Ben Lomond and Legges Tor

Our plan to head up on to the Ben Lomond plateau were delayed when we came across an Asian tourist who had managed to run her car off the gravel road. Fortunately she wasn’t hurt, but the car was neither retrievable nor driveable and so we had to go in search of mobile phone reception in order to organise a tow-truck (which, to add to her bad day, was going to cost her more than tuppence-ha’penny). It was also just as well she hadn’t ventured up onto the higher slopes of the mountain; the view below is of the final steep section known as “Jacob’s Ladder”.

Ben Lomond is better known as a ski resort — not that we have a particularly long nor reliable ski season — rather than a bushwalking destination, and the slopes of the local peak, Legges Tor, are dotted with ski lodges.

Dad and I decided to climb Legges Tor, a task made slightly more difficult by the fact that there’s not actually a proper track (as best we could find), but the views across the plateau were impressive. It’s a huge dolerite range (about 10km long) with a series of peaks and outcrops, and scattered distant tarns.

Having reached the summit cairn at Legges Tor we decided to take what we hoped would be an easier route down, but it turned out to be longer, steeper and even more improvised than our route up. We were, therefore, rather later getting back to Mum and the car park than we had intended, although the views, the alpine vegetation and little pools on the way down still made the detour beautiful.

As we drove down the mountain we were treated to the sight of a couple of eagles catching thermals above the cliffs.

A bit further down we took a little detour to the Carr Villa hut, where there were more dramatic views of the dolerite cliffs. I love dolerite crags; they can be a pain to walk across, but they have a spectacular sky-seeking drama. To me the mountains of Victoria had never seemed like mountains at all, even though they are taller than Tasmania’s, because they had a rounded softness and, frequently, a higher treeline.

By early evening we were back in Hobart, having had a very relaxing week away. The only down side is the fact that semester starts on Monday.