Alex Knob in the Clouds

The forecast was for a reasonable start to the day before the clouds thickened and rain followed in the evening. An early breakfast was called for, 6.30am. We had a short drive to the start of the walk near the Franz Josef Glacier car park. We were walking by 7.45am and it was uphill all the way starting from just above sea level. That gave us a climb of 1300m.

Mostly we were in lush forest, lots of trees and ferns. The track was challenging too, lots of tree roots, rocks, big steps, big drops, etc. The uneven ground didn’t help my bad back!

Made it to the top by 11.15am, the last 400m being in the clouds and cold and damp. No views. Very few views on way up because of high, dense foliage. Looked like I had no saleable images. Took a short detour to Wombat Lake on way down. This was particularly uninspiring so started looking for other subjects and homed in on ferns and brackens. I ended up with 3 rolls from the day, 1 of views from the hill, 2 of ferns.

Now we are in the Landing Bar in Franz Josef and it’s happy hour!