to an old overgrowing fire trail. Then on a  recent walk coming from a different direction I just could not find the cairn nor could I locate the old fire trail.  A couple of weeks ago whilst walking on Thark we discovered the cairn again and returned for this walk. Old cairn marking route down Having the cairn in the GPS made it easy to get to that point and from there it was a matter of making use of the several rock slabs before getting to a heathy area without overstory, which was colourful with wildflowers. Part way down a large cairn was spotted that had obviously been there for quite some time. After a couple snowgum woodland spots, made very pleasant to have a spell in by being relativ

Frenchmans Cap

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Monday 20 October – Wednesday 22 October 2014 Originally I intended to do the walk to Frenchmans Cap over 4 days which was the usual time I had taken most visits, but after considering some of the things I needed to get done later in the week, a 3 day excursion sounded a better fit.  The weather forecast had been insisting two very fine sunny days followed by most of the third one which gave me great hopes.  Neville had been in contact but only had two days free, but in the end I decided that my mind had become set on this walk and I wanted to see what it was like with the new track.  Graham was interested but couldn’t go til Wednesday and that would have left me with too little time to get ready for another trip and besides the weather was just too promising to pass up.  I mentioned all this to Sue and she reckoned I should stick to my plan, and that helped with the decision. When I pulled into the car park there was another vehicle and a reasonably young fellow getting ready to d

Heathy Hills Nature Reserve

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Wednesday 1 October 2014 It was when looking at our route for the Harry Walker Tier walk that I noticed Heathy Hills Nature Reserve on the map and proceeded to view the satellite image.  It seemed that some of the reserve was fairly open and also appeared to have overhangs, as well, the name sounded quite enticing so a walk was planned. The reserve is approximately 189ha and is 3km north north east of Elderslie.  It includes characteristic examples of Inland Eucalyptus tenuiramis forest. This place is located within the Elderslie Sandstone Landforms, a very extensive complex of sandstone cliffs and caves in Triassic sandstones. Spring is best for flowers and the volume of water in the Jordan River would hopefully be lower than the winter flow. Getting over was the first problem and after checking few options the spot used by farm vehicles was the best one, and a dash across kept wet feet to a minimum.  We had obtained permission from the owner of the small segment of land betw

Cape Raoul

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Friday 26 September 2014 It was a fine quite pleasant day with lots of sun, although a bit of wind on the end of the cape encouraged us to sit behind the shrubbery for lunch.  Flowers were plentiful and colourful but it would have been even nicer if the Calytrix had been out. At the cape we could see seals up on the rock shelf.     At the Raoul Lookout we located a geocache and another at Cape Raoul.   It took a shade over 2 hours for the 7k walk to Cape Raoul, although it is took us 40 minutes longer than that with a morning tea break at the lookout.   Click the image below to view the photo album Cape Raoul 2014

Snowy North

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Tuesday 23 September 2014 After getting updated information on the walk, I imagined that it may be a little unclear in places where the pad was, but nevertheless no real problem.  However it worked out to be quite a hard walk, mostly because we had trouble finding where the pad was in one location and eventually ended up in thick scrub. The walk ended up being the hardest I have done in quite a number of years. Getting to the start presented no dramas and it was handy having the road junctions in the GPS, as the South Styx road junction was unsigned. We did discover a quite new sign a few hundred metres from the track start indicating the end of the road, presumably because it was at a wide area for turning and parking. Locating the track start was easy, but then we took a while to find where it went for the next 50 metres or so until a marker was spotted and a pad. It was straight forward until a small cliff line at which point some uncertainty crept as to the whereabouts of

Mays Beach via Coast

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We had walked from Cremorne to Calverts Hill on a geocaching excursion and wondered at the time if it was feasible to continue on to Mays Beach and Lauderdale.  A couple of months later Sue noticed that Pandani bushwalkers were doing that trip and then by chance saw that a group from U3A had written up a northern end circuit. So we decided to try the Pandani route from Cremorne and knew that although a big section was crown land there was a private farm to cross.  We made the assumption that Pandani either got permission or were aware that the owner didn’t mind. The walk initially followed Cremorne Beach then climbed to a headland along a gradually diminishing pad to corner fence where the large parcel of former farmland now crown land was reached. The 900 metre crossing was through quite tall dry grass then much lower grass over the private farm.  A pad followed high above the coast until reaching the bush of a coastal reserve where a track took us down to Mays Beach.  The beac

