Day 25 – Wellington range    

 Today we woke early to a noisy caravan park.  There was lots of noise around us at 0530 which was a little annoying.  I really don’t like caravan parks, it’s just not a nice way to start the day, lacking in sleep and frustrated by the people around you.  When we drove out at 0750 most people were just getting up and heading for showers but they still had to make noise at 0530! Now what’s with that?  The other problem with this caravan park is the stink.  For some reason the foreshore smells like farts all night and all day.

 We made or way back to the parks office which we went past yesterday, it was 0800 when we arrived, we rang the bell and knocked on the window and finally the parks guy came to the door.  He was a strange looking fellow kinda bikie looking with long hair and a long fluffy beard which he had parted in the middle. 

We started to organise the key and permit but didn’t get very far because the Ranger just couldn’t stop talking about things.  He was actually very interesting but was always getting side tracked started to chat about all kinds of things like photography, weed management, maps, GPS, vandals, and the different departments of parks and forestry Tasmania.  He seemed to know a lot about everything, he was a very interesting bloke who seems to love his job; well at least most of the time. 

 I was interested to learn that he grew up in Melbourne and after a motorbike accident in his late 20’s or 30’s he had to go back to year 11 and start his education all over again.  He got through and went on to uni doing botany I think.  He ended up coming over to Tassie and got into parks.  He also had other interests along the way such as graphic arts design and photography and heaps of other stuff.  Anyway he showed us how he was able to use the GPS to input locations and tracks into ozi explorer and google earth.  He showed us how all the boundaries were divided up in the region, which new reserves he was working on, where all the weeds were, and how they were controlling them.  He even was teaching us how the forests develop over hundreds of years from mixed eucalypt and rainforest forests, into just rainforest or even button grass depending on fires and things. 

 After 2 hours the never ending conversation finally did end, and we got our permit and key.  But we were not complaining, we had time to listen and it was nice to learn first hand about how parks operates and how they do some of their day to day tasks.  He really was enthusiastic about his work.  His name was John M something.

 We drove up Montrose street to the start of the East West Track and the Mount Wellington range.  The rocky road climbed up a hill and after about 2  hours we reached a high peak near Collins Bonnet.  Unfortunately by this stage we were up in the clouds and couldn’t really see the view from the top, so we continued on a few minutes to a refuge hut and started munching on some tuna sandwiches for lunch (we ran out of ham).

 As we ate, a group of three hikers came up to join us.  They had walked up a different way and were heading for the peak we just passed.  They were from Hobart, we ate lunch with them and chatted about different things which was nice, one of them had carried up his baby in one of those back pack things.

 We carried on again and came to another slightly lower peak.  Since the cloud had lifted a bit, we climbed up and had a look out at the little towns and bushland below.  It was a nice view, but the cloud soon came in again and blocked it off.  Again we moved on until we found a nice open area that looked like the one the Ranger had shown photo’s of earlier.  We explored around there for a bit, wishing that we were able to camp there on the nice soft ground below the mountain peaks.

By about 1400 we finished the East west trail and headed for the White Timber trail which was kind of a continuation that went into Judbry.  This track was rated as hard in our book.  The White timber trail was a bit harder but not really much of a challenge, it was just slow going.  There were some water holes and rocks to negotiate, but the water was shallow and always had a solid bottom.  It would be a different story in the winter.  The scenery changed from the more natural landscape to tall white plantation eucalypts.  Further down the road near Judbury it became more ferny as well.

 A couple of hours later we had finished, and we came across another couple who were driving around in their 4WD.  They asked what the track ahead was like, so I gave my advice and we continued on.  I’m not sure if they went that way or not.  We decided to stop at Huonville on the way back to reinflate the tyres, since my stupid compressor does not work.  Being close to dinner time we decided to eat out again, this time at Franklin just down the road, where we could get the wood fired pizza I had wanted on Christmas day. 

On the way back to the pizza shop a blue healer ran across the road and came to greet us.  I couldn’t help but to try and help out so grabbed some rope from the car to use as a lead.  I was hoping that the guy would come back while we sat in the park and ate pizza or that someone local would know the dog or owner.  I picked up the pizza while Jo went back to the park with the dog.  Asking around, no one seemed to be able to help, so back at the park we ate, and wondered what to do with the poor dog.  He was a very friendly and intelligent dog who even sat when I asked him to.  After a while, Jo was getting unhappy because there was not much we could do, and we ended up having to let the poor fellow go again, hopefully to be found by someone who can do more for him.  I hope the poor follow is OK by now.   By the way, the Pizza was really good.