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Two walks on a weekend

11/7/2022

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I wanted to do more back-to-back longer walks, so in mid-June we went on two walks in one weekend.
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A rare action shot of me and Dan on a detour off the rail trail. Thanks to G for the photo!

Moe-Yallourn Rail Trail

On Saturday, we walked the Moe-Yallourn Rail Trail with two friends, G and D.
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I recommend the Lake Narracan detour/loop, at least in part because the footpath back to the rail trail offers this great view of the power station.
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The trail viewed from above, at the start of the Lake Narracan loop.
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Getting up close and personal with the Yallourn smoke stacks.
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G, D and Dan on the Moe-Yallourn Rail Trail - a greener walk than I expected.
  • We had brilliant weather after 2 weeks of mostly grey, cold, wet, dreary bleakness.
  • It was a flat, dirt path most of the time, apart from a little detour down to Lake Narracan - sealed, slope, then dirt road, and then a footpad winding back up to the trail. Really enjoyed this detour.
  • Having done almost no research, the trail was unexpectedly green and vegetated. Highlights were the huge number of mushrooms (I took so many photos, and probably slowed us down by about half an hour in total!), lunch by the lake.
  • Of course, the monumental structures of the power station at the Yallourn end were probably the main point of visual interest. They really are spectacular, whatever you think of what they're actually doing (making dirty, unsustainable electricity).
  • We had fun discussing the pronunciation of Moe. It's pronounced like "mow" (mow the grass) and "ee" (eek). MOWee. Not "Mo", as Google says. Not "Moet" or "Moway" - unless you're being amusingly posh.
  • G and D have been doing some bird spotting recently, so it was fun to talk to them about the birds we saw along the way and try to identify some of them. Occasionally we were even successful!
  • Including the lake detour, we walked a hair less than 16km. I carried a fairly full bag (my usual at the moment - a bit over 10kg), and my shoulders and back and neck were feeling it by about 12km in. I was a bit achy that night and the next morning, but not too bad.

A mushroom interlude

Here are a whole lot of fungi we saw on the Moe-Yallourn walk. This is not all of them, by any means!
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Red
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Crinkly
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Yellow
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Purple
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Too cute
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Mini butt
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Bubble butt
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Flabby butt
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Bun
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White spores
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Shiny
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Tall

Gippsland Lakes Discovery Trail

On Sunday, we walked most of the Gippsland Lakes Discovery Trail with our friend Fiona.
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Me, very proud of myself for climbing onto this huge fallen log - and Fiona in the background.
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Beautiful scenes of misty light falling through the trees.
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Dan and Fiona at the granite quarry.
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Top of a dead tree fern, hollow stem covered in lichen.
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Box leaves fallen on the path,
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Looking along the Mississippi Creek, with golden sunlight bathing the bushland.
  • We set off in the car fairly early and there was lots of mist around. It was absolutely beautiful on the plains and then through the forest when we arrived. We also saw a lyrebird as we pulled in!
  • The walk takes an old, fairly flat tramway beside a little creek to a quarry (about 6-7km). The next section undulates over small hills up to the rail trail.
  • The scenery was absolutely stunning along the creek - lush, green, some big trees (unfortunately many fallen) and tree ferns as well as the constant companionship of the water. It was much drier in the hills, similar to deeply familiar ecosystems from my childhood.
  • As I mentioned, there were many fallen trees due to ground sogginess and then high winds, as well as some path damage. But the trees had recently been cleared and the bridges repaired, with path repair in progress, this was great to see.
  • We had morning tea at the quarry, where the granite for the entrance (at Lakes Entrance) was sourced. Lunch was a few kilometres further at the intersection with the rail trail, where there was a bench to sit on and soak up the sun. I stopped our group briefly on the way back for a rest stop - I think I needed it more than the others, as I’d been carrying a full pack.
  • In total, it was about 21.5km - we realised at the end that we hadn’t actually started where we planned, as we hadn’t driven all the way to Log Crossing picnic area. I used my trekking poles, which I hadn’t had on my short walks in Melbourne, and which I’d forgotten on the Moe-Yallourn walk. It made a difference to my feet and ankles, and also seemed to help a bit with my shoulders and the packweight. Both Dan and I actually felt better after this walk than the rail trail walk the previous day.
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Dan and me at the far end of the trail, where it joins the East Gippsland Rail Trail. Photo by Fiona.

Notes

I’ve put these two walks together and not written too much about them because I’m rapidly running out of time to do actual prep for the trail. What with also getting ready to move into our new house, settle in and start the home improvements there, I don’t feel like I have much time for blogging.
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Five little ziplock bags stuffed with pasta, powdered sauce, a little extra pea protein and TVP.
In other preparation news, by the time I wrote this up at the end of June (it's taken me a couple of weeks to post it!) I’d done my first accommodation booking, got a tiny torch and a sleeping top/base layer with a hood. I'd also packed up some dehydrated meals: five bags of angel hair pasta with vegan bolognese, four bags of sweet potato dhal, a bunch of miso porridges and a batch of chia breakfasts with acai and mango. I still had a few to do - including a chilli, a couple of dips, a different batch of chia breakfasts and both sweet and savoury polenta.
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Ziplock bags with savoury miso porridge (left) and sweet mango and acai chia pudding (right).

Both walks are on Gunaikurnai Country. The Moe-Yallourn Rail Trail is on the land of the Brayakaulung people, the Gippsland Lakes Discovery Trail is on the land of the Brabralung people. This always has been, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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Lugging a backpack around

25/6/2022

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Boy, you’re gonna carry that weight a long time.
Person in shorts on a bridge over a small brown creek
Standing on a bridge that's been built on a fallen tree in Plenty Gorge (note the name on the left). Photo by Emily.
I didn’t get a chance to do any big walks for a while after the one in the hills. We’ve been busy. We bought a house (yay!), then we were in Melbourne for Dan’s temp job (yay!) and the weather was fairly miserable (not yay!). Instead of beating myself up about not getting the distances in, I decided to work on something else: carrying my pack.
framed by a tree, the lake reflects surrounding park trees and a blue sky
The lake in Queens Park, Essendon. I walked through here to meet Dan after work.
I’ve been getting bits of gear together, weighing everything, and trying to figure out how, exactly, I have managed to create such a heavy load. My tent weighs less than 500g, for goodness’ sake! Of course, the answer is boring: everything adds up. Every extra item - a second hanky or bandanna, multivitamin tablets, an extra piece of cutlery, a pair of thongs as camp shoes - contributes to overall weight. Then I add food for 3-6 days. And then I fill up my bottles and bam! - an extra 2kg just for fun.
large piles painted bright yellow, one with a stylised image of a dog chasing a ball, indicating the dog park just beyond.
Under the Upfield line, where it's been raised and new paths, parks and community areas built beneath.
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Under the same lines on the same walk.
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A scale replica of the old station, with a mini library in it.
Now, once I’ve got everything I need (or want) and have done a final weight analysis, there will be things that I decide not to bring, or will bring less/fewer of, or will make fill the function of other items. But all told, I think that when I’m fully loaded with two (or more) litres of water and food for 3-5 days, I’ll be carrying somewhere in the realm of 15-17kg. This might not sound like much, and probably a kilo of that will be in my bumbag, but let me tell you, it can feel like a sack of bricks! This is especially the case because I find my backpack is really only comfortable for carrying weights below about 13kg. Other people say the Osprey Exos 48 is very comfortable to 15kg or 18kg, but that’s not true for me.
two hands holding stainless steel mugs of tea in front of a rocky landscape with green trees
Cheers! Emily and I sharing a cup of tea at Plenty Gorge.
So, in order to get used to carrying a heavy load, I’ve been... carrying gradually heavier loads. Makes sense, right? I’ve packed my backpack with our heaviest tent (for bulk), then piled in a few litres of water, padded with some extra bits and pieces to stop the bottles and thermoses clunking and rattling. I’ve left some of the usual things in my bag - first aid kit, sunscreen, insect repellent - and it usually brings the total carry up to around 10-13kg.
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Old signage on a walk through Brunswick.
official no entry sign with an added sticker saying DON'T READ THE HERALD SUN
Some good advice crossing the rail lines in Brunswick.
The first time I did this, I almost keeled over and had to take one of the thermoses out. It has been a long time since I’ve carried this much. In the UK, I was used to doing overnight or shorter walks, with minimal equipment and pubs on hand for lunch. That’s not quite the deal on the Heysen Trail. I needed to harden up a bit. But I needed to harden up softly - I didn’t want to injure myself.
Asphalted alleyway faced with many syles of roller door and fence, with lots of pot plants along the sides
A well-used, wide alleyway in Brunswick, on a walk to Ceres.
I went out for short walks with this setup 3 or 4 times a week. They were mostly suburban strolls along relatively flat streets, but I also went on a couple of more bushy walks with my friend Emily. Only a couple of these walks lasted more than an hour, but I started getting used to the pack. I think it’s partly a mental game. It’s different when I’m actually out on an overnight walk and need the things in my pack - but when it’s just a training walk I keep thinking, “What is the point of lugging 5kgs of water around the block?” Anyway, I’m still experiencing strain on my shoulders, and still getting used to the forward lean to counterbalance the pack. I also know that when the pack’s full of things that are less dense than water it will carry differently - I’m hoping that will help a little, because it has in the past! I just need to keep slogging away, building up to carry the heaviest load I think I’ll encounter in, say, the first week on trail, then building up the distance as well.
Selfie of two people in raincoats, walking on a bush path,smiling with squinting eyes
Me and Emily, squinting into the drizzle at Bunjil Reserve. Pic by Emily.
Tiny, shiny orange mushrooms among moss and leaf litter
Cute lil orange boyos at Bunjil Reserve.
At this point in my training - around 5 weeks out from the start date - I’m pretty confident that I can walk the distances and elevation required every day. Some of them will be long, hard days, but I’m not in bad walking condition. I’m less confident that I can do it with a fully loaded pack. So, I need to keep working at it. Again, it’s boring, but that’s how it is.
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Bob Ross mural in one of the alleys behind Bunnings in Brunswick.
Other updates are:
  • We’ve bought tickets to Adelaide! Dan will come with me to South Australia, we’ll see some friends, do a bit of extra shopping (gas, lighter), drive up and drop my three resupply boxes, then he’ll take me to the start of the walk. After that, he’ll come home (taking a couple of days), and I’ll start walking!
  • I haven’t done any overnight walks, but I have camped out in the garden a couple of times. The last time I did this, it was pretty chilly - maybe about 2-3 degrees overnight - and I was almost warm enough in what I had. I do want to get a lightweight merino hoodie that I can wear as a sleep top to keep the draughts out of my neck (my buff will be on my head if it’s that cold).
  • I’ve also been going back and forth on an extra pair of sleep socks and some warm mittens. I have struck a great compromise (I hope) with a bit of DIY. I’ve cut the arms off a $4 puffy jacket from the op shop, and I’m about to get on with some sewing. I’ll close in the cuff/toe/finger end, tidy up the leg/arm end, and unpick/seal a little thumb hole in the seam. Then I’ll have some lightweight, warm sleeping booties that double up as cosy mittens if I need them. And when I don’t need them for my feet I can add them to my pillow pile.
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Tent set up in the back yard, ready for a cold night!
Pinky puffy jacket
A nice puffy jacket, ready for butchering.
Two sleeves of the puffy jacket, hacked off and showing the white interior. a pair of black scissors lies on one sleeve
And so it begins!

