Montrose Trail 2016

Today we're walking from the end of Upper Montrose Road and Bob is our leader.

The weather is supposed to be hot today, but it's not really too bad when we arrive at the start, just humid.

The track starts up immediately as we climb up into Goat Hills.

Ready for the start. Who says silver cars are popular with a certain age group?

It's very, very dry

The track is mainly up with a couple of short breaks

We keep climbing until we reach a junction with other tracks and sit down for Morning Tea.

Morning Tea

After our break, we head up the Zig Zag fire trail

The Zig Zags don't come until further on

We'll turnoff before we get to them. In the meantime we have some views of Glenorchy behind us. As you can see, below this is a major power line corridor.

Pesky power lines

Listening to the radio as I write this, I hear the Basslink power cable is no closer to being fixed and is verging on the impossible. This means these power lines may become available for Ron's idea of using them as flying foxes for tourist development.

Back to the walk, we continue up, looking back occasionally at the view. Nearing the top a ute appears coming up another track to our left. Not the catered lunch we imagined, it turns out to be a Parks and Wildlife unit doing an inspection of the area. I think they were surprised to see us!

Mt. Wellington

Nearing the top

We reach the top and turn left, but before we go very far, Bob wants to find out if we can see Collinsvale from here. We can certainly see roads and houses below, but, judging from the map, Collinsvale is just out of sight to our left.

Bob looking for Collinsvale

Looking north

Ron & Jack. Photo by Bob

We continue on the East West trail.

Natural dry arrangement

Junction with unmarked trail

Into Wellington Park

We leave the East West Trail and get back onto the Montrose Trail, looking for a lunch spot.

Back onto the Montrose Trail. I like the old signs better

We walk on for a while and find a spot with enough logs and rocks for our little band to sit and have lunch.

Lunch spot

As we're having lunch I was having a look around nearby and spotted the remains of an old track leading up the hill. Some care was taken in building it and it aroused my curiosity. Bob joined me followed by Ron and we began to find several other signs of some sort of settlement over an area of bush.

Neatly edged track with a couple of posts on the right. Wide enough for a vehicle of some sort

Area of large boulders filled in with smaller rocks

Ron found a number of these semicircles on the hillside, looking like garden plots

More curves. There were also some rectangular areas laid out with rock

This is a dug out area with remains of a wall just off the Chapel fire trail. I thought it might be some sort of loading dock.

 There were also random lumps of metal and corrugated iron lying about. We even found the remains of an old pram.

Old pram frame

Of course, it could have been stolen by pram hoons, pushed up the hill into the bush after they had their fun and torched to destroy the evidence.

More walling back in the bush

Looks like families might have been living up here long ago, there were signs of logging in the distant past.

There was also a large cleared area with a track leading to it that might have been a living area in the past.

I've looked on line for any information on the history of the area, but have had no luck.

We're heading down now and I hear a shout from the front. Bob has found a snake crossing the track. Unfortunately, it's too fast for me to get a photo. It was identified as a red bellied black snake as it had a scarlet underbelly. On checking when I got home I find on the Parks & Wildlife site that these don't occur in Tasmania, although unconfirmed reports of them have been made from the northeast of Tassie.

They suggest people have seen a Lowland copperhead, but this lives in wet, marshy areas and where we were walking is anything but. Another suggestion is that it's a type of Tiger snake. Who knows?

I often get criticized about taking photos from the rear. I try to avoid this as much as possible and alter the angle of my photos to minimize bum shots, but it's not always possible. As you can see from the photo of the snake below, nothing is safe from a bum photo.

Even Mother Nature isn't safe from a bum shot!

 We continue down our original track and return to the cars. Just in time, as the temperature is rising and it will soon be too hot to walk.

We had 7 walkers and covered 8.84km in 3:30hrs.

Now, according to the rule that says add a kilometre for every 100-150 metres climbed, we'll make that between 12.8km and 14.8km walked.

A good walk and so close to town.

Click here to download GPX file

Sabre Place - Goat Bluff Circuit 2016

Today we're traveling to South Arm, parking at the Sabre Place turnoff and being led by Tas on a circuit walk.

When I got up this morning it was blowing a gale, cold, raining with reports of snow on Mt. Wellington. Must be summer!

It only took the making a pot of tea before the sun was out, setting the tone for the rest of the day.

The trip through Hobart took much longer then usual, traffic was backed up on the Southern Outlet at Mt. Nelson and continued that way until we got to the other side of the Tasman Bridge.

