Last year dad mentioned he would love another trip up kunanyi/Mt Wellington which is the backdrop to Hobart. Dad was an avid bushwalker with the Hobart Walking Club and spent a lot of time walking the tracks on the mountain with his friends Lindsay Whitham and George Richardson. We also went as a family to places like Rock Cabin.
But the weather can change very quickly on the mountain, so it needed to be an extremely fine day to take dad up there. Well that was Monday this week. No clouds in the sky, no wind on the mountain. Dad didn’t want to take his walker or walking sticks as he wasn’t planning on getting out of the car once we got up there.
On the drive up to the top of the mountain, dad was reminiscing about other trips he had taken up there.
- Watching the sign to Lenah Valley gradually being rotated as the tree it was attached to gradually grew taller
- Looking for the signpost relating to the corner of the Hobart City Council area near the Big Bend on the road
- Celebrating anniversaries of the Hobart Walking Club at Rock Cabin
- Planting native trees and plants near the Springs after the 1967 bushfires
He also reminded me of things that happened with me on the mountain.
- When I was training for teaching at the Tasmanian College of Advanced Education back in the 1970’s, my thesis for Environmental Science related to growing Tasmanian waratahs – what soil was best? amount of moisture? The waratahs grew near the Big Bend on the mountain, so we went there to check out the conditions they thrived on to help with my thesis.
- Also when mum and I were leaders with Lindisfarne Girl Guides, we would have parents drop the girls off at the hut near the Organ Pipes Track. We would stay there overnight like a sleepover and watch the sunrise before walking down to the Springs area to be picked up the next day.
- I had only just got my driving licence and took my brother for a drive on the mountain after it had snowed overnight. On the way back down, the people in the car in front of us kept throwing snowballs at us so at the first moment the road widened, I overtook them in my little VW Beetle.
Reaching the top, I convinced dad to go for a short flat walk (about 50 metres) on a track with handrails. It was great to see him reading the signs at the end of the track especially as the photographs were from Peter Dombrovskis.
While I went for a short walk to take some photos, dad used his binoculars to check out the tower on the top of the mountain. He also checked out the flora on the way along the track and as we headed back down the mountain.
Readers: Have you ever been to the top of kunanyi? Or another big mountain near your home? Why do people have this fascination for mountains?
Thank you for a most enjoyable trip to Mount Wellington.
I well remember the trip with the Lindisfarne girl guides it was at night actually I was carrying a lantern and the young guides were hard on my heels thrilled to be on a new venture while the older girls at the back were asking how much further they had to walk. I think we had a possum visit us during the night.
The other trip I recalled was going by compass following the Hobart city boundary, I called the trip Boundary Riding, all the markers were destroyed in the 1967 bushfire.
I also remembered Peter Dombrovskis funeral service at the Springs site in a rain storm.
The tree that had the Lenah Valley sign is just a few metres along the Shoobridge Track from the sharp bend on the road up the mountain. The tree has ‘eaten’ the sign now.
I will have to think of somewhere else to go for a drive, thank you for a perfect day.