Schnells Ridge

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Wednesday 27 August 2014 What good fortune we had with a superb sunny and calm late winter day. About 70 minutes after setting off we were seated for morning tea at the base of the climbing ridge to Schnells before starting on the unrelenting ascent. After 45 minutes of this I was quite looking forward to a breather and Alan mentioned that the spot ahead, with a view over the small tarn, would be a good spot. However when the assumed point was reached we realised there was another level to go and a stop now was preferred. The tarn lookout was a further 15 minutes on and gave a good excuse for another spell. Peak on the high plateau The first high plateau was reached soon after and at last some views of Smiths Tarn. From here we also appreciated the surrounding mountain ranges with really good views to the Anne Range with Lake Judd at the foot. Further afield were stunning views over Lake Pedder to the Frankland and other ranges whilst to the south the Western and Eastern Arthurs

Mount Marian

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Tuesday 19 August 2014 It is always a puff climbing up the Myrtle Forest track and it was good to arrive at the firetrail to see nice blue sky above Mount Marian. However a mere five minutes later it was grey and even a light scud could be seen there. Nevertheless the day remained fine directly above us all day, relatively bright and with patches of sun. Mount Charles from the Marian plateau A call into the Pineapple Grass field under Trestle for morning tea was made. After lunching on the summit we did a sweep of the plateau west of the summit, where amazingly an exotic pine was discovered. Fortunately Greg had a small handsaw and it was enough to cut the small tree down. Tackling the exotic pine (radiata) on the Mount Marian plateau

Sarahs Waterfall

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Thursday 7 August 2014 The final plateau leading to the waterfall was very pleasant open eucalypt with spacious low grassland.  The big v shaped valley below the falls was scenic as was the view of Table Mountain, which seemed quite close beyond the trees.   At the start of the walk the breeze was quite chilly but once we had a bit of tree and hill protection conditions became most pleasant, especially when in the sun. The falls had a reasonable sloping drop of 40 metres and a good flow of water was going over.  The views were particularly good from the sheltered western side which had a number of edges in convenient viewing locations. The walk started on a logging road then an old vehicle track and eventually through a section of fairly untouched open woodland.  It took almost 1:15 to get there and much the same to return. Although the return distance was 9k the wandering about the falls area added well over another kilometre. You can view the photo album by clicking the image be

Cathedral Rock via Andersons

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Friday 4 July 2014 After parking outside the farm gate, where there was plenty of space, we walked up to the owners home to seek permission to do the walk through to Cathedral Rock. The previous day I had attempted to ring a number that I was given but must have copied it incorrectly, however the woman we met could not have more amenable and friendly and we were soon on our way along the farm track leading into the bush. At the first junction there was a little uncertainty, but the GPS settled the matter. The ascent was very gentle and quite minimal and once an open sunny area was reached it seemed appropriate to stop for morning tea. What did come as a surprise was the amount of clearing that had been done all the way to the Cathedral Rock junction; it made for easy walking and some cutting had been done in the recent past. We did wonder who was maintaining the track and enquiries made next day revealed it to be the land owner with help of walking clubs. View along Cathedral ridg

Simmons Hill

Thursday 19 June 2014 On the eastern shore of the Derwent River the Meehan Range offers quite a number of walks and we decided that the Meehan geocache series would constitute quite a good one as well as allow a swag of caches to be attempted. Things didn’t go quite as expected because we were looking for a bike track going uphill near an old munitions store site and missed it. A cement base was eventually spotted but no bike track and we decided to just climb up the slope through the bush, a 180 metre height gain. It was only on the return walk that it was realised there was a track that had been put in since our previous visit; this would have allowed us to do the walk in reverse. The main drawback from the way we went was that the first two caches had already been bypassed and this necessitated a 450 metre each way double back to collect them. From then on it was easy walking along and over Simmons Hill then down the switchbacks of the fairly new bike track, which still had the t

Thark Bush Circuit

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Tuesday 17 June 2014 When we looked at the mountain it was fine and with only a wisp or two of cloud, so the decision that Greg and I made was to walk over the northern end of Thark Ridge and follow the animal pads down to the old fire trail. I told Greg that when I last went there the pads went most of the way down and avoided all the plentiful rock screes. As the descent started a large scree was soon reached but fortunately by veering left an open area was located and from then on it was mostly not very difficult; the exception was one small patch thick bush growing in a sheltered spot. One surprise was the amount of ascent that was involved once on the old fire trail to the track junction coming off the Thark saddle; which we both thought was fairly level. I could remember beyond this junction that the old fire trail became obscure in places and obvious in others, but could not find any clear bits. After searching about for a while we decided just to climb back up to Thark, whe

