Tuesday 30 July
We were planning to go for a hike on Saturday, but the forecast was for intermittent rain showers all day. We therefore decided to wait until Sunday, but watching the rain dripping down the windows at breakfast, perhaps it was not such a good idea.
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After a few weeks devoid of any kind of serious bushwalking due to some health issues, we decided it was time to rectify our lack of activity. After looking for a walk that was reasonably close by and not too challenging or long, we decided on the 10 km Christmas Hill Forest Reserve loop walk in the Kuitpo Forest. The ‘All Trails’ App reviews were all very positive, but none mentioned a fundamental flaw in the route described, which we only discovered towards the end of the trail.
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After a busy day in the garden (K) and shed (me) on Monday, Tuesday was a good day to continue exploring our new neighbourhood. Deep Creek National Park was on our list, so we identified two potential circuit walks. The first of these was the 6km Arron Creek Circuit Hike. As this was listed as grade 3, we decided to walk this in the morning and, if we survived, we would tackle the second, the 4.7km grade 1 Spring Wildflower Walk, in the afternoon.
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Having stopped here briefly on our way back from our Mount Lofty Botanic gardens visit, our Thursday outing was to tackle the 8.5 km Emu Wren track around Cox Scrub Conservation Park. It was an early start as I was keen to photograph the winery at Currency Creek around sunrise. As a result, we started our hike at about 08:15, with the plan to be back home by lunchtime.
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After 25 days of continuously working at an event in Adelaide, a day off on Christmas Day, a 720 km day drive back to Victoria and a 370 km day drive to Falls Creek on 27/12, it was time to relax and enjoy a few days of bushwalking. For me, this was both a new location and a new experience in the form of a bushwalking club base camp. However, little did I know that I would have a bit more relaxation than planned for!
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During a recent three week visit to Tasmania for two weeks work and one week play, I managed to spend some of my downtime seeking out a few waterfalls. To assist me to identify waterfalls to visit, I refer to two volumes of ‘Waterfalls of Tasmania’ published by Craig Doumouras and his associated website. Two locations I visited, Lilydale Falls and Lemonthyme Lodge Wilderness Retreat, were dramatically different in terms of the hiking experience and the results.
Continue readingHaving completed the Eurobin Falls Track earlier in the morning, my next stop 6 km up Mount Buffalo Road was the Rollasons Falls Track. This was listed as 1.9 km to the lower falls and 2 km tom the upper falls. In actual fact if you walk to both the total distance is 2.5 km. The Mount Buffalo National Park visitors guide advises that there is a short steep section at the end. This, in my opinion, is a bit of an understatement with regard to both ‘short’ and ‘at the end’.
After a sleepless freezing cold night camping at Smoko Campground near Bright, I set out for Mount Buffalo National Park to tackle a couple of walks, the first of which was Eurobin Falls (yes, another waterfall to photograph is a good incentive to put on the hiking boots). After clear skies during the night, which enabled me to have a go at photographing the milky way at 5 o’clock in the morning, the day started overcast and deteriorated from there.
My partner and I first discovered this walk a year ago and decided it would be a good one for us to lead one of the Gisborne Bushwalking Club organised walks. After a couple of subsequent of pre-walks, we finalised the route that fitted the broad club criteria – around 14 km and 5 hours including breaks. Of course, the one thing we could not plan for was the weather.
With Easter weekend approaching, we decided to get away for a couple of nights, the main reason being to visit Healesville Sanctuary. Realising that this is traditionally a busy weekend, we opted for leaving on the Thursday to beat the rush and headed for Toolangi – the nearest free campground to Healesville. Never having been there before, we were pleasantly surprised with what we found.