I’ve been in a heap of fun runs (walks) with catchy names like Point to Pinnacle, City to Casino, City to Surf (okay, I have never participated in that event but I needed three names to emphasise my point).
I always wondered why they didn’t include Taroona to Moonah as such an event. It’s a catchy name AND it rhymes. Win-win!
Unfortunately, the road race organisers have never cottoned on to this one so if I ever wanted to do it, it was going to have to be on my own.
I do like walking and, while the 15 km or so that this walk would be is longer than most of my “long” walks, it’s not a difficult distance for me and I wanted to do it just for the satisfaction of saying I’d walked from ‘Roona to Moonah. So I added it to my list of 19 things I intended to do in 2019 (aka 19 for 2019—I’ve been blogging about it on my personal blog) and there it’s sat since the start of the year.
I was thinking last Saturday night that I really needed to get out and go for a long walk again, take some photos and wander for the sake of wandering. Last time I did that was back in January. After I hurt my back three weeks ago in an unfortunate incident involving wet stairs and slippy shoes, I’d not been walking a lot and I was starting to feel a bit cabin feverish.
That walk was beckoning. My back was feeling okay and it wasn’t going to be stupid-hot so I decided to do it.
I had no idea how long it would take or even how far it was but I had no expectations. I was just going to walk, take in whatever I wanted on the way and the goal would be simply to get there. Whatever happened after that would be fine.
And that’s exactly how it turned out.
I wandered my usual route along Sandy Bay Road, stopping to photograph some of my favourite places.
Long Beach Bathing Pavilion | Sunday 17 March 2019 | 7.26 am
Wrest Point Casino | Sunday 17 March 2019 | 7.48 am
I took a turn along Marieville Esplanade so I could go through Battery Point and pass by other friends I hadn’t seen for a while.
1 Cromwell Street, Battery Point | Sunday 17 March 2019 | 8.22 am
Empress Towers | Sunday 17 March 2019 | 8.36 am
The Silos | Sunday 17 March 2019 | 8.48 am
I stopped briefly at the Supreme Court before heading down to the bottom of Collins Street to take photos for my Hobart Street Corners project.
Collins & Campbell Street | Sunday 17 March 2019 | 9.24 am
Finally, I turned towards my destination and made my way up Argyle Street.
282 Argyle Street | Sunday 17 March 2019 | 9.53 am
My journey took me to New Town Road, through New Town and, finally, to Creek Road, the boundary between Hobart and Glenorchy, commonly referred to as the Flannelette Curtain.
I was in Moonah. I’d done it! If I’d wanted to I could have turned back and gone home again having checked off this mission.
Main Road & Creek Road | Sunday 17 March 2019 | 10.35 am
I made it!
I didn’t want to though. I was way past ready for breakfast and headed to a coffee shop so I could sit down for a break and think about what I wanted to do now I’d reached my destination. It was starting to get warmer than I was feeling comfortable with and I hadn’t dressed for burny sun so I didn’t feel like being out much longer.
I decided I’d at least walk to the end of Moonah, which ended up being a trek through Derwent Park and into Glenorchy itself.
The Carlyle Hotel, Corner of Main Road & Tregear St | Sunday 17 March 2019 | 11.56 am
I hadn’t planned on that, but I reached a bus stop with 10 minutes to wait before the next bus back to town so I figured I might as well walk to the next one, forgetting that on this route the bus stops are a lot further apart than they are on my bus route.
Howard Road & Main Road Glenorchy from the bus stop | Sunday 17 March 2019 |12.07 pm
Not to worry, I made it in time and after over 16.5 km (I turned the tracker off when I got to the coffee shop but I reckon I would have walked about another 2 km after that) and five and a half hours, I was heading back home with a thing crossed off my 19 for 2019 list, tired but satisfied.
There are some things in the Moonah area that I wanted to check out but they weren’t the purpose of the walk and I can go back and do them another time. By bus, I think.
straightlinesgirl images 