March 2025 - Fluted Cape, Bruny Island

The March 2025 walk was the Fluted Cape track on Bruny Island. Thanks to Wayne for organising the walks and then putting together this report.

There ended up being seven walkers on the day after several walkers withdrew at the last minute. Get well soon Kat, we missed you!!

Four walkers, being Bob, Caroline, Gary and Angie day tripped over on the ferry on Friday morning. Summa, Gerwyn and Wayne came over on Thursday and camped at the Neck Campground on Thursday and Friday nights.

The walk was scheduled for 11:00am to enable the day trippers to get to the ferry and down to Adventure Bay. After the obligatory coffees were procured on the way, the walk commenced just after 11:00am. It was a marvelous day for a walk with sunshine, no rain and a mild breeze coming off the sea.

At a track junction part way to Grass Point, the walkers split up, with Caroline, Gary, Summa, Gerwyn and Angie heading anti-clockwise to Fluted Cape, while Bob and Wayne headed clockwise to Grass Point. When they reached Grass Point, Bob and Wayne had a small rest and chat, to prepare for the steeper part of the trail ahead. Bob had only planned to complete part of the Fluted Cape climb, as part of his rehab from recent health issues, so we started the upward slog, utilising every good vantage point to enjoy the scenery, have a rest and gather our breath.

Part way up the climb Bob decided it was time to turn around, go back to the Pennicott cafe for a coffee, then find a good place to read a book while waiting for the rest of us to reappear.

Wayne continued the climb, having lots of rest stops, sorry scenery stops along the way. The scenery on the water consisted of Pennicott boats, with some seabirds on the wing and on the water, plus numerous swallows darting all around. We met up on Saturday with some people from a Friday Pennicott cruise who had spotted a whale on their cruise. Lucky buggers!!

Wayne met the other walkers towards the end of the Fluted Cape climb. After a chat, most of them continued down the path toward Grass Point, however Gerwyn joined Wayne and continued the climb to the top of the track.

While enjoying the scenery we met up with a Japanese tourist who was cycling around the state and we had a chat. The others had previously met the tourist near the top of the track. He was taking his time to appreciate the great scenery, which we often take for granted.

After reaching the top we headed inland and gradually meandered our way down the track towards the junction at the bottom, then headed back towards the Pennicott cafe to meet the others. The cafe was preparing to close, when we arrived, however we were able to get a Valhalla Choc Top, which Wayne thought was a much better option than a tea, coffee, hot or iced chocolate etc.

After we finished at the cafe, Bob and the daytrippers headed back to catch the ferry to mainland Tasmania. Summa, Gerwyn and little old Wayne headed back to our camp at the Neck Campground, where we indulged ourselves in a lovely dip to rest the sore leg muscles in the water after our long walk. Surprisingly, the water was very pleasant, probably something to do with the amount of warm water heading down the east coast of Australia from the tropics. Personally, Wayne will be glad when the East Australian Current reaches Cockle Creek, because even in summer, the water in the sea can be freezing there.

After our dip we retreated back to camp, lit the firepot to enjoy the rest of the afternoon, while we plotted a less energetic walk for the following morning before we headed back to the ferry and home.

We had decided on the Cape Queen Elizabeth track, for convenience, but didn't want to climb the hill to get over to the arch. With the tide too high to walk around Mars Bluff to Moorina Bay and the arch, we settled for the shorter walk past Big Lagoon to Neck Beach. No swimming there, as it was a colder day with a shower or two. Still it was a nice walk that didn't stress the tired legs and muscles from Fluted Cape too much.

The oystercatchers were also enjoying a quiet day at the beach.

After the walk we climbed in our vans and prepared to head to the ferry and farewell Bruny Island. All in all, a successful time on Bruny Island for the walkers and campers.

February 2025 - Mt Roland, Stoodley Forest and Mole Creek Caves

Eight of us ventured into the northwest of Tassie to take on Mt Roland at the end of February. This beautiful icon of the Sheffield area had been beckoning to us for ages, and we were excited to finally make the trip.

Geologist Ken McQueen: "Mount Roland is an imposing monolith with a majestic presence at the north-western edge of Tasmania’s central plateau. It has an elevation of 1,234 m above sea level and stands 10 km southeast of the small town of Sheffield in northern Tasmania. The mountain is composed largely of conglomerate, a sedimentary rock formed in large rivers or alluvial fans. On the very top and behind the frontal peak there are also some overlying sandstones. The conglomerate is siliceous (quartz-rich), very hard and resistant to erosion and chemical weathering".

The intrepid walkers were Lyn (our excellent organiser), Bob, Janet, Di, David, Maryanne, Kat and Philip. We drove up in three vehicles on a sunny Tuesday, taking separate routes. Some of us met at Mountain Mumma cafe in Sheffield for lunch (lambs fry, anyone?), then the whole group convened at the carpark for the introductory event of our trip, the Stoodley Forest Walk.

This was a little adventure in itself, as the signage both to get there and for the forest walk was pretty poor. Google Maps will get you there. We discovered that this area is now on the edge of the Wild Mersey Mountain Bike network of trails. Luckily we had a good RideWithGPS map to help us find a walking trail, and we trundled down the valley through old plantings of exotic trees mixed with natives.

