Thark Ridge

Sunday 6 May

Peter had been preoccupied trying to work out some of Barad Bunch’s puzzle geocache, with plenty of help from the owner being sought. However they were put aside for the moment to locate Wellington Peaks E - Beware of the Tharks

It seemed like a fairly reasonable day weather wise, even if a bit misty on top of the mountain, but during recent times there had been a decent few periods of rain and it was quite wet underfoot with widespread areas of water lying about.

The new start to Thark Ridge was standing up well, but soon after reaching the old track the poor siting of that section became very obvious, with boggy bits and considerable pools of muddy water. To avoid this people had spread out to the sides and much braiding was evident. We have been along here many times before, but today it was a worse than we could recall. Some of this could be hardened with nearby rock and some could well be rerouted.Boulders at Cache site in the mist Thark Ridge

As we were familiar with Thark Ridge, we walked through the saddle below the GZ and ascended a gentle slope to round on the site from the west. The Cache was soon located and a bird card left in exchange for a rubber. The site hint mentioned a Hakea bush beside a roThe Hakea mentioned at the cache site is in fact Yellow Bush Orites acicularis (Proteaceae) Thark Ridgeck, but in fact it is Orites acicularis known as Yellow Bush.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to return by traversing along the top of the ridge in the misty conditions anLichen on boulder Thark Ridged met up with track close to the junction of the new and old tracks and thus avoided the bogs.

 

 

 

 

 

Woodland with pineapple grass and snowgums Thark Ridge

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