Leader: Andrea Cockerton
Anzac Day dawned clear and calm and a gorgeous day to be in the Hills. What usually would take five minutes to cross the middle of town to pick up a fellow tramper, took more like 20 minutes with roads closed, policemen and soldiers marching, and cars parked all over, and Joe Public out in force everywhere for the “Lest We Forget” gathering – (I forgot.)
I was impressed to see such a turnout to respect our fallen soldiers, but of course I was then running late for the 7.30am rendezvous at Richmond.
The fine weather also brought the trampers out, and there were 16 to make up our happy band. A lovely drive out through Neudorf and we were at the Flora car park in no time. Amazingly, so was half of Nelson – with every available inch of parking and a few hundred metres of the road full of cars.
We booted, banded up and joined the queue of eager walkers making the pilgrimage to the summit.
And very pleasant it was. The still and sunny conditions made for nice rests along the way for snacks with much wagging of chins. We had a good lunch spot, just off the crest of the summit where a chill wind had picked up.
We had intended wandering down the northern ridge route to gain Horseshoe Basin. Barry James was keen to lead the merry crew off the side of the ridge to find a ‘hole’ that pierced though said ridge from one side to t’other. I foolishly took a wander to the opposite side of the ridge from the main party to scout for the same opening and found myself at the saddle to Horseshoe Basin without finding it.
Much to-ing and fro-ing followed as I regained the ridge and found the party waiting for me. “The hole’s by a domed rock” called Debbie, so I dropped off the opposite side of the ridge and wandered down a couple of hundred metres without finding anything. Back up I went again. I could hear a voice calling from above. “Aha.. there’s the hole!” and through I popped to find the party. Then I heard Tim had gone through the hole to look for me. Richard went back to look for Tim, and so on and so on...
Eventually, after a pleasant game of hide and seek, we all gathered at the saddle, descended to Horseshoe Basin then regained the route down to the hut, spread out like Brown’s cows.
A late return with tired but smiling faces all round. A great day out thanks to our amazing trip leader Andrea who was nursing cracked ribs from a mountain biking mishap a couple of days before.
Trip leader Andrea Cockerton was joined by her merry band of walkers: Kazuhiro Abe, Barry James, Chris Louth, Debbie Hogan, Kate Krawczyk, Kathy Smith, Leah Parker, Michele Cunningham, her friend Anne, Peter Phipps, Nina Solter, Tim Tyler, and scribe Steve McGlone.