Pig Hill

Tuesday 11th October 2016

Pig Hill Summit

Why walk to Pig Hill you might ask...because it is there of course. I had seen it when checking out the maps, so decided it might be worth a visit. It turned out to be a decent walk in the end.
I parked at a small parking/turnaround area on Back River Road in the Magra area near New Norfolk. It is the same starting point as the Handsome Caves walk.
I trudge up the road and then up Handsome Caves Road to a point where the Mount Dromedary Conservation Area intersects the road. I wanted to keep within the public land to avoid any hassles and I pretty much managed to do that. The scrub was reasonably open and the walk went uphill where there were basically three escarpments that had to be scaled. It was not too bad as I managed to find a few gaps in the cliffs to scramble up.

Sandstone Cliffs

Neat Sandstone Cave with dripping water

Sandstone Cliffs

Looking across towards Handsome Caves area

Sandstone Cliffs

Sandstone Cliffs

 Once I had climbed over the cliffs the country leveled out somewhat and I found an old track on the top which I followed for sometime before branching off and heading for the summit. I did encounter one small patch of thicker scrub, but really it was not too bad. I soon started to see small areas of snow from the previous night, but it was melting quickly and mostly dripping from the trees onto my head.

Looking towards New Norfolk

Looking west from near the summit

Platform Peak through the trees

I scouted around on the summit for the highest point and when satisfied I had found it, I made a small cairn. I could see Mount Dromedary in the distance but could not get a decent shot of it. It would be quite easy to walk to the summit of Mount Dromedary from here as it would only entail a short descent to a road and then it would be all on track from there...another day perhaps.
I left the summit and headed back the way I had come, stopping to check out more of the cliffs.

As I was making my way back down the road I came across an echidna trying to make itself inconspicuous by burrowing into the dirt. It was making so much noise that I could not miss it.
It was just a jaunt back to the car and as I reached the car it started raining lightly...very good timing I would say.

This was an interesting walk and I would like to explore more of the cliffs in the area sometime.
Distance: 8.8 kms.
Time: 5'07"
Ascent: 650 metres
Click here to download GPX file.