Risdon Vale

This week was a new walk by Bob in the hills behind Risdon Vale, and it was a very good walk.

Mostly up hill, but fairly gentle, it covered a variety of interests. Botany, and several 'ologies' such as geology, industrial archeology and criminology. Maybe a new one you could call rubbishology.

Starting out in the car park in the throbbing centre of Risdon Vale, a track led through the recreation area back to the hills via a fire trail, then a foot track going up. Very dry bush and good views when you got a bit higher.

Ready to leave, hoping the cars will be there when we return

Across the recreation ground

View over Risdon Vale

Starting up

Bob said we would have morning tea near a cave he had discovered during his first exploration of the area, so we turned off onto a barely discernible track and came up under some stone cliffs. Unfortunately, no cave was in sight, and this led to may jokes about a sequel to Nan Chauncy's book "They Found a Cave" e.g., "They Didn't Find a Cave" and such like.

Bob took it well (he's used to it), but decided to go exploring while we rested to see if he could find it. He came back looking pleased with himself as the cave was just a little way around the cliff. For those that took the time to have a look, it wasn't a large cave but quite a nice one, so well worth the effort.

Bob about to look pleased with himself

Bob's cave

Back to my roots - by Carol

Cave denizens

Heading back down - by Carol

Walking back to the main track we headed up once again, passing with heads down the No Trespassing sign posted high on a tree and wound our way up to a large rock shelf. I've found a reference to this property on the Internet. It's called Basin Downs and is 217 acres and sold for $129,000. Not bad.

Here's a copy of some of the relevant info.

"The property occupies a key strategic position in the Meehan Range, which has been identified by the TLC as one of six 'focal landscapes' for biodiversity conservation around Tasmania.  It bisects two areas of the Meehan Range Nature Recreation Area and it's protection helps secure the viability of the broader landscape.  It contains two threatened forest communities (vulnerable dry Blue Gum forest and rare Risdon Peppermint forest) and habitat for several threatened species, including the endangered Swift Parrot, Masked Owl and Wedge-tailed Eagle. The topography and geology of the block (including spectacular cliffs and caves) provides great structural diversity which supports a high overall diversity of native flora and fauna."

Unfortunately, no animals appeared, maybe next time.

We continued up to a large, fairly flat area dropping down over stone cliffs. The first stop was at a spot with a number of shallow depressions in  the rock and I suspect the reason it's called Basin Downs. The next stop was again on top of taller cliffs. We then walked down and around to revel the good sized cave we'd been standing on.

Stone Basins

On top of next cave

Basin with lid

Bob and larger cave

After that we found a convenient log for lunch before walking, sliding, barely controlled falling, down a long, steep, loose stoned, slippery slope to Risdon Vale Creek  and back to the cars.

Lunch on a log

Slippery Slope

I refrained from taking photos of the several burnt out cars, but in hindsight I should have treated them like installation art. You could mine that area for all the molten aluminium from burnt out vehicles.

Thanks to Carol for her photos.

Elevation profile

Notice the time on the flat

We had 12 walkers and covered 9.35km in 3.37 hours.

Click here to download GPX file