Pictures taken on Wurundjeri Country and Gunaikurnai Country. This always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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Walk: Mount Moornapa and Mount Ray

20/6/2022

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I want to see mountains again. Mountains, Gandalf! (NB: These are more hills than mountains.)
Misty trees with the glow of a morning sun shining through the crown of one
A mystical misty morning.
I’ve been saying I need to get out in the hills more, and that I need to get my mileage up, so this was the day! The forecast was for sunny weather, though as we drove through Briagolong and up Freestone Creek Road the mist was heavy on the plains and in the valleys. Mum and Dad came along for the first bit of the walk (Dan was in Melbourne) - 25 minutes of constant uphill along the first bit of Ten Mile Track - and they were both more spritely than I was.
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Starting the big climb. It took me a while to get ready - look how far ahead my mum is!
Sun glowing through mist and fairly dense bushland with layers of tree trunks stretching away
I always like it when there's lots to take photos of on a big climb. Plenty of excuses for a rest.
We admired the sunlight filtering through the mist and the bright pink spears and clusters of heath along the road as I tried and failed to keep up. Going straight into a big uphill first thing is not my favourite way to start a walk!
Bush with spiky leaves and pale little pom pom flowers
Some kind of wattle?
plant with small, circular, almost light blue leaves
Not sure what this pretty plant is - the leaves looked like flowers from afar.
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Dad was fine in his big jacket. I was hot in my jumper!
Several drooping spears lined with small bright pink flowers
The first heath stand of many.
As my folks turned back, the mist was starting to clear, and after scooting through a short dip in the road, I was well out of it. I got glimpses of it hovering in the valleys below for a little while, but soon enough it was gone. Up and up I went, with a few moments of respite, past the intersection with Bonus Spur Track (now that was an uphill walk!) and finally to the summit of Mount Moornapa.
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With the mist in the valley, you can just make out the tops of the hills beyond. The cleared strip is a firebreak.
Selfie of smiling person in yellow cap, with slightly misty landscape behind
Happy that the biggest part of the climb is over.
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But there was still plenty of uphill.
The views were once again fantastic, and after our last visit I was better able to identify various ridges and peaks. The sun was now out in full force, along with the birds and a handful of flies. I took a break a little further down the track, sitting in the shade for a few minutes to eat a muesli bar and have a drink of water.
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Two cockies keeping lookout. Surprisingly, they didn't scream at me.
Close up of shiny yellow flowers, with more of them alongside a gravel road in the blurry background
Everlastings - so happy making!
A gravel road curves between dense bushland to a telecommunications tower with a number of dishes on the side, silhouetted against a clear blue sky
Looking back at the fire tower.
Landscape of forested hills stretching away to the horizon under a blue sky
The view from the top - I now recognise Gable End, Mt Wellington, Cromwell Knob, Castle Hill, the Pinnacles.
I’d been quite in my head for the first part of the walk, thinking about the differences between walking with others and going solo, and this continued as I headed down Tower Link Road. I do like sharing the experience with other people - whether that’s Dan, other friends and family, or a walking group of some kind. I like being able to share the joys of the day, to point out (and have pointed out) views and birds and flowers, to have someone to get my water bottle out of my bag without practising my contortionist moves, to laugh about finding a place to wee, to chat about anything and everything. But I also like walking by myself, not having to negotiate with anyone else where and when to stop, randomly singing or chatting to the birds without anyone there to hear, being completely in charge of my speed, knowing that my decisions only affect me. It wasn’t until I went for some solo day walks that I realised how much energy I expend negotiating with co-travellers. I really do think everyone who likes walking should go for a long walk by themselves at some point, to experience both the accountability and the liberation.
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Along Bullockhead Creek Track (or Road). Lush.
Lichen-coated rock with small pink flowers and strands of grass hanging down
Some details of this walk looked prettier than a deliberately landscaped garden.
Stick with hellow paint and pink tape marking a hole in the road (into a broken culvert)
Don't fall in!
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More greenery on Bullockhead Creek Road (or Track). It was gorgeous and shady under clear blue skies.
Soon Tower Link Road deposited me at the bottom of the hill, where I turned up Bullockhead Creek Road. This track turned out to be one of my favourite parts of the walk - it was lush and shady, small creeks were flowing (presumably one or more of which was the eponymous Bullockhead), there was lots of greenery and the rowdy birds kept me company. Around here, I finally gained a bit of presence, which was nice.
Hand holding an energy gel sachet, with two walking poles visible
Let's gooo!
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Tyre mark in rotten wood.
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Sunlight through young leaves.
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Lunch spot ahead! I plonked myself down just past that tree beside the road on the right.
It was kind of cool how this walk traced a similar arc to my Stockdale-Blue Pool walk, only in reverse and a hill or two further north. The junction of Insolvent Track was the closest my feet came to the last walk - less than a kilometre away - but I turned in the other direction and headed north. I was starting to think about lunch, but wanted to hold on until I was over halfway done, so instead I tried out an energy gel - my first ever! It was sweet and its most notable immediate effect was to give me something to do for a while as I slowly sucked the gloop out of the sachet. I guess it worked, because before I knew it I was at the intersection of Winkie Creek Road, and it was lunch time.
Selfie of person in beige shirt, holding a blue and white metal cup up to the camera. In the cup you can see noodles and a pair of red chopsticks.
Cheers! I was texting home and finding out what they were having for lunch. I didn't want anything other than my noodles with extra dried veg, though!
POV looking down at bare feet, a hand holding the cup of noodles, a blue bandana on the ground, shoes, socks and leaf litter.
I even have a bandana/foot rug/tablecloth.
Sunny selfie of a person wearing a backpack and cap, holding walking poles
Well rested, fed, and ready to head off again.
I’d decided to have noodles for lunch in part to force myself to take a proper break, and I was very pleased about it. It’s so nice to take off your shoes and wiggle your toes in the fresh air while cooking noodles in the middle of the bush. Not even the undesired visit from a couple of mozzies really annoyed me - they seemed more interested in my sweaty pack, anyway. After lunch, I balanced out my water and mixed up an electrolyte sachet, then set off, turning on to Mount Ray Road soon after.
Road with two yellow warning signs saying Slow down and Traffic hazard ahead.
Slow down, traffic hazard ahead.
A large tree has fallen across a road from the uphill side, but has been caught in the fork of another tree on the downhill side, forming a bridge across the road
The hazard in question.
My route took me around the south side of a lot of the hills, meaning I was in the shade (no need to break out the dorky removable flaps on my new legionnaires cap!) and the road wound around a lot of lush gullies full of green ferns, moss, lichens and soft red soil. Occasionally, though, the track passed through a saddle and onto the north face, as it did while I very gradually climbed towards Mount Ray.
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Miniature moss and lichen garden.
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Yet another lush gully on the south side of a hill.
A mall round hole in a rocky bank, surrounded by moss and lichen
Who lives in here? (I didn't poke my finger in to find out.)
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Landslip. But the ferns grow like nothing's happened!
On the northern slopes, the bush is completely different - dry, with blue-grey foliage and grey-brown leaf litter covering the hard ground. The views were also very different. To the south I could catch glimpses of the plains and a silver band of water (Lake Wellington, I presume). To the north, between and behind the closer hills, the blue horizon of distant peaks shifted very slightly as I walked.
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Cutting on the south side of a hill - shady, with lots of green moss and lichen. Also note vertical-looking rock formation.
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Cutting on the north side - in full sun, a little bit of bedraggled moss and dogwood hanging on. Note the horizontal layering in the rock.
I stopped for a quick break to eat an apple and stretch out my legs on the north side of Mount Ray. I spent a good 5 minutes trying to decide if the Noones in Noones Road was pronounced like midday or nobody or noonies. And then I was at the top of the climb. I’d thought that I might bushbash up to the summit from the road, but when I got there, the notion didn’t appeal - I couldn’t imagine there would be much more to see, the brush was pretty thick. Instead, I started the long downhill, enjoying the vistas that opened up to the east across the pine plantations and farmland to Mount Taylor and its fire tower on the horizon. The downhilling wasn’t as bad as I feared, but it was still pretty brutal on my toes and knees. So, I stopped again. Because I could. I sat down in the dirt near a little dam full of orange, clay-filled water, took my shoes and socks off and nibbled on Nobby’s nuts. It was great. A bit later, I heard a lyrebird.
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Coming down the hill, with views to the southeast.
A badly eroded gutter beside a road, with the shadow silhouette of the photographer
Bad erosion, red earth, my shadow.
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The orange dam. I was glad I didn't have to drink this, but it was a nice spot to stop. Insects danced in columns over the water.
The electrolytes were doing their job, and I felt pretty good as I dropped down past various boundary tracks, a shed of some kind (PRIVATE PROPERTY KEEP OUT!), a couple of deer (not obeying the sign to keep out of the private property), a couple of wallabies (who disappeared almost before I could see them - just the telltale sound of them jumping through the bush) and the scraggly first paddocks.
Dirt road with a handpainted sign on a piece of corrugated tin: PRIVATE KEEP OUT!
I can understand why they might need the sign, as the shed did look like quite a tempting shelter.
POV looking down at feet, with the kangaroo paw prints between the human feet - they are almost the same length
Kangaroo prints.
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Possibly brushtail possum footprints?
I was aiming to get to Beverleys Road at 4pm to meet Dan, and I was on time until I came upon the cows. At first they didn’t notice me, as the closest one was a couple of hundred metres away across the paddock. But soon enough they decided I was a terrifying threat, and the entire herd gathered from across the hillside to bellow at each other and run ahead of me up the hill. They waited there until I came near again, then thundered off into the next paddock. And so it went until they were unable to go further, so they just had to mill around and look at me as I took my extremely threatening bag and hair-raising walking sticks and made my fearsome way along the road.
Idyllic looking paddock surrounded by bush with a single large tree growing in it and several black cows dotted throughout
The cows, pre-flight.
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One cow looks back from the top of the hill.
Herd of black adult and teenage cattle with yellow ear tags, warily facing the camera
Extremely wary of going through the gate into the next paddock while I'm standing here. Of course as soon as I moved past it, they ran through.
And then, there was Dan, wandering up the sandy track in the golden afternoon light - the first person I’d seen since I’d said goodbye to my folks several hours before. Home time!
Landscape (paddock, trees, road) drenched in golden afternoon sunlight
You can just make out the car and Dan in the afternoon light.

Notes

I walked about 24km with 980m+ of both ascent and descent. I started at around 8:15am and finished at 4pm, with more than an hour of rest stops (45 mins for lunch, two breaks of 10-15mins and a couple of shorter ones). I carried a lighter pack than usual, knowing that this was going to be a more strenuous walk, so bear that in mind in the following paragraphs.
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Remains of some kind of earth star fungus.
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Not sure what kind of fungus this is! Mutant puffball?
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Pretty little pink flowers. Weed? I don't know.
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More everlastings.
I felt unusually chipper at the end of this walk. Almost as if - and I know this is weird, but stay with me here - putting enough fuel in your body and replenishing certain nutrients as you walk actually makes a difference? Who knew! So, I would say that both the energy gel and the electrolyte mix helped, as did stopping for rests and generally taking my time. The energy gel is something I’m only going to take a few of on the Heysen Trail - one in each drop box to add to my first aid kit - but it’s good to know it will help in a pinch. I wasn’t planning to take electrolyte drinks every day, but I might change my mind on that.
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An enormous leaf.
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Flowers (remains of a bird feast?).
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Gorgeous deep red leaf.
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I liked the colours and shapes - wonder what's been eating them?
My feet were moderately sore by the end, and my right toe was in a pre-blister state. I didn’t put any plasters on, because I wanted to see if just stopping, taking off my shoes and socks and airing everything out in the sunshine would help (blister formation is exacerbated by moisture). It seemed to help. A more lightweight solution than carrying lots of extra bandaids - saving myself a fraction of a gram every a day!
Shadow of the photographer caught mid-stride, walking along a dirt road beside a bank of grasses
On the home stretch!
I had plenty of other aches and pains in the evening - legs and hips in particular. I slept extremely well that night (the most sleep I’ve had in months). The next day I did some nice stretching, especially for my calves, which are always really tight. And by the following day, I only had some slight achiness in my ankles and calves to remind me of doing such a long walk.

