Geilston Bay-Pilchers Hill 2020

Today we're traveling to the sunny eastern shore where Bob is going to lead us on a walk from Geilston Bay around and about to Pilchers Hill and back again.

The Corona virus is still affecting many areas, but Tasmania has had no cases for 60 days and the Government has loosened some of the restrictions, which is good news.

We make our way through Hobart, over the River Derwent, heading for our parking spot off Geilston Creek Road next to Faggs Gully Creek.

The weather is overcast, cool but dry as we set off. It actually isn't long before we stop to remove some of our clothing.

Setting off

Looks like we're heading the right way

There appear to be some bored people around here

The tracks are easy walking, varying from road width to narrow cycle trails, and, since we're walking with Bob, no trails at all!

It's not the prettiest bush ever, but is interesting and has its moments.

It's not long before a bit of colour is pointed out to me.

On we go, coming to a couple of council workmen who are doing maintenance on the track and have it closed. It doesn't matter though, as Bob leads us up and around the area on a track to our left

Track closed, we head up the one on the left

You just get a glimpse of the quarry ahead

Aerial view of quarry. Dolerite is mined here and crushed creating blue metal gravel for road works

More like a cycle track now

All the bark shedding from that gum tree just caught my eye

Getting a bit rocky

Here's where we leave the track

We come down to the quarry entrance, crossing the road

We're heading up, looking for a Morning Tea spot

Found it!

Morning Tea

Tea finished, we admire the view and move on.

Thought I'd try a selfie. You're welcome to frighten the grandchildren with it if you want

Most of the bush has been fire and wind affected and is very young and twisted

We actually cross the top of Pilchers Hill near by. There's nothing much to see there except a large water tank.

We cross the transmission line strip to continue on.

Water tank and top of Pilchers Hill are to the right

 We follow the track which leads us to the back of Walana Street. There we walk behind the houses...

...finding an unlikely house style for the bush located off Robin Court

There has been all kinds of activity back here in the past, and looks like a timber cutter had a bit of a sense of humour.

We continue on, coming back to the transmission line clearance and passing on the other side of Pilchers Hill. We follow it for a while before turning off onto a bike track that leads down from the hill.

Along the way, we stop for lunch.

Plenty of hills to climb

The new track, heading down

Shortly, we find a spot with views suitable for lunch. I have a wander down a rock shelf, stepping on a patch of mud and performing a graceful slide to land neatly on my bum. This aroused almost no concern from the audience watching from above. It seemed as good a place as any, so I had lunch there.

My slippery rock shelf where I had lunch. The rest of the party are above me to the left

Lunch finished, I made my way back up without incident and we continued descending the track. It was a pretty bit of bush.

Heading down

Looking back

Peter agreed to pose for us at this section of the track to show off its construction.

Looks completely natural!

I take a couple of photos and continue on to find the scene below before me.

A bloke was walking his Golden Retriever up the track and it turned out to be a very friendly dog.

He told us it was from the mainland and had been a stud dog at a breeding kennel. He got hold of it and trained it as a seeing eye dog, but it failed the final test. He than set about training it as a therapy  dog and takes it around to various homes to meet mainly elderly folk.

So it felt right at home with us.

I didn't get its name, but it was very friendly, coming over to stand and lean on me for a while before going off to say hello to someone else. A very calm, non-threatening dog. Great for retirement homes.

What a lovely boy

 Now, the faster part of the group didn't stop, disappearing ahead. Suddenly Bob's voice sounded in the distance wanting to know where we were! Not quite up to Laura Bingle's standard, but effectively wiping the smile off everyone's face! Hurriedly leaving the dog and his owner behind we raced to catch up, passing under Bob's disapproving eye to join the rest.

The moment of Bob's recall

 In case you don't know or remember the ad for the Northern Territory featuring Laura's famous line at the end, CLICK HERE

We had 15 walkers and covered 8.77km in about 3.5 hours. It's an interesting place to walk and there are plenty of tracks and trails hiding in the bush. Thanks to Bob for taking us there.