WHEN I was growing up in Newcastle it was common for people to say on a particularly cold day that “it must be snowing on Sugarloaf”.

Considering that it snowed there briefly in 1965 and 1975, there must have been an awful lot of disappointed weather watchers in Newcastle.

Alternatively, some were very excited to have been proved right, at least twice in their life.

Fortunately the Thursday Walkers were not disappointed with the weather on their day at Mount Sugarloaf.

The upper reaches of Great Sugar Loaf are accessed by road through the Lake Macquarie suburb of West Wallsend.

There are a number of walks leading from various car parks.

We drove to the top car park and did a loop walk around the mountain and then climbed up to the summit.

Now this may not be a great feat in the annals of “summitting”, but it was a good cardio workout nevertheless.

From the summit there is a wonderful 360 degree view of the lower Hunter, taking in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Cessnock and surrounds.

Our second walk took us around the mountain through woodland dominated by Angophora, Red Bloodwood, White Mahogany and Spotted Gum as well as a diverse mid level of native grasses such as Kangaroo Grass.

Some gravity defying rock formations also caught our eye.

It was great to welcome and meet so many new walkers and I hope everyone enjoyed the walk as much as I.

Apologies to the grammar pedants out there with my use of summit as a verb.

If it’s okay for swimmers “to medal”, then it’s OK for us “to summit”.

Besides it will probably be the one and only time I get to use the term in association with myself.

 

By Helen WATKINS