Bushwalks

  Wednesday 21 December 2022 On a pleasant warm day, we walked along the Thark Ridge Track as far as the Municipal Cairn and retuned on a slightly different route for part of the way.   This diversion was over a wide part of Thark Ridge past some large old cairns before re-joining the track where it leads down to Devils Throne. A couple questions arose during the day, and I have looked up the information. Thark Hut and by extension Thark Ridge are documented   by Maria Grist   as follows: The name of this hut came from a play which was currently popular in the city, "Thark", a farce in 3 acts, by Ben Travers, 4/7/1927. The play was made into a film in 1932. There are two stone foundations left, marking the northern and southern ends of the hut. The other structure near the hut site, which we pondered if it had been a toilet was in fact one of Hutchisons Fireplaces.    According to Placenames Tasmania: The surveyor H. R. Hutchison spent a great deal of time around

  Saturday 3 December 2022 Earlier this year we came upon Foxgloves on the slope below South Wellington. It was in January this year that they were found and there could be new seedlings there now, or there might even be another patch that wasn’t spotted. Ponds on South Wellington plateau   To get there involved a walk of about 2:30, somewhat longer than anticipated. The last 200 metres or so are a bit rough and needed care. Once at the site there was no sign of foxgloves, but unfortunately the rock where they were could not be found. On the original trip the GPS stopped recording before and after the location and just the photo location had to be used. This would normally be accurate, but sometimes it can be a bit out, which may be be the case here. A different return walk was used and with the warm day it made it a harder and longer walk than expected. In all it was 9.6k and took about seven and a quarter hours.    Morning break among the snow gums   Rock where Foxgloves fou

  Thursday 1 December 2022   This was not the conventional Trestle Mountain walk, as it included the traverse of the summit ridge and descended by way of Fools Tarn.   The return was along the fire trail, which especially the first part below Trestle was most colourful with numerous plants in flower. it a short diversion to a small valley of pineapple grass. The walk was 15k and took 8 hours.   On summit crest of Trestle Mountain     Richea dracophylla Pineapple Grass   Astelia alpina Oxylobium ellipticum  Golden Rosemary Plateau at end of Trestle Fools Tarn     There is a photo album online     Trestle Mountain Traverse 2022

 Thursday 24 November There were a few drops of light rain when we arrived at Randalls Bay, but not enough to worry about and they eventually stopped. The day was quite warm and although there was a cool breeze in the higher exposed part of Echo Sugarloaf, we were able to find a calm place on top for lunch. It gradually became warmer and sunnier, especially on the Mickeys Bay addon for the day. Pigface  (Carpobrotus)  Randalls Bay Goodenia ovata Echo Sugarloaf Mickeys Beach  

Three fine days 18-20 October 2022 It really was three fine days, very fine and pleasant in fact.      The 12:30 ferry was caught and we were underway just after 1:00pm and, although parts of the track up through the rainforest were indistinct, Gould Plateau was reached without any real problems. It is a steep climb, especially the last half and it was a relief to get on level ground. Camp for both nights was beside an attractive tarn with splendid views of the dominant Mount Gould and of the surrounding mountains.   On the first afternoon and next, together with the mornings, especially the final one, there was ample time to wander about to enjoy and photograph the area. On the middle day we set off for what looked like a daunting climb of Mount Gould.   It is steep whatever route, in our case using a pad through the scoparia barrier to ascend the southern end.   On approaching the upper part, the terrain turned from scrub to large boulders and this continued for the entire 50