Lots of heavy cloud around when we parked for the start, but just a sprinkle of rain that didn't last.

Right! I'm ready to go. Oh.....

Pity about the power lines they spoil a nice rainbow

Catching up from behind let me see the little diversion they took before finding the start of the track

Lots of cloud on Mt. Wellington, but no visible snow

There are a number of walks in this area and new signs are up

We continue along an easy walking track and admire the weather on the western shore of the Derwent.

Give it a short time and the sun will be out

There's work going on upgrading some of the tracks

There are some nice little beaches on this side of Ralphs Bay

Some of us, looking at our surroundings, are behind the main group as usual when I see signs ahead of what appears to be confusion. I thought we were lost, but they were just looking for a spot for Morning Tea.

Search for Morning Tea spot

A large log was found that supplied seats for most. I'm not sure if Addie wanted to imitate a Buckingham Palace guard or a wood sprite, but he requested the photo below and I was happy to oblige.

Palace guard or wood spirit?

I asked everyone to look presentable, most managed it

Tea finished we moved on, leaving the new track to take the old one down to the foreshore.

Down what's left of the old track to the beach. We're not as confused as this photo seems to show

The white beach ahead is made up of banks of small white shells. I suppose these beaches have local names, but I can find none on any maps

Told you, the sun's out on the western shore...

...but we're not looking too good, plus we're ploughing into a head wind

Typical mud stone in some areas along the shore

There were piles of these little shells, about as big as your fingernail

The black clouds seem to be bypassing us

We walk to the end of the beach, turn off onto South Arm Rd., heading east for a short distance before turning off onto a track.

Walking along South Arm Road

Once more into the bush

After a little bit of to and fro we settle on this way

There are many tracks and trails in this area as it was used as a sand mine and people dumped their rubbish here in the past.

This will take us to a formed gravel road leading to a lookout over a famous spot.

Heading for a lookout

Not the same day it was less than an hour ago

What are these people looking at?

Black Jack Reef or Rocks where Bob Clifford parked the catamaran some years ago

That's Betsey Island beyond the reef. I've read that there's a magnetic anomaly in this area that confuses magnetic compasses. Maybe that's what happened to the big 'cat'.

Everyone satisfied, we backtrack a short way before turning off onto another track.

This track isn't marked on the maps

Our destination, Calvert Beach. I just hope we can find space amongst the crowd

Looking back

This sort of bush always supplies interesting photos

We walk down to the beach and unfortunately find that someone is there before us.

Good swell coming in. The corner of rock is Goat Bluff

If you look carefully at the extreme right of centre there is some sort of equipment on a tripod with a green something on top. The only other person on the beach was sitting on a rock ledge just out of photo. I don't know if he was recording the surf with a camera or just recording the sound. A mystery.

Goat Bluff, Betsey Island and Bob

The main group headed up the beach. Peter, Sue and I were behind because we had been admiring the surf so had to hurry to catch up. We did enjoy watching the others scatter when surf suddenly came in where they were walking.

We turned off about half way up Calverts Beach, over the dunes to a parking area. Following a gravel track out took us past Calverts Lagoon to another turning circle. Here we started to look for a spot for lunch, finding one just as a short shower started.

Looking down on our lunch spot

Lunch

Lunch finished we went back to the turning circle and looked around for the track Tas wanted. There were several, but none of them are marked. We wanted to go to Calverts Lagoon, so finally set off through a grassy area.

Heading (hopefully) for Calverts Lagoon

Made it!

We start walking around the perimeter of the lagoon when I notice Bob and Tas looking at something to our left.

What are Bob & Tas looking at?

Oh. A group of rogue shortcut takers

We caught up with the miscreants, but no punishment was given for short cutting.

We continue around the lagoon to a track that will take us up to South Arm Rd. where we'll cross and get back on the Tangara Trail.

Leaving Calvert Lagoon behind

Approaching South Arm Rd.

We're heading for Gellibrand Drive

We pass a garden with some interesting features

A few of our group compared this artwork with this years Hobart Christmas tree. This is more elaborate

After passing this property, we reach the Storm Bay View Track and head to our right. This is level walking until we come to the zig zag track leading up hill to Gellibrand Drive.

Hidden Valley Track sounds interesting

Zig zag up to the road

Reaching Gellibrand Drive, we turn right and head for the cars. Part way along, it begins to rain, keeping us cool until we reach the parking spot.


We had (I think) 14 walkers and covered 11.57km in 3:47hrs. Despite all the weather around us, it was an enjoyable walk with lots to look at.

Click here to download GPX file