This walk is on the unceded Country of the Brayakaulung (Gunaikurnai) people. This always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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Walk: Brunswick parks loop

5/6/2022

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At least it keeps us off the streets…
Brick wall with the following painted in fading white: GROCERIES BUTTER EGGS
Ghost sign on a building in Carlton North.
Just before 8am, we popped out onto Sydney Road, then took a little detour through Warr Park before heading up Albion Street to A Minor Place. We hadn’t been there since getting back to Australia this time around, so this was a long overdue breakfast! I had the tofu poke bowl and Dan had Henry’s White Beans with an egg. The white beans are a classic and have been on the menu since I used to come here to “work” on my PhD. They’re still excellent, as is the coffee (my breakfast was good overall, but some of the items were a little lacklustre). Absolutely stuffed with food, we joked we wouldn’t need to eat again until dinner with friends at the Cornish Arms.
Streetscape showing green and yellow tram and a line of two story buildings with shop fronts along the bottom story
Sydney Road with tram. Iconic.
Green wall with informative sign and hand painted signs about how to pick veggies
Warr Park has an edible garden for people to harvest from.
Pink flowers planted at a street corner below a bike and give way sign, in the background a person pedalling a bike with a young child on the back
Pretty planting on Albion Street.
Two older houses, mirror images of each other, with paling fences and a tree at the front
Two houses, both alike in dignity... Classic Brunswick look.
East on Albion, then along one of Melbourne’s bluestone alleys to Allard Park and the oval. The idea of this route was to (a) keep off conventional streets and roads as much as possible and (b) make the loop into a ~15km walk by going the long way around any parks we encountered. So, around the oval we went, pleased to see the bocce pitch (field? court?) was still there. Up onto the little hill to survey Jones Park, the trees along the creek, the golden domes of the orthodox church. Then finally down to the Merri Creek path.
Concrete path and line of trees curving around a green oval with four white Australian Rules goal posts
I think I snapped this in a moment of, "Oh yeah, posts, not nets!"
White bowl with colourful veggies, tofu, herbs and condiments
My breakfast.
Grey bowl with pale brown beans topped with poached egg, rocket, toast and a slice of lemon
Dan's breakfast.
Small pond reflecting grasses and trees, with small building in the background
A lovely pond in a part of the parkland that has really grown into itself since we lived here.
There were works on the path to the south, and the detour took us through Ceres, which offered lots to look at (gardens, chooks, sculpture) and some toilets for a quick pit stop. We enjoyed the new-to-us footbridge and viewing platform under Blyth Street, then crossed the creek to continue on the unsealed paths on the other side. There were a lot of signs warning for snakes. Attenzione serpenti! We didn’t see any serpenti. But we did see a kindergarten group doing activities, and were greeted enthusiastically by one of the kids (reminded me of the kid at the You Yangs!). It was really pleasant to follow the familiar-but-unfamiliar path along the creek. Apparently it was opened by Bob Hawke - now there’s some political history for you. (Politics was on our mind, as the federal election loomed. Thankfully the result wasn't terrible.)
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Merri Merri with autumn colours.
Yellow warning sign with snake silhouette, where someone has written on saying I'M A SLIPPERY LITTLE SNEAKY SNAKE
Serpenti!
Home-printed sign - MAN WITH BULLDOG. [YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE] PLEASE STOP LEAVING YOUR DOG POOH BAGS HERE. USE BINS NEAR THE OVALS ON EITHER SIDE OF MERRI CREEK.
Man with bulldog (you know who you are).
Creek surrounded by trees
Merri Merri further downstream.
The path loops under and back around on St Georges Road (NB: Australia doesn't use apostrophes in place names), and then a little while later we turned off onto the Capital City Trail. We hadn’t brought our raincoats, so when the light sprinkle started turning to drizzle, we sat under a picnic/BBQ shelter along with various evacuees of the play ground and a few fuzzy pigeons. We also spoke to my aunt, who has recently had surgery - everything went well, and she’s recovering nicely, which is great news.
Creek under blue and white sky surrounded by trees
A glimpse of the creek that felt like it was hardly in suburbia at all.
Concrete bridge with three arches covered in bright graffiti
Under the bridge at St Georges Road. This at least has not changed!
Walking along Park Street reminded us of one time when we walked the whole Capital City Trail in a day - which remains, I believe, the furthest I’ve walked in a single day. As we got towards Lygon Street, I also recalled what the area looked like when I lived near Drummond Street in my second year in Melbourne, before we met. The trees have grown up so much, and places like the North Carlton Railway Neighbourhood House really enliven the green corridor.
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This sign seems to assume I'll know what a "Kidney Parliament" is?
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One of many little reserves.
Steel pole with various stickers and signs, the main one showing hands in handcuffs and the text COPS ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS
Correct.
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Ghost sign for Bushells Tea, having had some sort of touch up over the years.
At Princes Park, we strolled down and around the Carlton football ground (I think it’s called Ikon Oval at the moment) and enjoyed the autumnal colours of the deciduous trees. The weather was also suitably autumnal - occasionally chilly enough to pull my sleeves down and do up the zipper on my fleece, but five minutes later warm enough that I almost considered taking the jumper off altogether.
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The Railway Garden near the neighbourhood house.
Three hakea flowers - like pinky red balls with a huge number of pale yellow stamens poking out like a pincushion
The hakeas are out!
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This yellow rose had a nice smell.
We didn’t go all the way into Royal Park this time, instead heading down another long bluestone alley into Brunswick West, then starting our extremely meandering route back north via Temple Park, Gilpin Park, Clifton Park and Clifton Park West, Brunswick Park and the Gillon Oval.
Concrete path curves right and left, as a narrow but clearly defined dirt path curves left and right over a small grassy rise
Love the very obvious desire path here.
Looking down the middle of a street with small patch of city skyline at the end
A glimpse of the city from Carlton North.
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Bluestone alleyway, Brunswick.
Small terrace house, the top of a fence with each paling painted a different colour - pink, purple, yellow, blue, red, aqua
Colourful fence!
Somewhere in these parks, we both started flagging. I think the main issue was that we knew we were so close to home, but still had a few kilometres to walk before getting there! But of course, eventually we were done. We headed east along Hope Street (possibly our longest conventional street stretch of the whole walk), then north on the Upfield Bike Path to connect the loop. Despite having sworn I was too full for lunch, I managed a very hearty slice of toast before we crashed for an afternoon nap.
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There were a lot of culverts/pipes waiting to go in the ground along this street.
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Scribbly tree trunk.
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Gum leaves and flowers.

Notes

This was an easy walk, without a pack, over fairly flat terrain. My feet felt OK, though towards the end I opted to walk on the grass rather than the hard path where possible. I didn’t get any blisters, but probably would have if I’d kept going another 5km (especially if I hadn’t been able to dry out my socks a bit).
Gravel path and low wooden bridge through grassland dotted with eucalyptus trees
Gilpin Reserve (or Gilpin Park as it is maybe actually called) has a great variety of native trees.
Map with a dark blue line twisting through several parks
Our twisty route north!
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Slightly brutalist stand!
I got quite a sore lower back as I sometimes do, especially when I'm not carrying a pack. This is something I’m hoping might start to improve in future as a friend of mine offered me some free online Alexander Technique sessions after reading about this issue in a previous post. I'm enjoying the sessions and I’ve noticed I’m getting far less sore in my neck area, which is great. Two of the techniques I was given to try during the lesson before this walk were (1) to ask myself, “How can I do less?” and (2) to tell myself, “I am not walking” (when walking, or standing when standing), and see what changes occur in my body. It was quite interesting, and something I’m sure will continue to evolve!
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Brunswick Park. I lived in Brunswick for many years and never realised there was a Brunswick Park.
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Great combination of fonts and colours in this window.
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A pocket sized park below new high rises, Brunswick.

This walk is on the lands of the Wurrundjeri people. This country was never ceded and it always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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Merri Merri morning and thoughts about gadgetry

29/5/2022

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The familiar has become unfamiliar…
Outdoor velodrome with a terracotta coloured wall with BRUNSWICK in large black letters. The centre is green grass and a large pylon carries wires overhead.
The Brunswick Velodrome. I think the last time I saw this (not IRL) was in a Courtney Barnett music video.
A few days after our You Yangs outing, Dan and I were due to meet a friend for morning tea at Ceres. We arrived a couple of hours early and headed north on Merri Merri (Merri Creek) in the almost-drizzle. We made it all the way up to Coburg Lake Reserve before turning around.
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A huge new footbridge over the Merri near Ceres!
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The bouncy Harding Street Bridge, probably going to be replaced.
This was a path we walked many, many times when we lived near the creek in Thornbury, and it was lovely to revisit the area - even if some of the changes made us feel like strangers in our old neighbourhood! There’s a big new footbridge across the creek at Ceres, the trees and shrubs have all grown up, there’s new signage (directional and informational), the market garden at the swing bridge (which has “save our bridge” banners on it) has become quite the destination as an outpost of Ceres with its little cafe. It was a lovely walk, and I hardly took any photos, so I’m not going to dwell on it here
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The market gardens near the Harding Street Bridge - they were buzzing with people harvesting veg and flowers.
My training notes for this outing are: it helped ease my achy calves from our You Yangs walk (and so did a serious stretching session afterwards); I almost got another blister on my right toe; and thankfully I can actually walk fast - if only over flat terrain, on easy paths and without a pack (11km in 2hrs 15min).
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Love the kingfisher mural, brightening up a dull area of housing beside a small community garden.
Low angle shot of a concrete path where someone has written ACAB into the wet concrete
Set in stone. Well, concrete.
At an outdoor cafe, a magpie perches on the back of a seat, while on the table are dirty plates and serviettes
Magpie just missed out on our toasties.

Thoughts about gadgetry

I haven’t posted a lot about my Heysen Trail prep other than training walks I’ve done, but I’ve been making some decisions about what gear to take. I thought some of you might be interested. If not, feel free to close the tab now! This little ramble is about navigation, emergency beacons (PLBs) and gadgets.
One thing you need to think about when walking in remote places is safety. Let me start by saying: I already have a one-use-only emergency beacon (Personal Locator Beacon, or PLB) and a smart phone. I went back and forth on getting a Garmin Inreach or a SPOT for the Heysen. I’d pretty much ruled out the SPOT and was really researching the benefits of the Mini vs Explorer Inreach. But in the end, I decided against it. Why? Cost and weight/bulk.

The benefits of getting a Garmin, depending on the model, can include: topo maps, GPS tracking (e.g. onto a map that friends/family can check from afar), texting (even/especially when phone reception is bad), weather updates, emergency beacon and additional comms options in case of an emergency. This makes it a lot more useful than my one-use-only PLB. Also, the battery life isn’t bad and it would extend the battery of my phone (because using GPS on the phone when looking at maps uses a lot of juice).

These are all great things, so what’s holding me back? First, it’s hundreds of dollars for the device ($400+ for the Mini, $600+ for the Explorer), then you have to pay a subscription fee for $20-$100 a month (with the more basic plans, you also have to pay for tracking points and extra messaging). NB: there are cheaper ways to do it - either by buying second hand, borrowing or renting the device. So, that’s something to keep in mind if you really want to take a Garmin with you on a trip.

The other issue is I don’t want to carry more devices than I need to. My phone should be able to do a lot of what the Garmin does. I can download topo maps for offline use (e.g. Gaia premium), I can get weather updates (though only when I have internet reception, but I can check the 5 day forecast when available), I can text (when I have phone reception), I can get updates on the water tanks from other walkers (i.e. FarOut/Guthook). Paying for premium Gaia and buying FarOut for the track costs less than buying a Garmin and paying for the subscription. Plus, my phone can take photos (I have made the decision - which I may regret! - to leave my camera behind).

Of course, the phone won’t be any good in an emergency if I'm out of range and, as I said, using it for GPS tracking gobbles up the battery. It’s also possible that it will just crack the shits and stop working (Garmin is, as far as I’m aware, a much sturdier piece of equipment). So, what are my plans for that?
  • First, I already have a Personal Locator Beacon - a one-time-use emergency beacon. While this doesn’t give you the option to communicate with emergency responders (e.g. texting info about your injury or location), it is only for absolute emergencies when I don’t have phone reception - in that case, I don’t know how well I’d be able to text anyway. I don’t need to pay any extra subscription fees for the PLB.
  • Second, I will have my phone turned to aeroplane mode most of the time, which uses less battery, and I will carry a larger battery/charging pack to get me through the long stretches without power. I was planning to get a big battery pack - and I may have needed to use it for the Garmin anyway - so this isn’t such a big deal.
  • Third, I will carry the paper maps as a back up if my phone doesn’t work. To be honest, I’d probably carry them even if I had a Garmin because (a) you get a much better overview of the area on a spread out paper map than on a small screen and (b) paper maps don’t ever run out of batteries. Also, I do love a paper map!
I guess the main things I’ll miss (which I’d have with a Garmin) are the ability to have (e.g.) hourly “pings” onto a map so family/friends can trace my progress, and the ability to text when I have no phone reception. But the former is a nice to have rather than an essential, and the latter… well, people managed to do long walks before mobile phones were invented, so I think I’ll be OK. Maybe I’ll have to miss out on a couple of days of comms with loved ones, but that’s just part of the experience.

