What better way to spend a public holiday - climbing Hartz Peak. Mind you, it was fairly busy up there. The carpark was basically full (largely because of the bizarre group angle parking of some large 4WDs - thanks guys), and so I made a new car space which didn't inconvenience anyone who can drive a 1.8m-wide car through a 4m-wide space....OK, so I've got over the fact that so many people were cluttering up MY mountain. ;-) The top of the mountain was crowded too (you know, like Mt Everest has become - they even do ER doccos there now...), but in fact, the noise has been worse with a pack of HWC prats before now, so it was alright. Everyone was happy and suitably appreciative of the delightful views. The funniest moment was when someone told me I was "nearly there" when I was half way up the steep slope above Ladies Tarn. Cheers mate!
The view was actually quite hazy, but attractive nonetheless. Anyway, what better way to spend a day off work than wandering about a Tasmanian alpine plateau. I noted that there is this forestry coupe high up below Mt Riveaux. They really shouldn't be harvesting big trees here. The valley in between Hartz and the rest of SW Tas is largely unprotected, but quite inappropriately splits off some of the most magnificent forests in the world and makes them available for turning into toilet paper...
It was interesting to see the Waratah still out. I've been slack (oh, and busy) and haven't been up here for a few months, but there are still some Waratah plants with good displays and healthy flowers, which make a colourful splash on the alpine heath. In fact there were quite a lot of flowers out, and I'll post a separate blog with some more pictures.
Just finally, I love the view of Federation Peak past this boulder, and I think it would be best at sunrise, so I'll have to be there one day to catch it. This is high up on the western side of Hartz Peak. This same boulder makes a good foreground for shots of Hartz Lake.
2 comments:
Some nice photos on the last few days posts Mark. Also interesting comment about HWC; they can have quite large groups at times and it probably makes the social side overwhelm the peace of the natural world.
love the view! Last time I was up there it was snowy and wet so I couldn't see much. Did you know that those forests you were looking down onto are part of Forestry's long term ecological research into better managing our forests? Cool huh?! I figure if we can't make them stop we might as well help them do it better for conservation so that there is as much consideration for the ecology of the forests as we can get! I have been enjoying your blog, and you have some amazing photos :)
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