Today was supposed to be a walk to Macgregor Peak, but the forecast is for rain in the afternoon. As it's over an hour drive, that would put us still walking when the rain arrived.
Bearing that in mind, Bob and I decided to swap the walks around and do the Snake Plains walk today.
We park at Neika and set off to the junction with the Pipeline Track, then heading towards Fern Tree.
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| Some views along the way |
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| The Pipeline Track, heading towards Fern Tree |
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| The Pipeline Track complete with pipe (water) |
Along the track we come across this shrine to the little people.
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| Be careful, one of them is watching you! |
We continue, noticing the build up of fuel between the gums.
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| Lots of litter on the ground heading up the hill |
We need to get President Trump to come over and show us how to rake it out. He seems to know everything about forest management.
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| Pipeline Track |
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| Lots of ferns start to appear |
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| Private property above the track, with this old free stone wall |
Occasionally we have a view of Mt. Wellington such as the one below.
We reach the turnoff that takes us to Silver Falls, where I offer a choice of Morning Tea here or a bit later at the Springs. The Springs it is.
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| Silver Falls |
Leaving the Falls behind, we walk up the Silver Falls Track for a short distance, where Bob offers us a shortcut. Being lazy, I've avoided this track in the past. Something about the sign put me off.
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| Something on the sign post put me off in the past. Perhaps the little figure in the black diamond. |
Today, food overrules easier walking, so we start up Reids Track to the Springs.
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| Reids Track |
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| One of a couple of recovery stops along the way |
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| Some of it is a bit easier |
It's not long before we reach the top and the junction with Radfords Track, turning left towards the Springs.
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| Radfords Track |
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It's almost exactly half an hour from Silver Falls to the Springs and our break.
We settle at an empty table for Morning Tea.
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| Morning Tea |
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| A couple of drops of rain bring out the wet weather gear. It didn't last |
Lots of tourists around when we finish and continue up Radfords to the junction of the Pinnacle Track, following it left where it changes to the Miles Track.
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| Lots of spring colour along the way |
Fairly flat for the moment, the tracks offer some great views.
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| Looking east |
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| More rocks begin to appear |
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| Southeast |
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| North West Bay |
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| Waratah beside the track |
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| Waratah flowers |
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| Some weather in the east, which is where we would have been on the original scheduled walk |
The track begins to climb and narrow. It's also becoming wetter.
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| Watch your step |
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| Small spring beside the track... |
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| ...flows over the track |
On we go and Bob finds a good place for lunch. Seating for all.
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| Lunch |
If you look carefully, you'll see that the bush beside Bob marks the boundary between the Ladies and Gents section of the lunch log.
Lunch finished, we continue and it's not very long before we reach the turn onto the Snake Plains Track.
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| Informative sign... |
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| ...but I prefer the character of the original |
I found that hat lodged behind the log. If you lost it, there it is.
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| Bob heads down the Snake Plains Track |
The first part of the track follows a rock fall which has its own interest.
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| Nature abhors a vacuum |
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| Nature is also pretty good at making a garden |
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| You can't get lost, just look for the cairn |
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| Another waratah |
The end of the rocky part of the track is almost over. Unfortunately, I was behind everyone taking photos, and didn't get to point out an interesting rock not far from the bottom of the rock fall. I know the rest of the group didn't notice it, because they would have been talking.
There is a medium size rock on the track that has a small opening on the downhill side. If you stop and listen, the sound of running water is quite apparent. Where it comes from and where it goes are a mystery to me.
The track now levels out to pass through a pleasant grove.
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| Very nice. |
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| Nothing man made in sight looking back |
The track now passes through scrub and is flat at the moment.
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| Just before this point, we meet a couple of fellow walkers heading up the track |
Thanks for the kind remarks re the blog.
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| Cathedral Rock in the distance |
It's open bush and the track has several fairly deep depressions that fill up with water that we make our way around. Sometimes quite athletically.
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| North West Bay starting to appear |
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| Closer view of Cathedral Rock and Montagu Thumbs |
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| More flowers |
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| Kingston below |
The track begins to slope down towards a forested area. This was once a timber camp, logging this area.
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| Old logging road that heads down to the Pipeline Track |
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| Difficult to imagine what this area looked like before it was logged |
Everyone stops ahead and Bob calls me up to point out some orchids. There are a number of the tiny flowers here on both sides of the track.
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| Bob's orchid |
On we go, still heading down the old road.
We reach the junction with the Pipeline Track, heading left to return to the cars. I usually find the Pipeline Track a bit of a slog and not very interesting, but breaking it into two sections has made a big difference. At least to me.
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| Back on the Pipeline |
We had 9 walkers and covered 12.32km in 4hrs. For the most part, the weather was cloudy but we only had about three drops of rain. In fact, at one point Ron pointed out to me that we were nearly casting a shadow!
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