Our trail wound down to the creek at the bottom, then looped back up the other side of the valley.

On this trail we didn't find any of the historic railway infrastructure mentioned on the website, perhaps that was located on a level trail around the top: "An easy walk through an arboretum established by the early forestry industry and partly follows the Railton-Roland train line which closed in 1957 and had a station at Stoodley. It is also the site of one of the region’s first sawmills – built in 1854 on nearby Red Water Creek. The original wooden water trough, from the early 1900s, was a regular stopping place for horses and riders and for traction engines to top up their boilers".

They could have offered us an actual map showing the locations (now there's an idea). Anyhow, our loop walk felt like an easy warm up for tomorrow's assault on Mt Roland.

With a quick stop at the Sheffield Hotel's bottle shop for some refreshing ales, we drove to the Gowrie Park Wilderness Village, where we checked into our three cabins. These were nicely placed in a fairly private circle, so we could chat to each other from our balconies, nice!

We had a barbecue for our first dinner, at a large table near the camp office. Lyn had carefully organised us to bring the usual surplus of salads and cakes! Yummo.

Mt Roland: "Its dolerite cliffs appear impregnable"... On Wednesday morning we set out early, at 8am, thinking we should allow plenty of time, even though walk descriptions assured us that the walk from ONeills Rd was "moderate" difficulty and would take only 4-6 hours. The weather was perfect, dry and not too hot. Seven of us drove to the carpark and registered.

Soon we were down to six in number, and the walk was very pleasant along a vehicle-wide trail for several kilometres through quiet bush and past little creeks and damp rainforest-y areas.

We declined to take the turnoff to Mt Van Dyke.

The trail rose slowly, until a strong bridge over ONeills Creek signalled the start of the serious climbing.

A long staircase rose on the other side of the bridge and it was a steady climb for several kilometres after that. This was through damp rainforest, with some tall old trees, ferns and massive boulders to admire.

We appreciated some nice new-looking sections of timber steps. There was another turnoff to Mt Van Dyke at the top of this climb, with a timber platform for a rest stop, and we turned left here towards Mt Roland.

Here we enjoyed some decent stretches of duckboard, which made for easy walking over what was now a slow and steady continuous climb.

We reached a nice timber platform with a picnic table, with a great view over towards Mole Creek.

Here we stopped for a snack and a drink and then continued on. Unfortunately from here on the trail was difficult walking, with large boulders that needed to be carefully navigated. We were basically rock hopping for a couple of kilometres and it was still uphill.

Three of us called it quits not far from the turnoff for the final scramble to the top. Three continued on, and turned left at the final turnoff.

They found the rock scramble quite difficult. The rocks were large and there was not much of a marked trail at that point. Maryanne did a great job with her new knee. Two made it right to the top - well done Lyn and Kat!!!

We retraced our steps back to the picnic table lookout, and finished off our lunches. Then there was the return walk, which felt endless. We were all very tired when we finally made it back to the starting point - the 17.4km walk (with uphills of 876m) had taken us a little over eight hours! Rehydration was badly required, beer and cider helped a great deal, also treatment with ibuprofen and panadol was very beneficial, haha.

A great treat that evening was an excellent chicken curry, rice and salads, followed by apple cake with homemade icecream, which was all kindly delivered to our door by fab local caterer Charlotte. Bob captured Mt Roland Tassie's Uluru!) in the sunset:

On the Thursday we visited the Mole Creek caves, starting with the King Solomons Cave tour at 10.30am. Tour guide Shannon was great, and the stalactites, stalagmites, curtains and pillars were beautiful.

We had a quick lunch in Mole Creek and a look around the village.

Then we were off to Marakoopa Cave, where we helped the staff work out our ticketting (confusion reigned), and we were guided around this beautiful cave by Angela. The Marakoopa cave is less claustrophobic than King Solomon's and features underground rivers and glow worms, excellent. Our final dinner was at Sheffield Hotel, where the food was fine and the service was friendly but not very professional (a couple of complaints were made, ahem).

On the Friday we decamped early for "second breakfast" (or coffee) at Mountain Mumma, after which we all headed home on our separate ways. Thanks to everyone for another laughter-filled getaway.

January 2025 - Fort Direction, Blessington Trail

A good crowd fronted up for our first walk for 2025 - Maryanne, Fin, Angie, Lyn, Di, David, Kat, Bob, Caroline, Warren, and new Walker and Talker Brenda. Most of us met at the carpark at the Foreshore Tavern at Lauderdale at about a quarter to 10am, and sorted ourselves into three cars for the next leg to South Arm. At South Arm we met with Caroline and Warren, and the group hit the trail at about 10.30am.

It was a lovely summer's day, and actually got quite warm as we walked along the riverside.

There were great views over the River Derwent towards kunanyi and the channel area.

Lots of waterbirds.

And jellyfish (eck).

The beach walks were easy and enjoyable, with lots of time for catching up on holiday and family news.

There weren't many shady spots to stop for a drink, we had to grab this little sand dune.

At the destination, Fort Direction:

with its great view of the Iron Pot:

What a beautiful place we live in. By the time we got back to South Arm (at about 2pm) we were hot and very ready for lunch at the excellent little cafe Touch of the Mo. Thanks to all for a great day together on the trail.