Marian Harradine
I left the car park at Risdon Brook Dam at 9.37, I crossed the dam wall to the left of the car park and followed the track around Risdon Brook Dam for 500 meters past the dam wall. I turned off to the left on the bend where a green bench seat and a gate is, and walked through the gate and joined another road which was running roughly parrallel to dam, further up. I continued up that. This is slightly quicker and certainly easier than taking the old way, deviating up through a gate just after crossing the dam and going up and down a hill on a winding road.
One of the features on this walk were the birds. A very large egret type grey bird flew away from the dam as I was passing there and sat up in a nearby gum tree, looking most out of place to me. There were also a great chorus of other birds in the first half hour of the walk.
Continuing on the road starts to climb quite steeply, and at about 10.03 halfway up a hill, I came to the turn off point, where the road up Mt Direction runs up to the left towards and under the high tension lines. From here it becomes steeper still and continues to climb for about 15 minutes.
At 10.17 I passed through a gate across the road. There were a group of kookaburras making a racket around there. Most of the up hill climb was in the sun so I got quite warm even if the temperature was not high. I continued on climbing, though not as steeply, for another 4 minutes when the track leveled out somewhat for a while and then resumed climbing at a more gentle gradient for a few more minutes before coming towards the knob which was the top of Mt Direction at 10.28.
There were quite good views of Hobart through the tall gum trees, looking south. After another seven minutes of climbing, turning off the track at a cairn to the left, the BIG CAIRN marking the top was attained and climbed up. Easier up than down because of loose stones on the top. This was at 10 35, just under an hour since leaving the car. The views to the north are very good, but the views south toward Hobart are obscured here by the tall gum trees growing below.
I returned after 15 minutes up there and got back to the car at 11.40. A pleasant winter walk.