Ramblings: Geilston Bay- Caves Hill- Rocky Tom 2015

Wednesday, 25 March 2015

Geilston Bay- Caves Hill- Rocky Tom 2015

Just a note about last week's blog, I used a different format for the photos that resulted in larger files to load. I've reverted to my usual format and will keep it so loading should be quicker.

Today we're heading to Geilston Bay for a walk in the Meehan Range up Caves Hill and (possibly, as I will explain later) Rocky Tom. Bob is our leader.

The weather was perfect for walking, clear and cool at the start. The walk starts out on the level but soon enough we start walking up some lovely hills. --Did I just say that? I may have to go into therapy as it appears I've been walking with Bob for too long!

Clarence Council have put in a number of cycle trails and we could see that more are in stages of construction. The whole area is covered with old and new tracks of various kinds. It's very dry, open bush and good walking.

We start out at a parking area off Geilston Creek Rd.

Plenty of parking

Leaving the cars, we head up a wide dirt track which becomes paved again for a while before we dive off into the bush. This comes back to the road again, but we turn off and walk up an old vehicle track which winds around until we have our first climbing moment.

Most of us passed the intelligence test of the pedestrian gate. Some taller ones just stepped over the low point. That's just showing off

Signing seems clear, until we go off on our own.

Now we start our first climb. It's steep but not long.

We reach a wide, washed out road, cross the erosion and go up to pick up a side track.

Walking up this side track, Bob offered us a spot for Morning Tea, but hearing the top of the hill was just a bit farther, the group decided to continue up for a better view.

We get a view of Mt. Wellington through the trees

Heading up, we reach the base of a rocky cliff. After regrouping we take the trail around the side and up to the top. Just a short climb.

Heading around the end of the cliff

I stopped and asked everyone to smile as if they were having fun. Some efforts were better then others

The top, waiting for the others to arrive

The view

We can't stop here though, Morning Tea awaits farther on after just a short hike through open bush.

Coming up on the edge of rocky cliffs

Carol pointing (nervously) at the view down.

Photo by Carol. Notice I'm standing farther back then Carol was

It's not really that high, just don't trip

That's Risdon Vale in the distance

Morning Tea perched on a rock

Looking down at the base

Looking towards Wellington with Selfs Point on the River Derwent

While everyone was enjoying their break, I walked around to our left and did a little exploring. The cliff was lower here and I think it wouldn't be a problem to make our way down through the rocks to the hill side. Walking from here would take us down then up the next hill, which is where we'll have lunch today.

There seems to be a way down between these two large rocks to the hill side

Another possible way through this gap

This exploration is for another time. Tea finished, we walk across the top and start down. Gordon has taken another way and we meet him at the bottom.

Where we're standing appears to be a bush roundabout with tracks leading off. I can let everyone in on a secret now. I had commented to Peter that it was strange we were heading down hill from here when there was a perfectly good steep track leading up to another hill.

The secret is that Bob had considered taking us up there, but was unsure of how much time we needed to complete the walk. Now that he knows we can handle the hills, beware the next time!

We now walk down a vehicle track through fairly open ground and reach the bottom. It's here Bob tells us to go into stealth mode as we're not sure if it's private ground or not, and there are a couple of houses around.

I've looked on List Maps and that was no help. According to that, the entire area around Caves Hill is private freehold. Until you click it and it turns colour to indicate Public Reserve. Not much help.

Anyway, we continue on over a flattened fence then over a locked gate, across a road and down into a valley. We walk up this until we can turn up hill and find a spot for lunch.

Heading off after break

Gordon took another path and meets us at the bottom

Heading down again

I liked the contrast between the black bark and the red of the wood under it

Wallaby tracks

Bob about to put us into stealth mode

The day is getting warmer

Up the old track...

...turning off to go up again

We had Morning Tea on top of those rocks

This shows the slope of the land on the climb


Quarry at end of Flagstaff Rd.

After reaching a flat area, Bob leads us to our lunch spot with seating for all.

Lunch

After lunch we walk down another road before turning off on a fairly new cycle track to make our way back to the cars.

Turning off on the cycle track

This looks familiar, where have I seen a photo like this before?

That's the one! I could do the hair

Back to reality. We saw this Blue Tongue lizard, probably known to his friends as 'Stumpy' because he's lost his tail

We had 14 walkers and covered 8.67km in 3:30hrs and had a very nice walk thanks to Bob who had covered most of these hills in search of a route.

If you're having trouble sleeping read what I've written after the maps. I mentioned in the beginning that I don't know if we really climbed Rocky Tom or not, read this and you'll know why.

Click to download GPX file

DID WE CLIMB ROCKY TOM?

I've checked a number of maps, both on line and on some I've got, and had the following results. Rocky Tom seems to be suffering from some sort of local drift.