Mount Nelson Climb

I started back up with school this month and am now settling into my 3 classes. A first year geology class takes up some of my Monday and has one lecture Friday. My second year Marine Geoscience class is for Tuesdays with an extra lecture on Friday. And finally, my second year Oceanography class is all on Wednesday, meaning I have Thursdays off.

The day before classes, I flew back from Queensland and then went out to meet the new International students that evening for dinner. It was a rainy day so not everyone attended but I did get to meet quite a few people, putting faces to names.

Since the classes haven't quite started putting out intense assignments, Emily (Swede studying full time), Jason (American studying 2 semesters exchange also) and I decided we'd climb Mount Nelson, the hill my house sits part way up. The walk was a very pleasant and easy one. There were 2 ways to climb, one needing transportation to the other side of the mountain and then climbing up, or the other way was to climb part-way through the park near my home and then take some other paths up to the Mountain top (which is what we did).

Mount Nelson is worth climbing, or visiting, as not only is the view awesome (especially on a clear day like the one we went on) but it also has a signal station and restaurant up top.

A snow capped Mount Wellington from Mount Nelson

View of Hobart from Mount Nelson

Another view of the city

These signal stations were used in the pre-telephone era as a means of communicating with the shipping traffic as they went in and out of Port Hobart. On top of mountains these stations would flash flags which could be then translated to different sayings. Later the station was used to communicate with those working at the penal colony in Port Arthur as well. Thus there were actually 6 arms used, 3 for sending messages to the marines and 3 for Port Arthur! Anyway the station still stands and now there is a nice little restaurant up top as well. We tried their muffins (which put me on a muffin baking craze) before coming back home. I invited my friends in for tea on their way back since I happen to be perfectly situated on the way down!

A beautiful view from the station, 340 m above sea level

A map of what we were seeing. Established 1811!

Flag signals. The last signal to be sent was one that said "Forgotten".

The never to really be forgotten signal station

Anyway I'm glad I was able to climb the mountain since it's so close. Perhaps a trip up Mount Wellington is now in order!