We had excellent Spring weather for this walk along the Milles Track on kunanyi/Mt Wellington - it was warm, sunny and calm. it was a group of ten today: Di, Kat, Philip, Caroline, Warren, Ruth, Keith, Bob, Gerwyn and Wayne.
We met at The Springs, some of us parking in the overflow carpark there, some up at the upper carpark, which is where the group gathered and set off from at 10am. This is a very accessible walk for Hobartians and is pretty familiar for some of us, but we hadn't been here for a while. This is a previous report on the walk, from 2012!!
Here's a map of what some of today's group walked:
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| The walkers, minus photographer Kat |
After the initial steep climb up stone steps to the start point of the trails, the Milles track is fairly flat for the first hour or so.
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| Initial smooth section |
The track was dry and well-groomed to start with and gradually became a little muddy, with pretty mountain streams crossing the trail at several points. After about half an hour of walking the trail became very rocky and from there on we had to watch every footstep to make sure no ankles were twisted.
The bush was beautiful, the birds were noisy, and the occasional view down over the river reminded us of how high up we were.
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| Richea dracophylla |
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| View of Cathedral Rock |
We passed the track to Snake Plains on the left, and continued on. After about an hour of walking we came to this place (with some handy logs to sit on) which would be a good spot to stop for snacks or lunch. Stopping here would make this an easy two hour walk.
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| A good spot for lunch |
But we had adventurous souls in the group who were determined to get closer to the Disappearing Tarn, so we continued along the trail. The track became increasingly made up of large rocks which demanded continuous careful rock-hopping. After about another half hour, with the rocky trail descending and the Tarn still some way off, several of us decided to call it quits, stop and enjoy our snacks early.
The hardier souls continued on for another half hour and located the turnoff to the Tarn near the beginning of the Potato Fields.
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| The turnoff to the Disappearing Tarn |
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| Ruth and Keith confirmed that the Tarn was dry |
When the two groups rejoined, we all headed back, retracing our steps along the trail.
Back at The Springs most of us enjoyed coffee and snacks from the Lost Freight Cafe. And rested. We had taken about 3 hours 45 mins for the walk. Some of us had walked 7km, the majority had walked about 8.2km, very impressive we reckon for so much rockhopping.
