The weather at 0600 was 2.4C on Mt. Wellington, hitting a high of 10C during the day. We can see from our starting spot in Kingston that the summit is covered in cloud.
Arriving at the parking area on top, it's cloudy but dry and the temperature has streaked up to 6C.
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| Hobart is down there somewhere |
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| We walk down to the start of the track |
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| Heading up the track |
It's not long before the fire trail begins to steeply descend and as it's a fairly loose surface, this leads to some interesting dance steps on the way down.
Soon it becomes a fairly flat walk until we reach the turn off for Collins Bonnet. We won't be going that far today, but, as we will see, others will.
The track is in good shape, the Wildcare Friends of Wellington Park have done an excellent job of clearing the track in 2017.
The cloud base is somewhat higher back here and temperature is good for walking.
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| The track |
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| Tom Thumb. Another walk we've done |
We cross a marshy area on convenient duckboards, heading towards Mt. Connection.
The track becomes rocky as we start our climb up, so when Morning Tea time arrives, we all find seating.
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| Morning Tea |
It's not long after we stopped that I hear voices and another group makes their way through us.
They're heading for Collins Bonnet then Myrtle Forest where they'll be picked up. We had noticed cars arriving at the start of the track as we turned off the pinnacle road. I did wonder later if they were the Pandani Bushwalkers as we've come across them before on a Tuesday. I checked their schedule and they did have a walk from Myrtle Forest to Mt. Marian, so maybe there was a tie up.
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| Bush beside the track |
On we go, rock hopping now on a gently climbing track. Bob stops at a cairn marking an off track experience, has a quick look, but we decide to move on. I would like to get farther than we did before, we may have a further look on the way back.
The weather is getting better and better as we go.
Soon we find a track leading into the bush that delivers us to the top of Mt. Connection. The weather is perfect now and the views terrific.
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| The track after Morning Tea |
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| Still a bit of cloud around, but it clears fast |
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| Top of Mt. Connection |
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| Wayne checking our location |
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| In the distance we spot the group that passed us earlier |
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| Looking back |
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| Collins Bonnet |
We return to the track to continue on to the peak the other group was on. This marks the spot where our track starts dropping steeply and is our turnaround (and lunch) point for today.
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| Can't get away from civilization |
Making our way up the peak (only a short climb) we settle down for lunch with views such as above to look at.
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| Lunch with a view |
After many extravagant claims of spotting them, which Geoff and I question, they finally do appear in this wide section. They are very small and far away.
Lunch finished, we return to the track and head back to the cairn marked side track Bob wants to explore.
Two of our party decide not to bother and will sit guard on a stack of packs left by others.
So we set off at the sign of the sombrero, follow a non existing track up towards an unknown destination.
It was worth it as the views were great. Bob finds his own spot just opposite. Afterwards, we all return to the others, continuing our way back to Mt. Wellington.
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| Pack watchers enjoying the sunshine |
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| Mexican hat marking start of the route up |
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| Not far now |
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| Bob scrambles over to the next rock pile... |
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| ...and claims it as Bob's Peak |
We make our way back to the others, and continue our return to Big Bend Trail. This provides us with a much needed steep climb back to the start of our walk.
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| No cloud now and Hobart is still there |
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| Up the road to the car park |
We had 9 walkers and covered 10.61km in 5:11hrs. A very enjoyable walk with a little exploring thrown in.
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