A drive

We went for a drive the other day and I took these photos with my phone as we travelled along. The first photo is someone's lane, a farmer's one.  The remainder of the shots are as we drove along.

The mountain in the distance is called Ben Lomond which sometimes has snow on it and can be seen from our house through the family room windows.

The little town of Ballroom.  It has one house which on the opposite side of the road.  Have no idea why there is only one house there.

Ben Lomond Part 2

Continuation of the day trip to Ben Lomond on the hot day.

The view from the top.

The hairpin bends.

One of the views from the lookout.

On the side of the path to the lookout, flowers.

The very small village which consists of accommodation, Cafe, Ski hire.

A closer look at accommodation.

The Cafe on the left and in the middle the Ski hire place.

You can just see the pole where the ski lift goes.

Warm Day! Part 1

Headed for a mountain not that far from home (south east) on a rather warm day at the weekend.  The temperature was 39.0 degC at home, nearly 104F,  and 30 degC on the mountain, 86F.
The mountain is called Ben Lomond at 1,570m high or 5,157ft, it's where people ski in the winter time, if there is snow of course.  I have known no snow, or very little to fall there some years.

A Pass is needed, a National Parks Pass which can be bought at various places in Tasmania.  A pass can be bought for all Parks expect Cradle Mountain on the North West Coast, that being a separate one.
I bought a Pass for 2 years just before Christmas, the reason for buying one is that we both were tired of paying more at the gate, so to speak.  So now we are set and don't risk a heavy fine.

*The first European to ascend the mountain was likely to have been John Batman (who was the founder of Melbourne, in the State of Victoria after Launceston and Ben Lomond),  who is recorded to have crossed the plateau in his forays against the Ben Lomond Nation.
The artist John Glover ascended the mountain with John Batman in the 1830s and is recorded to have made sketches of the plateau and of Lake Youl although none of these sketches have survived.
The first scientific visit to the Ben Lomind plateau was made by the Polish explorer Paul Edmond de Strzelecki on 28 November 1841 and he measured the height of the mountain (incorrectly) by barometry as 5002 feet.  In 1852; after the site was surveyed by James Sprent (Government Surveyor), a Trigonometric Point was constructed on Stacks Bluff (the southermost extremity of Ben Lomond) using convict labour.* via Wikipedia.

This is Mt. Barrow, the view on the way to Ben Lomond.  We can see both mountains from home.

Bush at the beginning of the climb/drive up the mountain.

This area is called Car Villa and it's well down the mountain.

The rocks on the way up.

Here we have arrived at Jacobs Ladder, which is what the climb is called.  It has hairpin bends and is very narrow and a long way down on one side of the Ladder.

In the middle at the top is the look out, also the road on the way up.