4:30am: Wake up, check the weather (bluebird day!) and drive up the mountain to the staff room to clock on – with no room left at the Cascade Depot area, the most logical place for a staff room was up top. Unfortunately, get stuck in the sunrise traffic driving up the mountain, bloody photographers and all their equipment.
5:30am: Take the first group down the mountain, the poor cold souls who missed the last cable car yesterday. A shivery night on Mt Wellington for them!
6am: First wind hold of the day. Get out the sick bags.
6:30am – 9:30am: Enjoy the runwatching Hobart wake. Mr Smith on Old Farm Road and his regular ablution this time every morning, Ms Devine on Jubilee Road who’s dressing for work and leaves her curtains open (so thoughtful) and Junior Collins down in Marlyn Road who has left his very expensive tools on show in his own backyard (must remember that for when I need a new saw!)
10am: Wind hold!
10:30am: Because of the confused planning process (were we looking at Cascade, then Glenorchy, the route kept changing!) all routes mentioned in the planning process got through in the end (thank you Libs!) which means my day is hectic. We shoot over to the base where the Glenorchy MTB Park used to be, to pick up a load – strangely lots of them have bikes and are wearing lycra, must’ve been expecting the trails here to still be usable.
11am: Wind Hold!
12pm: A few shady looking characters hop on and start taking pics over the houses – they could just be scruffy architects looking at housing design from a different angle, or perhaps they’re casing the joints? Make a note for later.
1pm: Wind Hold! Get out double the sick bags and the mop. After lunch wind holds are the worst.
1:30pm: I know kids ride for free, but the teachers and playgroups around Hobart seem to be using us as a cheap babysitting service this afternoon.
2pm: Check Instagram. People trying to take pics of the summit view over Hobart are lucky enough to get my noggin in their shot! I’m famous around the world – been tagged by people from everywhere. Did someone say #instafamous?
3pm: Start to take sauced patrons back down the hill after boozy lunches and whisky tastings up top. Usually the barf bags are for wind hold.
3:30pm: Wind Hold!
4pm: Sunset chasers are starting to arrive.
4:30pm: Wind Hold!
5pm: Take the last group down. I hope none of the stragglers on the mountain want to take the cable car down tonight. Don’t want to call the Westpac Rescue Chopper again after that group tried to walk down in the dark.
