Lightly Toasted

We caught a fleeting glance of Hobart on a Friday afternoon as we drove up past the mall through Davie St. Not knowing the right place to veer off for Fern Tree — a small hill-top suburb on the way to Mt Wellington we landed up on the Highway to Huon Valley…. oh no!!! There was no turning bay in sight ever since we missed the first one which came up all too quick… there wasn’t a choice… meandering through Mt Nelson and the valleys we came up to Kingston briefly and then did a round about to come back to the turn off to Fern Tree. Ahhhhhh, Finally! Mt Wellington here we come.

Take 2!

We were on the right road this time and finally heading up to Mt Wellington through Fern Tree. There were nice houses on both sides of the road. Old sandstone houses made in Federation style like those beautiful ones around Fremantle, WA. Cherry blossoms were out everywhere. Lovely landscaped gardens, chimney chugging up a faint blue smoke from most houses. People living in these lovely homes would be snug as a bug in a rug living in the almost pollution free state island where the air is crisp and fresh produce and fresh food is the constantly recurring way of life. I could so get used to this. We meandered through many turns along the way till we crossed a small hill and came up to the Mt Wellington turn off. There probably are less than twenty houses in the whole of Fern Tree and its beautiful. Its a small place where residents have built houses on the leeward slopes of Mt Wellington and the views they have are of an ever blue horizon dotted with little lush green islands and the sun plays magic when its right on top lighting up the Tasmanian sea to an amazing deep aqua Prussian blue where these little green emerald islands look like bits and bobs hanging of the mainland like a neckless making the already stunningly beautiful island far more mesmerising that one can think of.

Onward and upward to to the Summit

Did I say it felt foggy? It actually was a thick shroud of ice cloud and made driving a bit of a challenge. D was doing a great job of driving very carefully as we went up and up in the clouds until visibility started dropping almost exponentially. We could barely see beyond four to five meters, we were starting to get engulfed in an even thicker fog, so we drove up slowly till we came to a little shoulder on the road and pulled over. The Road up the summit is really narrow. We got out the car to realise the temerature dropped straighaway to about 0 degrees if not lesser. Freezing digits, nose and ears you know that feeling. I pulled my camera out and took a few shots none of which look glamorous but you get my point. We decided it would be dangerous to go up in this weather. The car didn’t have fog lights and the road wasn’t the best in the given condition. There was ice on road and snow almost everwhere we could see. We decided to come back down hill to the nearest parking spot and see if the ice cloud would pass us by.

It seemed like forever. Clouds do move slow and slower when they are laden with icy cold droplets… we finally decided that it might be worth trying to drive up even if it was going to be difficult. Soon we saw a tiny combivan go up and we decided to follow but sooner that you could think it disappeared in the thick icy white fog… the inclination steepened and it got colder, you could tell from the amount of snow that was all around us. The summit seemed closer as we kept chugging up slowly, with as little as a meters visibility ahead of us at times. But we carried on steadily until we reached the very top.

Getting out the car to face that weather was yet another hurdle. We did the South-West walk to the lookout but there was no view, snow, and more snow. Everything whitened out. A bit more in the chill of that air and ones is sure to get a frost bite. We hadn’t expected a view being this foggy weather but it was good to see we made it up to the top in this condition. On our way back down we passed the same combivan and slowly proceeded down through that altitude. My ears popped twice. We had finally done Mt Wellington never mind no view. Good weather willing we’d come back again. It is an experience going through this ghastly weather and guess what it does set your heart racing. It was very thrilling. I have some photos from this snow laden driven up but afraid the camera didn’t do justice, it doesn’t convey the ferocity of the vastness of the mountain, nor the cold weather, the altitude or the feeling of eeriness when you look up even a tree covered in that fog and can’t see how tall it is. Amazing experience.