From Rifle Range Road 2017

Today we're heading down to Rifle Range Road to start a walk taking in several loops on the various tracks in the area.

When I left home it was pouring rain, on reaching Kingston it had stopped, but the weather didn't look good. Luckily, six hardy souls have ignored the weather and are joining me for the walk.

It rains most of the way to the start and shows no sign of stopping. Leaving our parking spot at the corner of Gellibrand Drive and Rifle Range road, we start off.

I haven't taken many photos as the weather wasn't conducive plus I got tired of taking off my glove to get the camera out. Never the less, if your thing is seeing people dressed up in wet weather gear, this blog is for you.

We head up Gellibrand and turn off into Pawtella Close to find the start of the track.

It's easy walking as it's sandy and not muddy. We continue on, crossing several more courts, passing several properties.

If you can afford two horses, you can afford two raincoats

After a while we come to a downhill section leading us back to Gellibrand Drive, which we cross.

Since the last time we were here, the tracks have been opened and signs installed. Before, only Bob knew where to turn off.

It's flat walking (and raining) as we head towards a spot for Morning Tea.

Looking back

Aren't you sorry you didn't come?

As we arrive at the break spot, we find a couple of vehicles and some young men changing into wet suits. Judging from what we saw in Mortimer Bay, we wondered where they were going to find surf to use their boards on. We'll find out later. Except for one man and his dog, these were the only people we saw all day.

As all the rocks we usually use as seats were wet, it's a short Morning Tea before we move on.

Crossing Gillibrand Drive yet again, we head for our only real climb. Before we reach it we have to pass the creatures below.

There were quite a few of these emus in this enclosure

The deep 'booming' sound they make is quite impressive

Much as we like watching them, we have a way to go and the weather isn't getting any better

The track will now take us towards the only real hill on the walk. We cross, you guessed it, Gellibrand Drive at the top of the hill, heading left towards O'May Court where we start down towards the coast and lunch.

As we head down someone, who has paid the requisite fee and shall be nameless, stopped us to listen to a bird that was calling near by.

Yes, it was the very rare Gum-Tree-Groaning-In-The-Wind bird. Its eggs are in great demand by collectors.

Rain is heavier now and as we near the water a cold breeze springs up. Looking for a sheltered lunch spot, we head along the coast. We pick a spot where there appears to be some shelter from the rain, but the cold wind makes it a very short lunch stop.

Lunch spot

The meal was finished in short order, and I set the pace along the coast until we reached our Morning Tea spot again. Just before we reach the spot we sight our surfers from earlier, some way along Gorringes Beach. Now we see why they didn't need large surf.

This area at the end of the beach is also a bird sanctuary.

Just before we reach this spot, there were a couple of loud claps of thunder, but nothing came of it, I'm pleased to report.

Walking inland, we head along the tracks until we have to turn onto the northern end of the sand.

Mt. Wellington and Hobart are over there somewhere

We reach the small car park at the end, heading up to Rifle Range Road and our walk back to the cars.

It's not raining now and as we head back a couple of spots of blue appear. I joke the sun would come out just as we reach the cars.

Note the shadows

Why can't I be this accurate in choosing lottery numbers? The sun does indeed appear for a few minutes.

It was a thoroughly wet walk, but everyone enjoyed it.

We had 7 walkers in total and covered 14.53km in 4:08hrs. We were much faster this time as we didn't spend time eating or looking at orchids. It took something like 4:23hrs before.



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