7 May 2011
We didn’t kick off the day particularly early, as it is rather cold in Tassie at this time of the year and we had already experienced a heavy frost when we bound out of bed super early Friday morning to go for a walk along Muirs beach and had thoroughly learned our lesson. When we finally dragged ourselves out of bed and resurrected the fire that was still smoldering from the night before, we headed over to the Iluka bakery to grab a loaf of bread, then sat and had some coffees before attempting the massive 100 meter walk back to Gran and Grandad’s place.
Coles Bay there behind us
After a leisurely breakfast of toast and cereal and once everyone was sufficiently awake, hardly our style at all, we made our way to the foot of the mighty Mt Amos. We had a fair size crew including Mum, Dad, Josie, Darryl, Tiff and Myself. We took it easy going up the mountain and stopped to take in the view, some water, ginger nut biscuits and apples at various points. That is one of the best things about Mt Amos, you don’t need to be very far up the mountain to take in some spectacular views of Coles Bay and the surrounding country side. The view gets that much sweeter as you progress up the mountain however, you will have to go all the way to the top if you want to look down into Wineglass Bay, oh yea, there is no chair lift or cable car, we checked.
Dad was on a mission from the beginning, Grandad climbed the mountain when he was sixty five and appears to have started a Ridler tradition where once we reach that age we need to follow in his footsteps by climbing the mighty Mt Amos. As Dad is nearing the appropriate age he decided he had better get up there. So he set a cracking pace for most of the hour and ¾ trek to the top. Although there was a Japanese lass who while we were doing the whole swing by one arm from the sheer rock wall scene in the mission impossible movie, she was doing the human fly and walked or more danced straight past, only briefly stopping to ask if she could help.
When we finally reached the top Dad was already there chatting to the young Japanese lass which caused me to have a flash back to a few years ago when we were last climbing the mountain, Michael and I had reached the bottom and were waiting for Dad and uncle David to catch up, only to find they had accosted a couple of young British ladies to help them down the hill.
However that aside, the view was spectacular we could see from Wine Glass Bay right across to Hazards Beach and from the other side we could see from Coles Bay right across to Friendly Beaches. We took some photos while we were up there but as amazing as the pictures are they just can’t capture the feeling you get from climbing to the top and taking in the view yourself.
What goes up must come down, the trip down wasn’t too bad and once again we took it easy with some more Ginger nut cookies and plenty of water. We did meet a bloke who cropped up out of the scrub just as we were about to take a wrong turn, who pointed us in the right direction. He had also been out on the only boat we had seen in the bay caught himself 40 flat head with a couple of his mates from Melbourne and thought he would take a quick jog up the mountain to make sure the view was still there. His mates who I take it were not quite as surefooted as this bloke had decided to turn back shortly before we met him. He got to the top had a look and then passed us again shortly afterwards.
It was afternoon when we finally reached the car, the whole trip had taken around four hours. We stopped at Cape Tourville lookout on the way back to Gran and Grandad’s place. While we were up there Darryl and I had to climb the rock structure that was beside the lighthouse, just to prove we still had it in us, I mean why would they build a rock structure like that unless they wanted people to climb it.
One thing I should mention is that Tassie in the winter is really cold and there are a lot less tourists down there than in the summer, the other thing to note is that most cafes, restaurants and accommodation places have large open fires. There is also a large resort at the base of Mt Amos called Freycinet Lodge, which has a spectacularly massive open fire and some incredible views. If you are into relaxing beside a large open fire with a glass of red, some delicious food and would like the place pretty much to yourself, then perhaps this would be a great place for you to check out, only if you are into that sort of thing that is.
Till next time
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