Our walk today is to Canopus Hill which used to house the University of Tasmania's Mount Canopus Observatory until recently when the observatory equipment was relocated to Greenhill Observatory on Bisdee Teir further away from the encroaching light sources of the city of Hobart.
The walk commences by following the old Bellerive to Sorell train track for a short period before we commence climbing the hill.
We had just walk about 100 meters before we came across the first orchid of the day a Nodding Greenhood. By the end of the day we had only a couple of donkey orchids and a further patch of Nodding Greenhoods which were all seen in the first 500 meters of the walk.
One of the culverts from the old railway line.
The climb start.
A somewhat unusual and possibly rare parrot.
And Billy Goat Gruff was checking us out as well.
Leaving the road and entering the old track to the top.
Which has become somewhat overgrown since our last visit.
Early Nancy.
While walking through the relatively open area near the top of Canopus we noted a number of new survey posts and marked out areas and wondered what was happening.
The old Observatory buildings. Just after this we came across a local walker who advised that the whole of the area previously owned by the University had recently been subdivided and sold off and once the new owners built house that area would likely not be available for further walks.
A splendid looking peacock who was pretty nervous and didn't want any photo's taken.
Heading back down the first hill.
Our weekly view of Mount Wellington.
Walking down the hill behind the houses.
The grass was lush and there was still plenty of water in the numerous dams.
A group of Sawfly Larvae commonly called Spitfire Caterpillars.
For a more indepth description check out this CSIRO blog.
https://blog.csiro.au/great-balls-of-spitfires/
I stopped to look at some interesting flowers and before I knew it the rest of the group who were only a matter of meters in front had disappeared over the next rise but when I got to the top they were nowhere to be seen.
There they are going into the bush. I might have to mention making sure we are all there when we turn of a track.
A shady lunch spot must mean that summer is approaching.
Native Pea maybe Showy Parrot Pea.
We had 14 walkers who covered 8.3kms in approx 3.5 hours while climbing two hills totalling 262 meters.
You will notice that we have provided and additional map this week which provides a locality map showing the area of the walk.