Merri Merri (Merri Creek) is part of the lands of the Wurrundjeri people, as is much of the wider Melbourne area. This country was never ceded and it always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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At last, the You Yangs!

27/5/2022

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Granite, hills, views.
Person with blue shorts, bag and trekking poles standing on a large slab of granite that curves away to a view of hills and plains beyond
Definitely trying not to fall off this large boulder. The view behind me is to the west.
When we lived in Melbourne many years ago, Dan and I always wanted to visit the You Yangs (Wurdi Youang). The pointed hills stand out in the distant south-west, rising from the surrounding plains, clearly visible when you get anywhere with a view out in that direction. But the closest train station is 10km away, so even if we’d managed to get bikes on the train it would have taken us something like three hours to get there, leaving not very much time for a walk before it would be time to turn around and go home. It’s basically impossible to do a day trip there (and there’s no camping) unless you have a car.
Sunrise over the rooftops and trees of Brunswick
Might as well start with the Melbourne sunrise!
City skyline with a bright orange flare of light on one of the buildings
The sun setting the city on fire.
looking up a short alleyway with graffiti on the brick walls
Your typical Brunswick bluestone alley.
But now, we have a car! So, off we set from our friend’s place in Brunswick, and pulled into the park less than an hour later. I hate that this is the only option for getting there, but I’m glad we were able to. As we hopped out of the car, a bus load of early primary school kids also arrived. “We’re going on a REALLY BIG WALK!” one of them informed us. “What are you doing here?” They seemed satisfied that we were also going on a REALLY BIG WALK. Despite the commotion, a few kangaroos stuck around nearby to watch us set off. The kids still had to get through the entire class of toilet visits, so we left them to eat our dust.
Person standing hands on hips on a boulder, with treetops and a distant view behind
Lord of all he surveys, apparently.
dirt path and grass between trees and large granite boulders
This is just the path between the carparks - lovely!
Dirt path on a treed hillside
Heading up East Track.
Our plan was to do a bit of a butterfly, forming two circuits around the hills (East Track, Saddleback Track, Branding Yard Trail, Northern Range Walk and West Track, if you want to check a map). Then, if we had time at the end, we’d head up to so-called Flinders Peak (I can’t find if the individual hills have Indigenous names) and back to the car park. Spoiler: we did not have time.
Hills in the background, large granite slabs and a handrail in the middle ground and a small warning sign showing a person slipping over
Whee! I hadn't even thought about falling off the path before this sign got me anxious!
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Rocks - you'll see a lot of these.
Person walking up a dirt track
Dan - not hoofing it, but leaving me in his wake!
East Track started us out with what ended up being the hardest bit of walking of the day. It was fairly steep (rising roughly 175m over 2km) but mainly what slowed us down was how the path winds through and over the amazing granite rocks and boulders that form the hillsides. There was lots of awkward stepping up and down (which I have to do carefully because of my knees), along with a bit of four-legged walking (aka scrambling) at times. I worked up quite a sweat, and could feel the burn in my calves. We pulled aside to admire the fantastic view over the plains and the bay to the east. Someone passed us, and promptly disappeared up the track. “How can they go so quickly?” I lamented. “Well, we haven’t been hoofing it,” Dan replied. I was aghast. In fact, I had been hoofing it. But then again, perhaps I felt that way because I was carrying a 10kg pack and Dan and the speedy person were not.
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View to the east out to Port Phillip Bay. You might just make out the geoglyph of Bunjil in the clearing in the trees.
Hillside covered in small trees and large granite outcrops
Huh, so that's what we've been walking through. Cool!
As we twisted around East Track, we started to get views of the hillside we’d just come along, and wow! It was even more spectacular than we’d thought. There are huge granite faces, big boulders poking up through the trees, and the whole thing made me want to paint it. Having only ever seen the hills from a distance, I’d just assumed they’d be covered in trees, but no - the closer you get, the more you realise the trees are just filling in the gaps between the rocks. The granite is actually the reason this range exists - originally a mass of magma that solidified within sedimentary rocks under the sea, as the water receded and the sediments eroded, leaving behind the hills we see today. Underfoot, the soil is sandy, formed from granite eroded over time by the weather.
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View with boulder and tree.
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New growth on the path down on the plains.
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Pigface was growing everywhere down here.
Speaking of the weather, we had chosen a perfect day. After a chilly morning, which left the grass glistening, the sun rose high in a clear blue sky. There was enough shade to keep us just on the cusp of being too hot, supplemented later in the walk by a very gentle cool breeze. Although there was a lot of haze and smoke in the distance, the air was fresh. I was glad we’d decided to come straight down on our first day in Melbourne, rather than waiting until later in the week, when it got a bit overcast and drizzly.
Dirt path leading down to trees with plains beyond
Saddleback Track on the way down.
We passed the intersection where our loops met, and spoke briefly to two fellows who told us to look out for brown snakes as there had been one on Saddleback Track yesterday. Then we dropped down off the hill along said track, passing three other people coming up, and into the trees on the plain. We were once again visited, albeit fleetingly, by a scarlet robin. I feel very honoured to have seen one on three of my last four walks. Making a very small detour, we popped out into the clearing with the geoglyph of Bunjil the wedge tailed eagle - the Wadawarrung/Wathaurong creator spirit, who made all the country of the Kulin Nation - though at 100 metres across it’s designed to be seen from above, so we’d already had a better view from East Track.
Close up of yellow wattle flowers with an out of focus walker behind
We passed a few little patches of wattle, smelling lovely in the warm sun.
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Gorgeous, bright pink eucalypt flowers. Also looks like some lerps or something on the underside of the leaf to the left.
A little later, we stopped at a low bridge over a dry watercourse to take the weight off and share a Snickers. A friendly young border collie came to say hi (on a lead, as per the rules). And then it was time for the short, sharp climb back up onto the hills. A nice bench part way up gave us the chance to have a rest and watch a large family of choughs making their way through the trees around us. As well as choughs, kangaroos, the scarlet robin and some dogs out with their owners, we also saw cockies, yellow rumped thornbills, red browed finches, a small bird of prey, a large bird of prey, pigeons, magpies and wrens. We also noticed tracks that might have been from feral goats? They seemed too small for deer.
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I was very taken with all the granite rocks here. I just didn't expect it!
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Looking at the hills from the plains.
Person on a path between trees, the path passes between some large stones
Heading back up on the Northern Range Walk
Making our way back to close the loop, we met another couple of people walking the other way - apparently without any packs or water, which was a little alarming, but I’m sure they knew what they were doing. Right? It was quite pleasant on the Northern Range Walk, as the path was mostly in shade and had been for most of the day. We passed through a couple of lovely-smelling damp areas. We also finally realised that one of the complexes we’d been looking at to the east was Avalon Airport. Not a single plane landed or took off - at least that we noticed.
Smiling person with hands on hips on a dirt path with hills and blue skies in the background
Dan looking very pleased with himself for some reason (probably because he didn't have to carry anything!).
Person climbing down a rocky path
Down >
Person climbing down a rocky path
> the >
Person climbing down a rocky path
> path.
Lunch was taken on a large rock - Vita-weats, Emmenthal slices and some long swigs of electrolyte-laden water - before we set off along West Track to complete our walk. We decided at lunch that rather than rushing to get up the hill and back, we’d just take our time heading back to the car. If we hadn’t had a dinner date arranged with friends (dumplings in the park!), we probably would have headed up the peak at the end. But I was happy to forego the 450 steps up - and especially the 450 steps down. I’m not sure my knees would have taken it!
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The view from West Track, showing the boundary of the park.
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Stuck between a rock and a hard place (another rock).
Large dead tree and parklike surrounds with other trees and blue skies
The car park - pretty picturesque!
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Posing beside one of the big granite walls beside the path.
On this side of the hill, the boulders felt more prominent - maybe because the west side cops more of the weather? We enjoyed views out to the Brisbane Ranges and the hills and plains to there. We spied a couple of other large complexes - one of which I guessed might be a prison, which was on the money. We met a couple of lads slipping and scrambling their way down to the path, presumably from the summit, a jogger and another dog walker. All in all, once out of the car parks, we only encountered 14 other people. Not a huge number for being out for four hours, but enough to make the place feel well used. I think most people just hike up to the summit and back, rather than exploring these other tracks. Towards the end, we could see an inviting looking big rock far below - which is, of course, imaginatively named Big Rock. A destination for our next visit. Below an official lookout, we also spotted anchor points in the granite - presumably for sport climbing and abseiling.
Landscape with a foreground of grass, rocks and small trees, looking out over plains with trees and paddocks to a distant line of water
View from the Turntable - can you see the smoke on the horizon?
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A nice looking boulder.
A brown capped mushroom thrusting out of the dirt
A nice looking mushroom.
And then, after a few minutes rest on the benches at the Turntable Car Park, watching trains and boats head from Geelong to Melbourne, we toddled back to our car in Lower Car Park. The kangaroos were still there, including a few whoppers! But the primary school kids had long finished their day and headed home.
Black and white photo of a dirt path running through small trees and saplings, with strong diagonal shadows across the ground
The path down the bottom on the plains - very different to the hillsides.
Black and white landscape with a bendy tree in the foreground
View with a curving tree.
Person walking down a rocky path with a ray of sunshine above
Dan in the sunshine.

Notes

Let’s go for some bullet points.
  • A short walk, but quite hard! It took us about four hours to walk 11km. The slowness I will attribute mostly to the terrain, as described above. Picking my way around and over the granite definitely slowed us down.
  • My ankles were really feeling it at the end of the walk, and my calves were extremely tight for a few days afterwards. I took off my shoes and drew the alphabet in the air with my feet during our first break (also a good tip for long plane journeys), but I wish I’d also stretched my calves during the walk and in the evening. Overall, this was a much needed lower leg workout. I clearly need to do more walks (a) on hills/steps and (b) on uneven terrain - there will be a bunch of dry riverbed walking in the first few weeks on the Heysen Trail, so I should try and get used to it!
  • By the end of the walk, I did not feel that I could easily walk another 10-15km. But that was partly because we started late (10:30ish). I would have felt different if we’d started at 8:30… maybe!
  • I wore my second pair of anti-chafe undies, which were OK but not as good as the pink ones in terms of anti-chafe nor in terms of sheer happy-making colour. Step One > Tradies. (Unfortunately, though, Step One is bamboo, which takes ages to dry.)
  • I drank my weird salty orange flavoured electrolyte drink and I think it helped.  I also just felt better in general than the last walk.
  • I’ve been super hungry lately (cold weather?), but did fine with the rations we packed (6 crackers with cheese, half a Snickers, half a nut bar). That’s good. Still, I was very happy to stuff my face with dumplings at dinner.
Sky in shades of purple with the silhouette of a tree and some apartment buildings
Evening light in Essendon - ready for dumplings!
Play equipment, park and apartment buildings under the moon
The moon in a pink and blue sky.

