Hiking Mount Herbert
10 Feb 2020
The venture group – seven Year 11 and 12 boys, accompanied by Dr Tom Hawkins – had their first outing for the year on Saturday 8 February. Despite changeable conditions, it was a thoroughly enjoyable trip, as Year 12 student Gray Heath reports.
The group gathered outside College for an 8.30am start to the day's adventure. The weather started off overcast, and wasn’t looking too clear for a pleasant tramp, but after the drive to Diamond Harbour, we arrived at the start of the track with the sun shining. Early on in the hike we took off a few layers and got sunscreen on, however, the layers were soon piled back on as a southerly front bringing rain cascaded down the mountain. We tramped along at a decent pace with alternating leaders and plenty of good chat to provide entertainment along the way. We made it to the 920m summit at around noon, about an hour faster than the DoC sign at the start of the track had suggested. Unfortunately, the summit was completely blanketed in cloud. It was wet, windy, and freezing cold – so, after taking a few photographs (with not much of a view to speak of), we retreated to the Mount Herbert shelter, about 100m below the summit, for lunch. Feeling replenished after our sandwiches, scroggin and chocolate, we added some more layers, as the rain was heavier, and made our way down the mountain. On the way we encountered more high wind, but it was accompanied by a bit of sun, which was refreshing considering what we’d experienced during the day. By 2.30pm we were down at the bottom, the weather had cleared, and we were tired but happy. We made it back to school for 3.30pm.
Cheers to Dr Hawkins for taking time out of his weekend to accompany us boys. It wouldn’t be possible without him. Onward to new adventures ...
