Friday, 15 March 2024

Harts Hill - 12th March 2024

Today's walk will be a circuit starting at the oval in Margate, along to Dru Point then follow the water to Barretta Reserve, climb to Harts Hill and return via the Tramway Track.  It is a walk we have done a few times before.

Although there was a cold wind at the start, the weather forecast was for a mild day with the temperatures in the low 20's - a perfect day for walking.

We set off and it wasn't long before we reached Dru Point (fast pace to get warmed up)

Looking to our left we could see a group of pelicans - these are not commonly seen in this area.

Around the point we get a glimpse of some ships working from the Tasmanian Seafood factory.

We soon leave Dru Point behind and make our way towards the Dave Burrows Walk.


This picture shows today's destination - Harts Hill


We reach the Dave Burrows Walk - he was a local orchardist and nature lover who  was the first to establish a track along this bit of coast


And it's morning tea time


Continuing along we pass this piece of artwork


And a book exchange

Leaving the coast behind our route takes us across the Channel Highway and into the Barretta Reserve.

We see this unusual fence which has barb wire at shoulder level but no strands  lower 


Decision time - left or right.  We go left and continue



We soon reach the start of our climb - although Harts Hill is only 150m high it is quite steep.  After climbing about 1/3 of the way up it was  realized that we were on the wrong track and unfortunately had to go back down and start the climb again - as expected this raised some comments from the walkers - it was eventually considered  to be a good "training" exercise

Looking downwards

and upwards

Our first breather

This wallaby was quite happy to watch us approach - he eventually hopped away off the track



More climbing



We reach the top of Harts Hill

Three wise men?


A good place for lunch



Mount Wellington in the background



Lunch over and we commence our decent back to the cars




Looking across towards Cathedral Rock


The last part of the walk takes us along the Margate Tramway Track which passes the back yards of houses - we saw this interesting chook


A bit further along this apple tree which was bearing loads of fruit was spotted - pity about the damage caused by birds


Today we had 16 walkers who covered the 11km in about 4 hours.





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