Jubilee and Middle Island Ridges

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Tuesday 10 June 2014 It was fine and foggy but fortunately the fog was soon left behind once at the departure point at the Cascade Track. At the first junction I was unsure if it was the alternative track I was planning to use, but fortunately Adrian was aware of the correct one and we made our way up to cross the fire trail. In due course we were at the start of what I have called the Jubilee Ridge track, which to my surprise Adrian was aware of. This track must get a bit of use as it is quite obvious and mostly clear, although there were a couple of trees down and one covered over several metres of track. Once over the north south bike track the way forward is all over scree, but a series of cairns does mark the 270 metres to the Lenah Valley track. It is only a short walk to reach the spot where the Middle Island track descends and we stopped just before Johnsons Hut site on a sunny outcrop for lunch. Then down to the hut site and from there we continued passing three more old h

Pelverata Falls

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Monday 28 April 2014 As a nice day was in the offing we decided perhaps a bushwalk might be the go.  However it was not until breakfast that the thought of Pelverata and Slippery Falls would be a good option. We seemed to recall there was a geocache there and a check on the web revealed two in fact.  Being not a long walk we thought that a few more caches could be picked up during the drive back from the walk.   All this investigation and downloading data to the GPS ended up taking longer than expected, with the result that it was close to midday by the time we started walking. After reaching the viewing platform at Pelverata Falls, we then commenced the ascent up the scree to the top of the falls.  A lunch stop in the sun on the way up of course took a bit of time, plus the distance up the scree was longer than our memories, which meant there was not really sufficient time to venture as far as Slippery Falls.    The scree slope And of course by the time we got back to t

Mount Rogoona

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12-14 April 2014 A bushwalk where I fell into a creek, missed the intended track and took a photo of a snake without realising it was there. The walk was to Mount Rogoona via the Jackson Track, a way we had been in 2011 and found quite pleasant. There are a couple of steep sections but plenty of good views, initially of cliffs and then of Rogoona and other mountains once up on the high valley leading to Lake Myrtle. At the crossing of the creek flowing out of Lake Myrtle I was almost over the creek with just one more log to step on, when it rolled over and had me stumbling in vain to get balance. The result was a stagger into the creek followed by a tumble into the water. My trousers were pretty wet and splashed shirt. Wet clothes and time now 4:30 made the decision to stop at Lake Myrtle to camp more enticing and remaining sun dried my clothes off well. Lake Myrtle and Mount Rogoona After a fairly cold night the morning was sunny setting off the lake and Rogoona from the

Mount Styx

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Thursday 20 March 2014 From the top of the head it sounded plausible; go on a bushwalk to Mount Styx and because it is not a long walk collect some geocaches on the way, plus stop for a coffee at Mount Field. On the return stop for coffee and get some caches by taking the alternative road back to New Norfolk. But I had forgotten how much longer it takes to get from Mount Field through to the Styx Valley and didn’t factor in the stopping times for each cache. The result was the completion of in first half of the plan only by 5:00 PM and obviously the second half was completely out of the question. That will have to wait until another day. It was early afternoon before we set off on the walk. Beforehand some web information provided a couple of road approaches and the Andromeda one was chosen, but it had a locked gate at the start. Back at Jacques Rd we passed an unlocked gate and then the large tree that had been reported over the road a couple of months ago, but had now been clea

South Wellington Milles Circuit

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via Ice House Track and Potato Fields Tuesday 11 March 2014 On top of Mount Wellington a temperature of 21 degrees was expected with Hobart going to 29.   It was quite warm for the walk, but nothing untoward but down at sea level it did reach 32. The Ice House track brought us to the South Wellington saddle at which point the pad to Devils Gulch was used.  The track is now on the Wellington park map and now doubt gets more patronage nowadays, but it was markedly more worn and obvious since the last visit here in mid 2010.   In fact it was quite surprising how clear the pad was. Cliffs of Devils Gulch Devils Gulch At the western end of the Gulch area we diverted by about 100 metres to get a better view into it from a prominence.  Morning tea was contemplated at this point but the breeze was cool and noticeable enough for us to continue on to a more sheltered spot. As we continued on along the shelf it was noticeable how the vegetation changed with the conditions and the

Mount Alma

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Thursday 27 February 2014 When planning for this walk we had the idea of driving to Derwent Bridge and going south from there to Mount Charles would be a good idea followed by camping beside Lake King William and doing the Alma walk the next day. When Dave heard of the plan he mentioned that he only took 1:30 to get to Charles and suggested we include Bedlam Walls as well. However we managed to drive close to Charles and so were back at Derwent Bridge much earlier than expected and decided to go on to Mount Alma. Mount Alma  from half way up It was a steady ascent up the slope for 300 metres to the ridge top. Mostly knee to waist high Melaleuca and Tea tree with buttongrass was met on this section. At the ridge end there was a drop to a short band of tall scrub and trees back to the previous conditions, until taller scrub was gain met. After this progress became slower and at several spots we had to force a way through the mixture of vegetation, which now included some Baue