The You Yangs (Wurdi Youang) are part of Wadawurrung (also transcribed as Wathaurong) Country, created by Bunjil, the wedge tailed eagle. This always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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A plod around Providence Ponds

20/5/2022

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Bushland, animal tracks, fungi, birds, flowers and one very large snake.
Small orange mushrooms growing in leaf litter and grey sandy soil
Bright orange native chanterelles (I think!) growing in the sandy soil and pushing through the leaf litter. We saw lots of great fungi.
One day, Dan and Dad went off to Melbourne to pick up a whole bunch of things we’d had in storage since before we left Australia, so me and Mum decided to go for a walk. A return to Providence Ponds Flora and Fauna Reserve to explore south of the highway has been on the cards for a while, and with clear blue skies and temperatures in the low 20s, it seemed like a perfect opportunity.
Dirt track through bushland
Morning shadows over the road. It was lovely weather.
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Two of the least interesting ant holes of the day.
Animal prints in grey, sandy soil
Kangaroo (or wallaby?) prints.
Gaia and Google gave different information about the tracks in this section of the reserve, and I knew from last time and from satellite imagery that there would probably be tracks not marked on either map, so we set off with an intention to explore and see what we could find, rather than to walk a set route. Things started off easily enough, and we enjoyed the quietness of the mid-morning bush. On this side of the highway the reserve is a little less diverse (north of the highway it seems to be a different ecosystem every kilometre!), but one of the cool things here was the visual of a wall of stringybarks - just a thick band of grey trunks stretching out wherever we looked.
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It's hard to do justice to the wall of grey that you get in stringybark bushland like this.
Sprig of green with several small dark orange flowers with yellow edges
A pretty flower we saw a couple of times.
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Wildlife highway across the road.
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Banksia and the sun poking its rays in at the side.
But a lot of the interest of this walk was in the details. In the sandy soils we saw many, many animal tracks - mostly wallaby, a few kangaroo, some wombat, a dog, a dirt bike (of course), and deer. We spotted a variety of cool fungi - none of which I can identify apart from the whole swash of chanterelles (I'm pretty sure) near the end. Australian chanterelles are tiny, and although there were a lot of them, I thought that actually cleaning them of the gritty sandy soil would not have been worth the effort! We enjoyed the few remaining wildflowers and some of the cool banksias of the area. There were also looooooads of ant holes, all built up like fortresses against the incursion of rain and debris. I can’t emphasise how many there were - some sections were like cities of little ant towers. Mum started categorising them into schools of ant architecture - the volcano, the iron age fortress, the pyramid, the hummock. And of course, I took almost no pictures of these ant hills! It’s so easy to forget to photograph the things that are most common on any particular walk.
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Mum stopping to watch some rosellas fly through the trees.
Small, still pond reflecting trees and blue sky
Is this the eponymous pond?
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A very sand-encrusted funnel shaped fungus.
We made it to the end of Bell Track, according to the map. But the road continued through a bee hive site (under constant video surveillance - beware, honey thieves!) and to the edge of the reserve, just as I had hoped. We turned right along the paddock line, following a grassy track, picking grass seeds out of our socks every few steps, getting buzzed by mozzies and screamed at by white cockies. It was all good! Well, until we turned the corner and found a stretch of road under very stagnant water, stretching as far as we could see. We decided to pick our way around a little way to see if we could find the end, and off we set.
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A large, probably marshy, area. I was pleasantly surprised that this part of the road wasn't underwater.
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A tiny mushroom with a bold shadow.
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A beautiful native bluebell.
“Oh, shit. Jonathan, stop!” I turned around to find Mum stepping onto an island in the middle of the road/lake. I wondered if she’d seen a big spider (she hates spiders). And then I looked where she pointed and - whoa, OK! the fattest red bellied black snake I’ve ever seen, which I must have missed by centimetres when I walked past. I also hastily hopped into the middle-of-the-road island. The snake didn’t even move - it was just curled up in a sunny patch without a care in the world. Anyway, we know that red bellies are quite nice snakes, but we decided that maybe it wasn’t worth continuing this way after all, and back we went through the mosquitoes and the grass seeds!
A few square bee hives placed in bracken, a sign on a tree trunk reads WARNING LIVE BEES - THESE HIVES ARE UNDER CONSTANT VIDEO SURVEILLANCE
WARNING! LIVE BEES! We did not hassle the bees and the bees did not hassle us.
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Underside of a yellow mushroom. (They had already been knocked over.)
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Top of a purple mushroom.
We had lunch in a spot of shade, as it was feeling quite warm. Rehydrated hummus (very good), Vita-Weats (my fave, as noted previously), tomato leather (good) and spinach and tomato leather (OK), all washed down with water. We had a few chocs to snack on along the way, and a nut bar, too. The break was a good opportunity to take off the shoes, pick the grass seeds out of the socks and tend to any hot spots. I wrapped a plaster around my problem toe, just in case - I’d felt a tiny twinge and didn’t want another blister. (Learnt my lesson!)
Grassy track through trees and sedges
The track by the fence. Well, if it's all like this, we'll be fine! (Spoiler: it wasn't.)
Track covered by stagnant water until it curves out of sight between trees
The water.
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The snake. (Sorry for the poor pic!)
The rest of the walk was similarly pleasant, but I had been feeling sluggish all morning and did not improve after lunch. The miles were not coming easily. My pack felt heavy, my legs felt slow, my head wasn’t really in it. I realised, late as usual, that I could put my sunnies on to keep some glare out of my face. We also had a bit of a rest - which is when I spotted all those chanterelles. Despite the nice surroundings, I was a bit over it. We did a loop back to the car, skirting the Perry River (not visible) and surprising a couple of feral deer (they were very red, decent size but not huge, and they made some high-pitched, short, screams of alarm calls before they ran off - any ID based on that?!).
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Strong sun, strong shadows. I liked the lines these trunks made, blackened as they were by fire.
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Mum heading along one of the roads post-lunch.
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Not visible here: me violently waving my arms to disperse flies.
Apart from the deer and the tracks, a few butterflies and those bloody mozzies, the main animals we saw (and heard) were birds. Lots of crimson rosellas, a few magpies and currawongs, a shrike thrush, sulphur crested cockatoos, willie wagtails and a fantail. Cool spots were a jacky winter and a scarlet robin. But my fave were the two - no, three! - no, four! - gang gangs that were eating nuts in a branch above us, and which we wouldn’t have noticed if we hadn’t stopped walking and, in the absence of footsteps, heard their quiet little creaking noises. I love gang gangs.
Trees, bracken and an old green-painted wooden signpost that has fallen over
This was one of the very few signposts we encountered, and it didn't even match our map!

Notes

We walked 17km in a bit under 5hrs - quite slow. I’m going to chalk that up to (1) a moderately heavy pack, (2) lots of stopping to look at fungi and flowers and other small things, (3) the slow going down where we met the snake and (4) me just generally not feeling good. Afterwards, I had pretty sore hips, and an achy lower back, but some gentle stretches and exercises the next day helped my fully recover, physically. My new, happily colourful anti-chafe undies were great.
Four brown mushrooms seen from above, their tops showing rings of different shades of brown
The photos I take of these never quite do the rich, warm brown shades justice.
Tiny orange mushrooms growing along ground littered with leaves and twigs
Chanterelles.
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Cool yellow banksia.
A dozen or so small pale orange fungi, on deligate stems, with slightly funnel shaped tops
A little village of fungi.
I don’t know why I felt under the weather. I had a little sleep when we got home and afterwards I still felt bad - even a bit dizzy - and I developed the didn’t-wear-my-sunnies headache. I drank enough water and didn’t have a blood sugar drop, so it wasn’t that. I did wonder, however, if it might have helped to take some of the electrolyte powder that I had with me last time. Who knows! Anyway, I was pretty grateful for the chocolates - especially towards the end of the walk. I’m not the hugest fan of chocolate in everyday life, but wow, it can be nice when you’re out for a walk. A little burst of energy! Yes! (Thanks, Annie!)
Person stepping over a tree trunk which has fallen across a dirt road
Mum negotiating an epic obstacle!
I’m thinking of snacks to pack for the Heysen, especially what to put in my drop boxes. I’ll pack snacks only for the stretch from my box to the next town/shop - in most cases that’s 2-3 days, with 3 snacks per day plus a bit of extra scroggin and dark chocolate. I’ll take a wide range, so I don’t get really bored of anything, and also to take things that I might not be able to find in little general stores (I’m counting on those to have Snickers!). In my scroggin mix will be some combination of:
  • Nuts that I like (macadamias, pecans, almonds, brazil nuts)
  • Dried fruit (mango, banana chips, freeze dried strawberries, apricot bites, ginger)
  • Candy-coated chocolate (e.g. Jaffas, to avoid the melting-chocolate-getting-everywhere issue)
I’ve learnt from experience that there’s no point putting things in there that I think I “should” take for health or packweight but which I don’t like that much (seeds, sultanas, walnuts, too many M&Ms).

What do you put in your scroggin? (Also, I hope this final picture doesn't put you off said scroggin!)
POV shot of legs sitting in a car, hot pink undies poking out the bottom of the legs of blue shorts
Showing off my new undies. Even if they hadn't worked well (they worked well!), they are very joyful.

This walk is on Brayakaulung (GunaiKurnai) Country. Please note my previous post re: Providence Ponds as a possible massacre site. As will all of so-called Australia, sovereignty was never ceded and this always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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Triathlon avec frites

5/5/2022

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A walk, a cycle and a swim. And chips. And potato cakes.
Person standing beside an information board and a fingerpost, holding a mountain bike and smiling
Proud owner of a new, very entry-level, bike. At the Maffra end of the Maffra-Stratford section of the Gippsland Plains Rail Trail.
We finally bought some bikes! It’s been five months since we got back to Australia, and we really meant to do it earlier. But wow, researching bikes is boring as shit, so in the end we just went for some entry-level kind of mountain bikes for noodling around on the rail trail and so on. Anyway, the bikes were in Maffra, so we decided to walk there, collect them (and helmets) and cycle home.
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Hello calves and cows. You have lots of fine grass, why so skinny?
Streetscape with three large signs reading STRATFORD MOTEL and BUDGET HOTEL and MOTEL
I think there's a motel here, or possibly a hotel.
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Some sort of feral brassica - possibly canola.
There’s not much to say about walking the Stratford-Maffra section of the rail trail that I haven’t already said. Once you’re on the old rail line, it’s mostly straight, it’s pretty flat, there aren’t that many standout points of interest. Unburdened by much in the way of baggage, we made good time, counting off kilometre markers in well under our standard 15 minutes. The sun was emerging and as I had foolishly forgotten to sunscreen my arms and was wearing short sleeves, I wrapped one of my new bandannas around my forearm for sun protection. It worked pretty well.
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Along this stretch, we often see these extremely long irrigation systems - I usually don't notice the ends of them!
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Mistletoe flowers - how pretty!
Looking down on a circular white mushroom with a few little nibbles taken out of it
I'm enjoying the season here, but wish I knew more!
I also spent a bit of time with the bandanna in my hat for extra shade. And as we walked along we found an old hat thing that someone had lost - just a visor/brim with loose fabric, which I think people wear under helmets? Anyway, it had been there for a while by the looks of it, so I took it home and put it in the wash and I’ll give it a go.
Wooden post with M5 in yellow writing and, in the background, a person walking down a gravel path
Counting down on the distance markers - 5km to Maffra!
Gravel track stretching out to the horizon, occasionally flanked by trees
Like I said - straight and flat.
thin branches with lots of small, grey, lumpy or spiky cones
Casuarina nuts/cones/seedpods - not sure of the correct term!
It’s not that the walk is bad - it’s just quite samey. So it was nice to get into Maffra and walk past houses and gardens - some interesting things to see and smell! We headed straight to the bike shop and picked up the bikes and helmets. The bike shop owner (Wayne?) was quite bemused that we’d walked from Stratford. It took very little encouragement from him for us to go and grab some chips (very good) and potato cakes (good) for lunch from the take-away shop down the road. We ate them in the park-that-is-also-an-RV-park, and then wheeled our way back to the rail trail.
Person drinking from a bottle of water while sitting on a long, low wooden bench
Rest stop! Time for a little sit down and a drink of water in the shade.
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The old Powerscourt Station.
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Caterpillar friend - not sure what moth this is from.
We saw a couple of black shouldered kites (which are actually quite small, more like a falcon - the book says it’s a hawk). One of them seemed to be quite young, though it didn’t have juvenile plumage, and seemed to be yelling for food? Also on our travels we saw shrike thrushes, magpies, straw necked and white/sacred ibis, an egret, many fairy wrens, many thornbills (I assume yellow-rumped, because we call them “yellow butt birds”) and many red browed finches (“red butt birds”). We even spotted a pelican flying over!
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More long, flat, straight path - here bordered by casuarinas and other trees.
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Dan walking along the M1, apparently.
The cycle home was a lot quicker. Quelle surprise! It took us about 50 minutes to get back to Stratford. The trail is, as I said, “pretty flat”. But that’s walkers’ flat, rather than cyclists’ flat. Fortunately, most of the elevation involves a slight descent towards the Stratford end, so we did get to coast a little bit (from a whopping 37m above sea level to 13m above!). This section of the trail improves when cycled - the views change and evolve more noticeably, and glimpses and views of the hills are very enjoyable. Of course, I barely took any photos.
Bright orange flowers in a garden
In town! New things to see!
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A little honey stall on the main street - never noticed this while driving!
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Coming in to Maffra under the shady trees. The white blob on the nature strip is a cat. (No pats - it ran away!)
Anyway, back to the trip. I packed my swimming top, so when we got back to Stratford I changed into that, whipped off my shorts and went for a swim in my undies. And by swim I mean dip. As in, I immersed myself twice, rinsed my head and my legs of sweat and dirt, then hightailed it out of there. The Dooyeedang (Avon River) was very refreshing and not quite as cold as the Ovens! And then we cycled home. All in all, a good outing.
Two bikes on a bike rack and, in the background, the front of a takeaway shop
Guess what's for lunch?!
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Chips and potato cakes. Yum!
Person standing beside an information board and a fingerpost, holding a mountain bike and smiling
Of course, we had to get both our photos here!

