Geeveston 2021

 Today Bob is taking us to an area we've been before for other walks, a logging road outside of Geeveston.

We park the cars and Bob gives us a briefing, promising us that no group has been on the route he's planned for us today. At the end of the day, turns out neither has Bob!

It's a good day for walking, cool and clear as we set off.

 We turn left here. Bob said it was a couple of kilometres from the cars and my GPS watch registered exactly 2km. as we turned.

Just as a matter of interest, those 2km were the fastest of the walk. The report shows a top speed of 6km/h. I always say we take off like rockets at the beginning of every walk. 

On we go at a more normal pace.

These are logging roads and there signs of fairly recent activity along the way. Soon we come to an steep and slippery hill that the photos don't do justice to. 

Some adopted the bum slide method and others the side step means of descent.

A convenient flat area was provided for photographers to catch any interesting events as others went down

Looks easy from this angle

I offered the suggestion that it might be easier to run down and proceeded to demonstrate, arriving safely at the bottom. I can now tell you it was completely unintentional and once I started I couldn't stop! The benefits of being the photographer come to the fore now as there are no photos.

Once everyone was down, Bob assured us we wouldn't have to climb back up later on. Keep that thought. 

There is a small creek down to our right that I identified as O'Hallorans Creek. It wasn't until I started this blog that I found Fairy Falls on the map close to where we walked. I found this link in the Waterfalls of Tasmania website and we should make a walk of that some day. CLICK HERE for Fairy Falls of Geeveston.

We follow this old road for a while.

It's about that time and we stop in a sunny spot for Morning Tea.

Morning Tea

After the break, we set off again and I think it's around here that the rot set in. It was 15 months ago that Bob was here and since then there have been fires and logging with the result the track he hoped to take us on has disappeared.

 Time for some quick thinking.

Off to the side

 

A walk is not a walk if it doesn't have a loop is Bobs philosophy so we keep walking until we can make a loop.

They look familar

We do the loop and start back but on another road.

Logging results

 

Not the prettiest but it is a plantation and not (now) old growth

We walk on, heading down until we come to a familiar looking hill. Oh, it's the hill we wouldn't have to climb. Well, things change and now we do!

 I slip slide my way up and regain my position on the photographers spot ready to record some misery.  

At Peter's request, I record the exhausted looks on the faces of some of the climbers.

Not too successfully.

They can't seem to coordinate their exhausted looks

Bob finds a smaller track that climbs towards our lunch spot.

Heading up

Life wasn't meant to be easy

A distant view of where we walked a little while ago

A closer look

Lunch spot

I found a comfortable looking log, checked it out for any inhabitants and sat down. Unfortunately, I wasn't through enough as I felt something chewing on my leg. Turns out there were some very large and very angry ants living in my log and one had made his displeasure known.

I finished lunch standing up. While we were eating, Bob had a look around for any useful tracks. One way yielded none so he returned and tried another, telling us to wait.

We waited, but rebellion began to rear its ugly head and I said that the track was at least heading the right direction, we should go ahead and follow Bob. Fortunately it wasn't too long before we heard him call us. 

Going up

Looking back

We rejoin Bob and the rebels pretend they had no intention of deserting him

The bush is changing now

This area is recovering from bushfires that took place some months ago. We're getting higher which has the benefit of giving us some long views.

Distant hills

We come out onto this track that shows some signs of civilization. Well, trail bikes or some such.

Bob did say in the mornings briefing that we would encounter some wet areas

You can see the effect of the bushfires

Peter & I recognize this track. We've come up it on a past walk

This young gum is well on the way

Heading down. Not far now.

Not far to the cars

We came down here

Despite the initial setbacks due to the disappearance of some of the tracks, this was an enjoyable and entertaining walk thanks to Bob.

We had 14 walkers and covered 9.88km in 3: 43hrs.

Click here to download GPX file