No photos today, but yesterday I did a walk that I’ve done a few times before, but now it’s possible to map the full walk on Google Maps, so I thought I’d publish it here for anyone who’s interested. The full trip, door to door, is around 16.5km, with some moderate hills but nothing too strenuous.
The route starts in inner-suburban New Town and proceeds through the streets to the top end of Pottery Road, Lenah Valley. From here, continue up the reservoir access road to about the third bend. From here, the New Town track proceeds along the back of the Knocklofty reserve. After a while, turn right and continue downhill to what is known as Noah’s Saddle – there’s an old Wellington Park sign. Continue along, crossing the route of powerlines, to join the Main Fire Trail on the slopes of Mount Wellington. Here there are options to continue up the Breakneck Track to Junction Cabin, but my route turns left along the fire trail, past the access track to McRobbies Gully Tip to reach the top of Old Farm Road.
Here, rather than taking your chances with the traffic on this steep road, choose instead the relatively new Cascades Walking Track, which will lead you down across some streams and pretty stone bridges, to emerge on a road behind the Cascade Brewery. Proceed past the carpark to Strickland Avenue, turn left and go downhill past the Brewery and turn into Cascade Gardens.
The route continues along DeGraves Steet past the Cascades Female Factory Historic Site and on over a footbridge to the start of the Hobart Rivulet Park, which has a fine walking track leading all the way to Molle Street in central Hobart. From there, proceed to the CBD and, if you like, catch a bus home. On this occasion, I walked up Elizabeth Street back to New Town, taking around 4 hours to complete the circuit (including a brief stop with a cool drink in the Elizabeth Mall.
