12 of 12 July 2011

Do you know now hard it is to pin down just one day in pictures when you work shift work?! I have struggled so much to capture a day that isn't boring, that isn't office bound and that isn't the same ol' same ol'. However, my day is my day and life is somewhat repetitive. So here goes a 12 of 12 as best as I could manage it today in a Tassie winter:

Before sun-up, snow had been down as low as 200m causing havoc with traffic over the weekend, today it was back to a more liveable level of around 400m. No matter, it's beautiful...

The sun lit up the top of the snow capped Mountain shortly after. Breathtaking

The view from my kitchen table from my seat, I love this view, I'd like to take out one of the large trees from the right to open up the Mountain a little.

The sibling kittens, Jaffle the calico cat and her big sister, Whisk. For some reason the cats (we have 5 currently) love to sleep on any item left on a table, notebook, jumper and particularly, bags. This location is also next to the woodfire flue and is very warm too.

As I set out to go for a walk on the Mountain, Mt Wellington that was in the first pic, this was the view of the almost level track across the face of the Mountain, Milles Track (trust me it got worse when I went vertical!) all in search of some serenity and a cache (or two as it turned out)

This was the first open view along the track, it looks to the south east across some landmarks called Opposum Bay, South Arm, Betsy Island, Sandford, and way to the back, the Arthur Penninsula

Close up of Opposum Bay at the end of the South Arm Penninsula and my home on the hill :o)

Close up of South Arm on the corner of the penninsula, Betsy Island and beyond to the Arthur Penninsula

Looking east across to Frederick Henry Bay, a beautiful bay at Lauderdale and anyone who flies into Hobart usually takes an approach over this inlet

The Ice House Track, an almost vertical track up the face of Mt Wellington (on the left side of it on the first shot). Trudging through the snow up this track which had only been walked by a couple of others since the snow fell over the last few days was fantastic! Finding two caches along the route was fascinating as I envisaged men in the 1800's and early 1900's filling the ice houses with snow which was then going to solidify as ice for use throughout the year. This ice was then hauled by men and horses down the hill - one heck of a trip with a heavy load!

My view from the carpark up to the peak of Mt Wellington. This was right on the snow line, around 450m above sea level - the snow here being sparse. The Hobart City Council close the Mountain in the snow and the road which winds to the top of the Mountain has different levels depending on the risk to drivers on a skinny roadway. So today it was closed at The Springs, about 4kms up the Mountain Pinnacle Road, leaving about 7kms to be walked if someone wanted to continue the full height of 1271m.

A panoramic stitch of the view from Milles Track. Takes in almost all of the stunning vista I got to enjoy

Thanks for sharing in my day!

Here's some links that may interest you:
This is inspired by Chad Darnell who I stumbled upon a while back: http://chaddarnell.typepad.com

Mount Wellington Park info (for those with a dream to travel) I presume the snow report link that I would have liked to have added will change as it's updated, so this will give extra info too: http://www.wellingtonpark.org.au/

One of the reasons for my vertical trek (rather than a horizontal walk across the Mountain face), a geocache: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=52567b78-fd5a-4ccf-a962-18d0dfe602a2