Notes

The walk was easy, and we covered about 11km in about 2hr 20mins - usually I’d estimate 10km in 2hr 30mins, so that’s pretty quick for us. Maybe I’ll try a speed walk along this stretch one day! I didn’t carry a pack (just the ‘new’ bum bag carried across my body), nor did I use the sticks. My body felt pretty good - I tried to change the angle of my hips a few times (e.g. tucking in my tailbone) to help ease any issues with my lower back. No blisters or other aches from the walk.
black and white photo
The nice new path under the bridge at Stratford, cutting a pale curve through the scene.
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A tree we saw - there aren't many big ones on this section.
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Another tree.
However, although I took care to keep the gears nice and easy on the cycle, my knees still felt a little creaky when we got back. I will need to be extremely careful with this if going out for longer rides - especially with Dan, as he tends to fang it and I don’t like being left behind! I really don’t want to lose all the progress I’ve made with my knees since last year. Also, next time I’ll wear my cycle shorts because the old nether regions felt bruised for days!
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In Stratford, the trail passes under both new and old rail bridges.
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Bike resting on the riverbank under the old bridge.
person standing waist-deep in water, giving two thumbs up and grimacing theatrically
THUMBS UP THIS IS GREAT I PROMISE WHY DON'T YOU COME IN THE WATER IS BEAUTIFUL
Apart from walking, I'm also doing a lot of logistical food planning for the Heysen Trail. This includes things like counting how many days between towns, therefore how many meals I need for each section, trying to research whether I'll be able to actually buy enough food for those sections in town or if I need to pack some extras in my drop boxes, thinking about where my drop boxes will go. I'm also experimenting with different low- or no-cook recipes (I've eaten some pretty horrible chia puddings while on this journey!), dehydrating fruits and vegetables, hummus and fruit/veg leathers, making green powder, and so on. I want to leave a lot of the dehydration of actual meals until July, as a rule of thumb is they should be eaten within 3-4 months. I'm thinking of making a pasta with tomato/nut sauce, a sweet potato/lentil dahl and some sort of chilli with beans and possibly quinoa. I'll also take noodles and some extra veg and flavourings to add to whatever I find in the little general stores - be that more noodles or pasta (yum), instant mashed potato (OK, in a pinch) or cous cous (gross). What things do you pack when walking and camping?

The Gippsland Plains Rail Trail and Dooyeedang (Avon River) are part of Brayakaulung (Gunaikurnai) Country. This always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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Back to the back roads near Stockdale

1/5/2022

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Let’s do this again, but make it twice as long!
Person standing on a dirt road surrounded by bush (trees and understory of grass). They are wearing blue shorts, a beige shirt, a backpack, cap and bumbag. They hold walking poles.
Modelling the huge bum bag, done up quite high on my waist to help with the issue of it tipping forward.
It had been almost three weeks since my last long walk (not counting those nice little 10km strolls, obviously!) and I really wanted to get back into the swing of things. I’d enjoyed my last walk along the bike paths and wanted to show Dan the area, so I mapped out a 20km route for us. I stuck to the roads with the hope that there’d be a bit less water to negotiate, especially given two days of rain earlier in the week.
Dirt road running through the centre of the photo, surrounded by trees and scrub
These roads were made for walking. Well, maybe not, but walk them we will.
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A wattle called Prickly Moses.
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Another, more standard, kind of wattle.
We set off just after breakfast, found a spot to park out of sight of the main road and started walking. I was a bit grumpy to start off, not for any particular reason, but within an hour walking had worked its magic and I was happy again. The route was pretty much all nice walking: easy to navigate and see progress, enough elevation change to keep the legs happy but not so much to be hard work. The weather was great for walking too, cool, not particularly humid, and overcast. We did have to apply the insect repellent a couple of times to keep the mozzies off, though!
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Native snail - note the longer shell.
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Spider egg nest in a fallen leaf.
Sign: BEE SITE
We even saw some bees in a few hives as we walked.
We saw and heard quite a few birds - kookaburras, rosellas, magpies, currawongs, choughs, a shrike thrush, wattle birds, blue wrens, thornbills, fantails, willie wagtails and pigeons (at a distance - possibly bronzewing as well as crested). We also had the joy of seeing a bright-red-breasted scarlet robin, which flew onto a nearby branch and looked at us for a while, then darted off.
Red car, crumpled and abandoned in a grassy area among trees
A nearby notice informed us that the powers that be were "aware" of this "illegally dumped litter".
Ant hole with a wombat poo on it, and a wombat has also scraped dirt up
That's one wombat that did not like those ants.
Eucalypt leaf with pink and a grean-teal colour
Pretty colours in a fallen leaf.
At some point we noticed two sets of footprints going the other way. It’s nice to know that other people come walking out here, too - not just dirt bikers, horse riders and firewooders. It was also good to know that the way we were going was going to be passable, since these walkers had come through in the last day or so, since the rain. Eventually, though, we turned down a road they had not taken… and encountered a fair bit of water over the road. Since we still had a long way to go, and since I didn’t think we’d meet too many more such obstacles, we took our shoes off and paddled across, toes sinking into the soft, fine mud at the bottom. It reminded me of the barefoot walk we did years ago. Instead of putting our shoes straight back on, we walked the next few hundred metres barefoot. The dirt was cold and hard, but I enjoyed it.
Dirt track snakes through grassy bushland
Not too far from the border with the plantation - a pine tree has escaped.
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Grey fungi.
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Orange fungus.
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Brown fungi.
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Red fungus.
We stopped for lunch at the Blues Road crossroads that tickled me last time. Part of my prep for the Heysen Trail needs to be about sorting out my food carries and making sure my rationing will work. On this walk for lunch I packed us hummus (some of which I will dehydrate and carry with me), 6 Vita-Weats (my favourite crackers, sorely missed when in the UK), a couple of little sheets of seaweed snack (I'll cut up nori sheets for the Heysen) and an apple (heavy, so I’ll probably only eat these in or just after town). Six Vita-Weats is a surprisingly decent portion. I wasn’t hungry afterwards! I also recently purchased some electrolyte powders, so I added a sachet to one of the water bottles.
Selfie POV, two people holding up their shoes
Off come the shoes! I bet you can't tell which one of us will take almost any excuse to have a paddle.
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Water over road.
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Dan, just finishing up with the large puddle/creek.
We crossed back over the Stockdale Road soon after. We’d been playing Twenty Questions/Who Am I?, and it was my turn. To give you an idea of our previous puzzles: I was Dan, then Dan was our friend Gemma, then I was kangaroo prints, and Dan was a blue wren. After lunch, I was the extremely ear-wormy song “Only the Lonely” by Roy Orbison. This tune plagued me through my last walk (which I've realised is because it is walking paced), and has also infected other members of the household to the point that it is like being Rickrolled. Dan cracked me up by making me guess he was the last Vita-Weat cracker he ate at lunchtime (I had 3 guesses left after guessing it was a Vitaweat he ate at lunch... but which one?!). It definitely passed the time, and Dan got stuck with my next puzzle: the Heysen Trail. Is it bigger than a house? I guess so, though maybe not at any specific point. But he got me back by being the Gelobar in Brunswick.
Anyway, at one point I did a quick detour up to touch the Briagolong-Stockdale Road (necessary to get my full 20km), and Dan waited with my pack. I carried everything for both of us for this walk and my pack and bumbag weighed over 10kg when I started, including two litres of water and all the food. It was nice to get a bit of pack-free travel in. I even broke into a little jog. It didn’t last long, obviously. I’m not a maniac.
Low angle shot of a dirt track, with lots of green moss and little plants growing along the side and in the middle
The photos of this walk seem quite grey - grey earth, grey sky - but there were some green bits!
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Like a small scale aerial view of braided rivers and deltas.
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The Footprint of the Other Walker.
Shortly after this, I thought I could feel a blister forming on my problem toe. Like a fool, I did not stop to check it out or put tape/a plaster on it because “there’s only a couple of kilometres to go.” I guess I have to make that mistake every now and then to remind myself why it’s good practice to stop immediately and check out the issue. When we got back to the car, it wasn’t a blister in the usual weird place at all (although that was sore), but on the side of my toe next to my big toe. I guess that I didn’t clean my feet properly after our barefoot sojourn and some grit had rubbed until the blister formed. Entirely preventable, if I wasn’t so lazy!
Pale grey track runs into the distance, surrounded by trees
You can tell the sun is shining when you get actual shadows!
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Ant hill.
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We saw a lot of leaves with large lumps/galls.
Still, we made it to the end in one piece and pretty good spirits. And it was only 1:45pm. So we toddled home, had a nice shower and a hot cup of tea with a couple of Tim Tams.

Notes

Now this was a training walk! 20km with pack and bum bag starting at 10kg. This original bum bag is huge, and I really stuffed it full on this walk with several snacks and all the items I might carry in it. It turns out the front pocket is just big enough for my phone, but the zip is short, which makes it a hassle to use. I just put the snacks in there instead. The next alterations I need to make are to fix up a sharp bit that cut me (end of the old zip) and change the angle where the strap connects to the bag to stop it falling forwards and leaving a big gap at the top.
Small orange fungus among leaf litter
Stunning! We saw quite a few of these, which I thought looked like mini chanterelles. The fungi ID group confirmed: Cantharellus concinnus.
Orange, coral-like fungus tufts among leaf litter
Even weirder, these ones! "Looks like a coral," I said to Dan. And yep, the ID group says it's a coral fungus - Ramaria capitata var. ochraceosalmonicolor
Physically, that blister was the worst culprit, and it wasn’t really that bad. I popped and plastered it the following day and a couple of days later it was fine. With the heavy pack, I did get quite sore hips and slightly achy knees (thank goodness for walking poles), as well as the usual sore feet. I briefly stretched out my thighs and calves in the middle of the day and when we got to the car. Post-walk and the next day, I continued to stretch my calves and get my hips moving, and I recovered pleasingly quickly. At the end of this walk I thought I could definitely have got another 5km done if needed, especially as there was so much of the afternoon left. So I guess I’m ready to start the 25km hikes!
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Bit of geometrical interest in the bush. Look at all those straight tree trunks.
Yellow Telstra sign informing people to call a number before digging to avoid damaging cables
Dial before digging!
Yellow telstra sign covered in pellet holes from a shot gun
Who knows what this said before it was shot up.
Food-wise, lunch and two snacks during the day was fine. I’ll also have breakfast, dinner, a third and a bit of extra scroggin each day. Ideally I’d be getting into each town with only one emergency meal in reserve, but in reality I don’t think I’ll be able to do full resupplies at every town, so I will be carrying some items (e.g. my own dehydrated food, vegan protein powder) for a much longer time between my resupply boxes. My next step with my pack is to start figuring out exactly what I’m going to take and finding out how I’m going to get all my food in there.
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Dan on the last stretch of the walk. I remember thinking, "I probably should check this blister" as I took this photo. But I didn't.
one map spread out with several other map brochures fanned across it
Maps, maps, maps!
Bright pink undies with blue and yellow spots, a hand holds up the gusset to show a panel of slippy pink material
Party undies! Hope they help with the chub rub!
My latest arrivals are the paper maps for the whole trail. I'm having fun looking through them - there's a lot more than just a map on them. Also, some extremely excellently colourful anti-chafe undies - let’s see if they work!

