A walk beneath the Organ Pipes

One of the friends in the “Ann-the-awesome-hike-organiser-and-hub-of-the-friends” collection, who came on last year’s trip to the south-west of Tasmania, happened to be in Tasmania this week, and contacted me about catching up. I made a counter-offer, suggesting that we go for a walk on the mountain, and Roz jumped at the suggestion.  We drove to the Springs, about half-way up the mountain, and then headed up and along the Pinnacle track. This involved rather more “up” than I recalled, and so our conversation (well, my half, at least) about the wildflowers and the views was punctuated by rather louder intakes of breath than usual. The flowers, however, were gorgeous, with the hakea and the Richea dracophylla particularly spectacular. Unfortunately it was a bit too early for the waratah; fortunately I was earlier than I usually am for the Richea, which meant I got to see it at its best (second photo below).

As we made our way beneath the Organ Pipes the track levelled out, although it was still a little rough underfoot. The views of the dolerite buttresses were impressive when we remembered to look upwards instead of at our feet, and we could see some rockclimbers taking a more vertical approach to the ascent.

We continued up to the Chalet, mainly because I wanted to show the Anaspides (mountain shrimp) in the little pool nearby. The pool is only about 1.5 square metres in area,  but there have been Anaspides in there ever since I was a child (last week, or maybe the week before!), but for a brief moment when we arrived there were none to be seen. Fortunately the disappointment had barely registered before we found quite a few of the 5cm/2″ critters, flitting about in the shadowed shallows (as a result of which I threw out a large collection of very blurred photographs).

We then headed back down the Pinnacle Road, admiring more of the Richea dracophylla in flower amongst the snowgums, before heading down the Sawmill Track to Rock Cabin and Sphinx Rock, with its great views over the city and Derwent estuary.

We collected the car, and just had time to pop into Silver Falls (Roz is from Western Australia, where damp greenery and the sounds of running water in the wild are rarities). I tested out my new neutral density filter and tripod, to take the six second time exposure shown below.

All in all it was a very enjoyable four hours (I do love my mountain!).