Despite some very stormy weather last night with wind gusts approaching 100km/h and some light rain this morning we decided to continue on our Mt Wellington walk as forecasts indicated that we would be on the sheltered side.
On the way to the start of the walk Dave one of our walkers had some car trouble. This photo shows Wayne working (pushing the car), Chris playing games on his phone (pretending to be a road worker) and Dave looking concerned.
14 walkers set of from our starting point at Shoobridge Bend on Pinnacle Road.
Our route takes us along the Shoobridge Track and then the North South Track to Junction Cabin.
It doesn't take us long to reach the Octopus Tree .. is it a giant bonsai? How did it grow like that?
The tree is likely several hundred years old and survived multiple bush fires.
We continue along the North South Track till we reach a landslip/rock scree, where we stop to admire the view and take a few photos
The North South Track was built for mountain bikes and along our journey we pass numerous obstacles ..we were all glad to be walking and not riding!
We reach Junction Cabin and it's morning tea time
After morning tea we start to head back and our first stop is Lone Cabin
Climbing back up to the Lenah Valley Track
We again pass the rock scree on our return trip - if you look closely you can see the North South Track in the middle of the picture
Rocky Cabin is next and shortly after we get a glimpse of Mt Wellington with it's top covered in cloud.
We make our way through The Springs and then it is time for lunch at the lookout above Pinnacle Road. While there we talked to some interstate visitors who told us that there was no visibility at the top and that the wind was horrendous.
We then go through the Exhibition and Rhododendron Gardens .. at present there is not much to look at. They were opened in the 1860's and due to lack of funding and also several bush fires by the late 1960's were no longer operating. A comprehensive history of the gardens may be found on this link.
One of the remaining features in the garden - a stone bird bath
For the final leg of today's trip we follow the North South Track back to Shoobridge Bend where we parked our cars.
Just before completing our walk we came across this unusual tree which definitely looked like an elbow
Can't have a walk without spotting an orchid - Joy found these growing on a rock which I think are examples of 'Fringed Helmet Orchid ' (Corybas Fimbriatus)
Today 14 walkers covered almost 10kms on the lower slopes of Mt Wellington. We were fortunate as the gale force winds, limited visibility and constant showers that prevailed at the top didn't affect us at all.
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