This walk is on the Country of the Brayakaulung (Gunaikurnai) people. Sovereignty was never ceded and this always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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Single track and spiderwebs

27/4/2022

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Wandering the dirt bike trails off Stockdale Road.
Selfie of smiling person in the bush with a black net over their hat and head
Happy discovery: the head net is good for keeping cobwebs off my face, too.
I hadn’t managed to get out for over a week, and was not likely to be able to do a bigger hike over the Easter long weekend, so I got Dan to drive me out early one day for a quick 10km walk before my sister and her partner arrived on the morning train.
Yellow sun pierces through trees beside a sealed road
Sunrise snapped from the car as we headed through farmland and into the bush.
Person in backpacking gear - pack and walking poles - standing on a grey sandy road in the bush
About to head off, with my kinda matching blue highlights - including a new Canteen bandana.
Saying goodbye to Dan, I went a few steps down a dirt road before plunging into the bush on a narrow but recently used dirt bike path. I’d seen these paths marked on the topo map in Gaia and had wondered if they would be good for walking. This seemed like an ideal time to find out - no big rush, not a very long walk, and a lift out only a phone call away if I needed it. Turns out, the path is pretty good for walking. Maybe a bit narrow through the long grasses, dogwood and bracken at points, a little eroded up by bikes in places, and perhaps slightly wetter in the valleys than would be ideal, but still nice.
Grey, sandy road going into the bush, with a smaller track veering to the side
The track to the left is where we'll be heading...
Single track path with tyre marks on it
Clear signs of recent use.
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But the grass still crowds in on the path.
It was slow going, though. Unlike road walking, this was the kind of path where I had to pay attention to where I was putting my feet - I spent a lot of time looking down. There were also a lot of spiderwebs. I had the genius idea of donning my head net (which is for flies, but I never seem to have it on fly-filled walks) to keep them off my face. That worked quite well, but it slightly obstructed my view so it actually increased my chances of walking into webs in the first place. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. It did also make my head a little bit hot, being an extra layer on top of my hat.
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A nice patch with shorter grass, giving a good view of the track and the surrounding open forest.
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New web with cool 'zipper' feature. Sadly, I had to break it to get through.
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A jewel spider - reminded me of our first walk of the year!
It had been cool overnight, but it hovered around the mid-high teens for most of my walk. The bush was fairly quiet, but I did see and/or hear cockies, rosellas, noisy miners, shrike thrushes and butcherbirds. I disturbed several wallabies (or one unfortunate wallaby several times), but I only caught a glimpse of one tail disappearing - the rest of the time it was just the thuds of them jumping away. I started slightly dreading the sound of frogs, though, especially if I was going downhill - it usually meant there was a bit of a swamp over the path and I’d need to pick my way to the other side. I managed to only get slightly damp feet for most of the walk - but about half an hour from the end I encountered some water I couldn’t get around. I splashed on and gave my boring new Altras their first dirty bath!
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Morning sunshine streaming through the trees and lighting up the long grass.
Two brown fungus shaped a little like cups or cones
These little cups looked like they were catching sunshine.
Long narrow bell-shaped flowers, red apart from the green ends that turn out in triangles
There were lots of correas out in this area.
I passed two pairs of people on this walk, out collecting firewood. (So, when they were chopping wood, the bush was in fact not very quiet at all.) Other than that, I only saw the cars on the Stockdale Road - and there were a lot of them heading off with their camping trailers for the long weekend! A bike or two had been through in the last couple of days, and there were lots of horse shoe prints on some of the roads, so the area is definitely well used.
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I'm not sure what these purple flowers are. They seem to have one petal? I need to look more closely.
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Another unknown purple flower.
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Purple flowers again - some kind of native pea?
Because it was a bit slow on the single track, I decided to knock out a few quick ks on the roads. It was amazing how much more quickly I progressed! I let Dan know to pick me up half an hour later than arranged, and then, because I had more time, I did a few more footpath/dirt bike track detours! Towards the end of the walk, I met the edge of the HVP pine plantation, then jumped back into the bush to follow the bike track back to our meeting place.
A swampy area of bright green grass and water
This was the first wet area that made me doubt I'd get through, but I managed to pick my way through the middle to the larger tree without too much trouble.
A rutted, muddy bit of path in the bush
An earlier damp section. Easy peasy!
Path completely covered with water, which reflects tall trees
This one got me! Can't go over it, can't go under it...
POV shot of legs and feet walking through shallow, muddy water
... can't go around it. Have to go through it!
This was a pretty nice spot to come for a walk if you don’t mind getting your feet wet. I’d probably advise leg coverings, too, unless you (like me) don’t mind getting your shins a bit scratched up.
Dirt road stretching out through bushland, climbing a small hill
Now if that isn't a road that looks like it need walking... (But I just crossed over it back onto more bike track!)

Notes

Although this was only 10km, it felt a little bit more like training than my last three 10km walks. I think that’s because (a) I was alone, (b) the path required a bit more concentration and energy, (c) I was carrying a pack (even if it wasn’t that heavy) and (d) it was a bit more adventurous with route finding.
A fork in a dirt road in the bush, one fork featuring a very large puddle
Guess which way I have to go? Of course, the one with the giant puddle! (It was fine.)
Crossroads of two dirt roads in the bush
As I walked up, I started singing, "I went down to the crossroads, fell down on my knees"...
Road sign
... and was amused to find I was crossing Blues Road. Apt!
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On the left, the bush and a bush track; on the right, the plantation and the management road/firebreak.
My right foot was a bit sore in the arch, and I almost got that annoying blister under my toe. I think that’s because my feet were damp for a lot of the walk and wet for the last section. But otherwise my shoes felt fine - or at least, any issues within the shoe were outdone by the terrain!
Single track path covered in leaf litter, leading through bracken and trees
Decided to go for another detour, because why not, that's why.
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The remains of some kind of earth star fungus.
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A nice young puffball.
I used the smaller bum bag, and I think I’ve decided I would rather take the big one. Although this one has the really handy pocket for my phone at the front, I don’t think it’s quite big enough to store everything I want handy: audio recorder, sunnies, PLB, snack, lip balm, head net, maybe a bandanna/buff, phone and a snack or two. I can use the hip belt pockets on my pack for the PLB and a couple of small things (which I did today), but the extra space is just too useful. Maybe I can create an internal pocket for my phone in the large bum bag to make it easier to keep separate from the rest of the contents.
Single track path leads straight ahead through long grasses and small trees.
A beautiful section of trail through open forest, which I guess has seen a fuel reduction burn not too long ago.

This walk is on Brayakaulung/Gunaikurnai Country. As with all of so-called Australia, Indigenous people did not cede this territory - it always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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Walk: The Silt Jetties

25/4/2022

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Exploring an intriguing geological feature on my mum’s birthday.
Under grey skies, a black swan with white wingtips flies over a road that is bordered by water on both sides
A swan flies across one of the narrowest stretches of the silt jetty, the land barely wider than the road. The end of the jetty curves out to the right.
I’d had the silt jetties down near Paynesville on my list of places to check out since before we got back to Australia. So, when Mum suggested it for her birthday walk, I agreed post haste!
View from the grassy top of a small cliff over a river, a strip of land and lake beyond
Before we started, we called into the lookout point on The Bluff at the start of the silt jetties - it was a bit cloudy, misty and drizzly, though!
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Pigface - bush tucker.
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Millipedes - not bush tucker (for me, anyway).
What are silt jetties? Good question. They’re a kind of delta (more specifically a kind of digitate delta), where the sediment coming down a river is deposited in such a way that it extends the river’s course out into another body of water in a long ‘finger’ (digit). Rather than the splitting and braiding of the classic delta system you might have learnt about in high school geography, the thin strips of land that make up the silt jetties here at the end of the Wy Yung (Mitchell River) keep the river in a single channel. It extends almost all the way across the part of the Gippsland Lakes system where the river emerges. It is possibly, from my 15 minutes of research, the longest example of this kind of single-finger delta in the world. (But see also birds foot deltas such as the Mississippi - also digitate deltas, and much bigger!)
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A jetty on the jetties! This was at the car park where we started the walk. It was not closed.
Sign saying Mitchell River Landing Closed For Construction
However . . .
jetty or landing with a
. . . this one was.
Anyway, this background information is perhaps the most interesting thing about this walk! The silt jetties look amazing from the air, but of course as you walk along them, it mostly just feels like any other river and/or lakeside walk. The few exceptions to this are the moments where the jetty arm is so thin that it’s only wide enough for the road and a little strip either side, and right at the end, when you really get a sense of being in the middle of a larger body of water - just as you do when you walk to the end of a long, human constructed pier or jetty.
Road bordered by reeds on one side with pedestrian road signs
BEWARE PEDESTRIANS and other signs indicating that people are often walking along this road!
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A magpie that sat in this tree and watched us go past. Mum tried to get it to warble by burbling at it, but it just gazed disdainfully at her.
There was a lot of rain around the area during the week we were away, but the day we went for this walk it started cloudy with no rain on the forecast. We strolled past the houses strung out along the jetties (probably somewhat precariously given predicted climate change and water level rises), stopping to chat to some people building a high fence and their friendly boof of a dog. The road turned to gravel and we enjoyed the protection against the wind that the vegetation provided - it wasn’t super cold, but the breeze had a bite to it! The last couple of houses were beyond the power lines, so I presume they were running off grid with their solar panels and perhaps a generator.
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Heading down the road on a thin part of the silt jetties - and is that a tiny glimpse of blue sky?!
At points, the jetty is very narrow - barely more than the road width - and at other times it is much wider, with vegetation and grass clearings with a few kangaroos. Information signs told us that since colonisation and the opening of the lakes, erosion has been an issue here. We could see that rocks have been placed all the way along the edges of the jetties to prevent them from eroding further. If the rocks hadn’t been put there, the jetties would now be a chain of small islands, rather than a continuous strip of land.
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You can really see on the arm across the river how vulnerable these jetties have become to erosion and any rise in water levels.
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Dead praying mantis. (Or stick insect?)
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Dead juvenile tiger snake - look how yellow the underparts are.
Along the way we saw various waterbirds - mostly pelicans, cormorants, ducks and swans - as well as swallows, shrike thrushes and a couple of magpies. We also found a dead juvenile tiger snake and a dead praying mantis on the road. At the end, we walked past the car park and right to the tip of the jetty, where we looked over what was now quite a narrow strip of water towards the opposite side of the lake. We could make out places we’ve visited and walked since we came back to Australia - Raymond Island, Paynesville and Tambo Bluff near Metung.
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The end of the jetty! It was remarkable how close we were to the other side of the lake.
After making it to the end, we backtracked a little way to a waterside spot with a couple of benches, out of the wind, perfect place for a cup of tea. A clutch of baby huntsman spiders also thought it was a perfect place, but that’s another story!
Black and white photo with tree limbs branching across a view of water
A cormorant sitting in a tree by the river.
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Another lovely tree.
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And another at the water's edge.
And then we walked back. The sun came out, which was lovely - the water was sparkling and the views were excellent. What else to say about this walk? Oh, there was a public loo halfway down. It was a drop loo, but obviously they can’t dig down into the ground this close to the water, so they have built the toilet up a flight of stairs. Dan went and reported back on the loo with a view. I meant to take photos of this marvellous structure, but on the way back I was too busy chatting with mum and we completely missed it.
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Sun's out! Dad and Dan heading back towards the mainland - you can see Paynesville in the distance.
Looking at purplish water through a mown lawn dotted with trees and palms
The lake looked really purple, which you can kind of see in this photo.
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Tea tree.
After the return walk, we hopped in the car and drove to Paynesville where we ate a huge and delicious lunch of chips, potato cakes and onion rings. A great birthday feast!

