Mount Wellington

Standing 1271 meters above sea level, Mount Wellington dominates the skyline near Hobart. In the image above, you can see a bit of the Derwent River after it passes Hobart on its way to the sea.

Higher up the mountain, fog becomes an issue for seeing the city below. It feels here that we travel place to place to photograph the clouds, not the places we visit. Just as the open sky in New Mexico or western New South Wales is part of the place, the fog is a character here.

We were teased for over an hour with the risings and fallings of the clouds surrounding the top of the mountain. As far as I could tell, they persisted long after we left.

As you see, nearer the top, there is a dusting of snow. It actually did snow on us a bit while we were there. A fine mist of snow, just enough to remind you have the white stuff on the ground got there.

The children here had most likely never seen snow before. I Hear one young boy tell his father that this was the coldest he'd ever been. It was indeed cold, but not frigid. Probably just near freezing.

The clouds, the snow, the still green plants, and the city in the distance made for some interesting photos.

Given the small samples of the distant view you get in the images, it is hard for me to tell you anything meaningful about what you are looking at.

Sometime, the clouds took over and there was nearly nothing else to see above the boulders strewn about.

But away from the summit where the clouds were the densest, you could see a fair amount of Hobart and the river. It is a magical place.

While on the top, we learned from a sign that Charles Darwin visited Hobart on his voyages and climbed Mount Wellington in a day. The drive up a very narrow winding road was scary enough, I cannot imagine trying to climb upward through the trees so thickly spaced you can't see any daylight between them at all. Like Gunga Din, he was a better man that I .