Knocklofty 2015

Today we're walking at Knocklofty. We were to be led by Jenny but unfortunately she has hurt her foot so we're on our own. And didn't we have fun!

Tas rang me to see if I had any information on other walks we've done up there, I did have the GPX files from the past couple of years and said I would download them to my GPS. Bob could lead us for most of it as he knew the tracks, but couldn't recall where we had left the road and gone up hill through the bush. No problem, I had the technology!

Unfortunately (there's that word again), I didn't take into account that we would be in a wooded valley. satellite signals don't like wooded valleys, particularly if you're at the bottom. Very slow to update our position and lots of confusion as to where the turnoff point was.

It was suggested that a map would have helped. Have a look below if you think you could pick the turnoff from the map. Possibly I should have looked at the original GPX on Google Earth to get some idea where we turned off. Hind sight is a wonderful thing.

It really didn't matter as we would be heading up, bush bashing our way to a fire trail that ran around Knocklofty. We would be doing this no matter which turnoff we used.

We had planned to have Morning Tea where we had it before last year, but this time we found another place.

Back to the walk.

I have the technology! Three GPS capable units logging onto satellites while resting on my bonnet

We parked in a convenient area in Liverpool Crescent

Off we go

 We walk up Liverpool Crescent to a new development and turn right to go up to Forrest Rd. turning left towards Wellington. This takes us past older properties to a barrier which we pass through.

Looking down the Derwent River

Mount Wellington and new development

I wondered what the future was, not sure I like it. You can see Cascade Brewery down by the distant silos

We've left the development behind

Old quarry

There's a bit of a turning circle at the barrier. Someone over ran while turning. The photo doesn't really show you how deep this ditch is. I suspect many, many naughty words were said

The barrier and track looping to the left

 It's a pleasant walk along here, it runs just above the refuse site at McRobies gully.

As the GPS was useless, we decided to turn up the bank and into the bush. It's fairly steep and a little way up we found a place for Morning Tea.

Afterwards, we continued up towards the fire trail at the top.

Morning Tea

Going up. As you can see, it's open bush here

Regrouping at the top

When we reach the road, we turn left and head a short way to our turnoff onto a small, marked track. The GPS is happy now we're out of the valley.

Peter points out something interesting to Bob. Everyone looks happy

Here we've turned off onto the side track

The side track meanders around, leading us to the top of Knocklofty. It's all open bush with some small views of civilization below. Pleasant walking.

A glimpse of beautiful, down town Hobart

We reach the top of Knocklofty and head south on the main track for a while before turning off and heading down another old fire trail.

We've turned off the main track and are heading down. It gets steeper and more rugged as we go

Peter enjoying other people's plight!

It will drop off steeply in just a moment

It also becomes looser and more eroded

We reach the bottom which brings us back onto our original fire trail we turned off on after Morning Tea.

Just over the track we find a good place for lunch.

Lunch

Unfortunately (that's three) one of our walkers has injured their leg some how and was in some pain. Lunch finished, we walk back towards
Wellington, taking it slow for their benefit. After a while we decide to turn off onto a very old track, calling the front runners back to join us.

It soon became apparent it was going to turn into bush bashing again and as our injured mate was having more and more pain, we decided to split up and part of the group would walk back the long way along fire trails and get the patient back to the cars.

The rest of us struck out heading down to pick up the original road running above McRobies gully.

This involved a good stretch of bush bashing and after going down a while we found what I recognized as the place we had hoped to have Morning Tea. This was the place from the year before.

On the way, Tas got a phone message to contact the other group, this proved futile. Happily, it wasn't bad news as we found out when we got back to the cars. It did cause some worry at the time, though.

We continued down a very steep descent (up to 48%) until we finally reached the road to start our way back to the others.

Spotted this fossil rock as part of the fire trail after lunch. I assume it was brought in as we found others

Turning off onto the faint track, shortly before we decide to split up

You can just make out the person I'm following just a couple of metres away

How many pensioners does it take to make a phone call? Addie's holding up the class list so Tas can read Peter's phone number. We found a small level place to do this

This is the place I recognize as where we stopped for tea last year. We go straight down from here

Addie celebrates finding our road and the way out

We walk out with no problems and find the others have gotten there 45 minutes before. Never mind. I enjoyed the bush bashing both up and down as it made our walk unique. I'm pretty sure no one has walked down there for many a year.

We had 10 walkers and covered 10.69km in 4:56hrs.

Click here to download GPX track

I've tried something new and if you click here 
you will see an animated track on YouTube showing how we walked the track below. I haven't worked out how to show a map behind it yet. 

Interesting track

The blue track is what we wanted to do, the red track is what we did!