Sunday, 6 April 2008
Mt Wellington - 6 April 2008
Having acquired a replacement vehicle while the 'Cruiser awaits its colonoscopy and possibly a diagnosis of "rebuild or die", I was able to sneak off for a walk this afternoon. The tiny blue car has a 3-cylinder motor, and cheese-cutter tyres, so I didn't think taking it up the Hartz Road would be a comfortable experience. Settled for a trip to Mt Wellington on nice bitumen roads.
Quite cool today, although the sun did actually struggle out of the cloud cover for a few moments at one point. Had a nice walk, first on the Pipeline Track and then up to the Chalet and return. A little way below Ferntree on the Pipeline Track are the aqueducts. These were built in 1880-81, to replace a previous wooden bridge which was in serious disrepair.
Found the Mountain Currant (Coprosma nitida) displaying its bright red fruits, making quite a contrast with the Pink Mountain Berry. In checking my identification, I note that the Pink Mountain Berry may have changed classification from Cyathodes parvifolia to Leptecophylla juniperina subsp. parvifolia. I will have to follow it up. So far, my internet investigation reveals it is complex.
The track near the chalet was also enlivened by the Banksia (Banksia marginata) which is flowering quite profusely. I note this plant is variously called Banksia, Silver Banksia and Honeysuckle. Only one other species of banksia, B. serrata is found on mainland Tasmania. Anyway, just before you reach the Chalet, the track passes through a 'tunnel' where the banksias meet overhead.
Encountered some mountain bikers on the Pinnacle Track, where they are not supposed to be. I'm all for drivers looking out for riders on the roads, but I do think their continual bleating about driver attitude would be appropriately accompanied by some self-moderation of their colleagues who have no regard for the law. In addition, it would be sensible if these clowns worked out how to travel at a safe speed even on tracks where they're allowed. I am awaiting advice from the Wellington Park Management Trust about how they actually manage inappropriate use of tracks by mountain bikers. If it's anything like their efforts on managing trail bikes on the back of the range, then I don't expect a very encouraging answer. I have to admit a certain feeling of schadenfreude when one of them fell off after he had passed me. How terrible of me. His crash was, fortunately, seemingly trivial.
Thursday, 27 March 2008
Fungi from the southern forests - Aurantiporus pulcherrimus
Aurantiporus pulcherrimus, the Strawberry Bracket Fungus. Found this one on a Myrtle (Nothofagus cunninghamii) just beside the track to Nevada Peak. I think I will track this one over the years. It must actually live inside this Myrtle, which is also carrying a few other parasitic plants, including some Native Laurel and Climbing Heath.
Monday, 24 March 2008
Nevada Peak - 24th March 2008
Great birthday walk to Nevada Peak today. Sunny with a cool breeze for most of the way. Nevada Peak is probably the best walk in the Huon, yet it is undertaken by very few people. Partly this is because the Snowy Range is not promoted much any more. In addition, the start of the track is hidden up obscure logging roads and is unmarked. If anyone would like to walk this track, I can provide instructions via email, on the understanding that these will not be promulgated.
The alpine plateau at Nevada Peak is very fragile. In fact, it's hard to get there without damaging the vegetation. This walk is not promoted at all by the NPWS. I've let people know about it, but I don't explain to people how to get there unless they contact me. There are actually quite a lot of people who know where the walk is, but the details don't seem to be clearly publicly available. If the area received a lot of visitors it would either become badly degraded or would need some extensive duckboarding and other track works.
The views of Snowy South from here are most spectacular, with the huge cliffs on its northwest side visible. The views across the upper of the Snowdrift Tarns is particularly good. In late autumn, the views north can be particularly attractive, with a lower sun lighting the hills and mountains very attractively. A walk further north to Wetpants Peak can be very rewarding at this time, but sufficient time must be left to complete the walk in daylight as winter approaches. The range is often covered in snow in winter.
Many of Southwest Tasmania's peaks are visible from here, with Mt Anne and Mt Weld being very prominent across the valley.
Sunday, 23 March 2008
More rocks at South Cape Bay
The rocks at South Cape Bay are really quite interesting. This is a small selection of photos of different aspects. More can be seen by looking at all the South Cape Bay posts.
This interesting dolerite boulder, which sits close to Lion Rock, exhibits quite regular jointing.
The Triassic sedimentary rocks weather in quite interesting ways. I assume this is caused by the action of salt and seawater over time. Some of these boulders end up looking like enormous sponges.
The cliffs at the eastern end of the bay carry a warning sign at the top suggesting that people stay away from the edges. When you get a good look at them from beneath, you can see why; they are very badly eroded, and obviously large pieces of cliff have fallen in the past, some look quite recent. I expect to arrive at the bay one day and find these cliffs remodelled significantly.
South Cape Bay - 22nd March 2008
Very nice walk on Saturday to South Cape Bay. (Map here.) There didn't seem to be very many people doing the walk, but by the time I'd sat on the beach for a long while, and pottered about taking photographs, there had been a quite a number of groups of 5 or more people wander up the beach and back.
The tide was a fair way out, and in addition, the sand has continued to collect at the eastern end of the beach. This made it easy to walk some distance back along the beach eastwards of the point where the steps come down, beneath the tumbledown black cliffs. Normally this is both very rocky and covered in water. I will try to put together a sequence of photos that show the changes.
At the western end of the beach, the rocky shelves were uncovered and made an attractive foreground for photos of Lion Rock. A 28mm lens would have been useful for these shots, but my digital camera's minimum focal length on the zoom is 35mm (35mm equivalent) and is not quite enough. I've seen these reefs even further out of the water, so the tide wasn't at its lowest point.
I must plan a trip to South East Cape sometime. The cape is made of dolerite, as is Lion Rock, however most of the rocks exposed at South Cape Bay are Triassic sedimentary rocks. This makes for an interesting variety of boulders and pebbles on the beach. This boulder echoes the shape of the cape quite effectively.
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