Notes

This was not a difficult walk, we went through the 12km pretty quickly. I can’t remember exactly, but I’m pretty sure we were slightly faster than our 4kph standard (excluding our tea break!). I did fall asleep in the car on the way home, but whether that was a result of the walk or the enormous quantity of chips consumed, who can say. My new (boring colour) Altras feel pretty well worn in, now.
Green shrubs and grass under a blue sky
One of the wider (and wilder?) parts of the silt jetties, where we saw a couple of kangaroos.
kangaroo foot prints in sandy soil
Proof of kangaroo!
Three people walking away from the camera down a dirt road, the middle person turning back with a smile. They are beside a red sign saying REDUCE SPEED.
Well, we were going pretty fast!
It was nice to be out again so soon. Even though the last few walks have been pretty short, and I clearly haven’t done anything I said I’d try to do in my last March post (consecutive days, bigger pack, longer walks, overnighters), I don’t feel too bad about it.
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Pelicans and other birds on some branches in the river - almost back where we started.
Mum and dad found another bum bag at an op shop ($3!) and I used it on this walk, as well as carrying my backpack with the thermos and so on. It’s a nice bum bag, and has a front pocket that’s big enough for my phone, which is great - saves me having to fumble around in the main pocket whenever I want to get it out for a picture or to check progress. The main pocket is a lot smaller, though, so I don’t think I’d be able to fit both my audio recorder and my sunnies in there alongside a snack, my PLB, etc. I also don’t love the side fastening and adjustment mechanism on the strap. I’ll give it another go next time!
Grey bum bag or fanny pack with a black strap resting on a wooden table
The new bum bag. Great front pocket, but maybe too small? And slightly annoying adjustment when wearing it under a backpack.

The silt jetties have formed at the end of the Wy Yung (Mitchell River) in the Gippsland Lakes system. This is Gunaikurnai Country, specifically of the Brabalung people. It always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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Walk: Ovens River, Bright

14/4/2022

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Autumn leaves, gold mining history, pretty river views, tasty treats… and a little dip, of course!
Smiling person in blue shorts standing knee-deep in a small river, with trees and grasses growing on each bank
I'm not sure it's physically possible for me to see an inviting river and not accept the invitation. I'd just recorded something for Queer Out Here.
We were in the Ovens Valley for a short stay after our Melbourne sojourn. After a cloudy and drizzly start, our second day dawned with bright sunshine and the promise of temperatures in the mid-20s. There are plenty of options for walks in this area, ranging from flat and accessible (e.g. sections of the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail) to epic ascents (The Big Walk up Mt Buffalo rises 1000m in about 10km) and everything in between. As this was our first time here together (and I hadn’t been since I was a kid) we decided we’d stay around Bright and explore it in more detail.
A shallow river runs over a small weir or rapid in bright morning sunshine. The near bank is grassy and the far bank is full of trees, both native and exotic/deciduous
The Ovens River at Bright. Bright is famous for it's autumn colours, which were starting when we were there.
A pamphlet called
A great guide book for finding walks in the area.
Tall trees cast shadows over the river, with a blue sky overhead
Morning shadows on the river.
We strung together two of the walks in the very good guidebook that you can pick up for free at the visitor info centre (or many shops around the place). First, the Canyon Walk, which heads downstream along the river, crossing swing bridges to head back on the opposite side; second, Cherry Walk, which heads upstream and back in much the same fashion. Both walks are pretty easy, though not fully accessible - and the rockier sections of the Canyon Walk on the northern side could be a bit slippery when wet. Both walks are about 5km (though you can do a shorter version of the Canyon Walk by turning back at the first swing bridge).
A person walks away from the camera on a dirt path beneath the limbs of scrubby trees, which cast lines of shadow across the whole image
Dan heading along the Canyon Walk on the north side of the river - the slightly more adventurous part of the trail.
One point perspective of a swing bridge, slightly backlit by the bright sun, with a pine-covered hill in the background
One of the Canyon Walk swing bridges.
Close up of a twig of Ovens wattle with a blurry background of path and bush behind
Ovens wattle? In the Ovens Valley? It's more likely than you think!
The morning was glorious, and currawong calls echoed across the valley as we set off on the Canyon Walk. There were a few other people strolling along the river, even though it was mid-week and not yet school holidays. Bright is a tourist destination - and for good reason! The autumn leaves on the deciduous trees might not have quite reached their full glory, but there were flashes of colour wherever we looked, and the smell of fallen leaves was starting to scent the air. The views along the river as we headed into the small gorge were absolutely stunning.
Small, sheer cliff face dropping down to the river
The canyon might not be very big, but there are lovely views along and across the river.
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Bright red sap!
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A large rusty-orange mushroom.
On the way up, we noticed some water falling out of a split in the rock slabs opposite and wondered how it got there. On the way back, after crossing the swing bridge and making the short extra trip up to the old rail bridge, we learned that it was coming from an old tail race. These deep channels through the rock were cut by miners during the gold rush to drain water from the claims where it was used in the extraction of gold from the soil. The path crosses several of these channels and it’s boggling to think of the amount of work that must have gone into their construction.
Looking down the river in a shady, small ravine, with rocks on both sides and trees above
The walk drops down to the rocky riverside, with the path formed by stones concreted into the bed,
Shadow of two people waving, with the river behind. On the far side of the river is a narrow split in the rock face, from which a small trickle of water falls to the river
Hello waterfall, where did you come from?
Shadow of two people waving and a deep, narrow channel cut in the ground
Hello tail race, that's where the water's from!
There is a darker side to the gold mining history here. Mining started in the 1850s and by the end of that decade most of the river (alluvial) mining was run by Chinese miners - it’s probably these people who cut the tail races we crossed over. Two years after the anti-Chinese Buckland race riot, which occurred just downstream in 1857, the camp near Bright was also attacked by White miners. One man was murdered and another severely injured. Anti-Chinese racism has been a continual issue in Australia since these gold-rush days.
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There were many pretty views along the river from the bridges and banks on both of the walks. And we had a great day for it.
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Autumn leaves and native trees.
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Good coffee and fantastic cake to take away - recommended!
Back in Bright, I tried in vain to record some black cockies, which stopped squeaking every time I hit the button. I did, however, manage to record a few gang gangs - probably the cutest parrot, in my opinion. We enjoyed watching a few blue faced honey eaters, which I can’t remember having seen before. They look fake! Incidentally, the magpies up on the north side of the range have black backs, rather than white, which I also found interesting. We grabbed cake and coffee (cake and chai for Dan) from Ginger Baker (not the drummer) and sat beside the river to eat. Yum!
View of a small, shallow river flanked by trees and scrub, with sunshine falling through the leaves
What's this? Another view of the river? Well, what did you expect?!
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Dan between native trees and plantation pine.
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Mint was growing everywhere at this point on the Cherry Walk.
After a nice break, we headed off upstream on the Cherry Walk - named after a local family rather than the fruit, alas. In fact, along much of the south side of the river the path runs beside plantation pine. Again, we saw a few people out and about, though it seems to be a less popular loop. It’s a little less shady and maybe not quite as spectacular, but I really enjoyed meandering beside the river, past multiple picnic areas and popular fishing spots. A series of informative signs taught me a great deal about fly fishing, none of which I have committed to memory as inflicting injuries on fish does not seem like an enjoyable or ethical pastime to me. I will, however, concede that standing in or sitting beside a river for hours on end is a great way to spend a day, so I do understand the appeal. Especially on a day like this was, in a river like the Ovens.
A brace of fairly big orange mushrooms growing near the base of a tree
Now that could make a nice lunch... if I knew anything about them!
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Dan on yet another swing bridge.
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This part of the Cherry Walk was a little overgrown.
As we headed back, the path passed through patches of mint, overgrowing reeds and blackberries. It also, on this walk, suddenly occurred to me that the Ovens wattle - of which we saw plenty - is so called because it’s named after this valley. We finally found a spot without fishers to have a paddle, and I recorded a little bit of audio for the next issue of Queer Out Here. The water was brisk and clear. It was lovely.
Sign reading NO: RUNNING STARTS, STANDING, JUMPING ON SLIDE, CHAINING OR GOING BACKWARDS. DO NOT ENTER WATER HEAD FIRST.
There's a water slide into the river at Bright, but it was closed. However, the signs make clear that you're not to have fun on it.
Sign titled
General warnings for life.
Persons illegally entering this slide enclosure or interfering with equipment do so at their own risk.
More slide signage.
Soon enough we were in town again, and we headed to Clean Bowled for a fresh lunch. It was super tasty, and the weather was perfect for sitting in the park and relaxing. Afterwards, we did a couple of chores then headed back to our accommodation in Porepunkah, where I went for a proper dip in the river. It was definitely on the invigorating end of the nice-refreshing-invigorating-freezing scale of coldness. I loved it. My hands stopped working properly and they stung like anything when I had a shower to warm up afterwards. Would recommend!

Notes

Again, this hardly counts as training! My only complaint was a sore lower back, but a little stretching mid-walk and a bit more afterwards helped with that, as it always does. My new shoes were fine, apart from a slightly annoying bit on the outside of the right foot where the crease of the shoe pushes into the side of my bottom toe joint when my foot bends. Not enough to make a blister, just enough to be a slight mental irritation. I had ordered (and received just after this trip) another pair of the Lone Peaks (in the bright colour, yay!) and I’m interested to see if the same happens with them or if it’s just a quirk of this pair in particular.
Person standing hip deep in a river, holding up a cup of tea and gesturing to it with a wide smile
A cup of tea while standing in a river! How very civilised. (Thanks for passing it to me, Dan.)
Person standing thigh-deep in a river with trees beyond
In the Ovens River at Porepunkah.
Person neck-deep in a river with their arms spread out, smiling to the camera and caught in bright sunshine
I really did go in. It was inviting, after all.
I also ordered the full set of the Heysen Trail paper maps when we got home from the trip. I will get a lot of enjoyment looking at them before and after the hike. I don’t plan to use them that much while on the trail, but I’ll carry them for the very good reason that they never run out of batteries. Anyway, this is exciting and makes it all feel a little more real! Next step... is maybe buying plane tickets to Adelaide?!

This area is Taungurung and Jaitmathang Country. Sovereignty was never ceded and this always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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Into the City: Brunswick to Southbank

13/4/2022

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A different kind of walk-and-swim outing.
City skyline under a blue and cloudy sky, viewed from over an expanse of grass
Let's go that way! View of the city skyline from the native grassland circle in Royal Park.
I didn’t want to spend a day of our short Melbourne break doing a 25km walk and rendering myself useless for any socialising in the evening. But I did want to do a walk long enough to count as ‘training’ - i.e. a minimum of around 10km. So, we decided to walk from our spot on Sydney Rd in Brunswick to my sister’s place high up in the sky on Southbank. The direct route is more like 8km (and a bit boring), so we added a few scenic diversions.
Street scene with a sign for Tabet's Bakery, healthy lebanese pizzas & pies
Mmm, time for some tasty treats for lunch. I've missed Sydney Road!
Person walking in front of brightly coloured graffiti
Along the Upfield line in Brunswick.
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No biggie, just catching up with an old friend!
We started off by calling in to Tabets for some late lunchy snacks, then stepped over onto the bike path that runs beside the Upfield line. It’s always fun to revisit the old haunts and see what’s changed and what hasn’t since we lived in the area. And on the bike path we ran into an old friend! Kate, who made so much tasty food for us on our Snowy River adventure. That was lovely, not just to stop and have a chat but to be reminded that yep, we lived in this city for 10+ years and know enough people that we can just randomly bump into them.
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Sign for the Capital City Trail - we didn't follow much of this.
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Old signalling stuff near the entry to Royal Park.
Person walking on a sealed path through scrubby trees
Dan on the way through Royal Park.
Melbourne Zoo tram shelter with a mural of animals painted on it
We didn't go to the zoo, but you can have this picture on a tram stop.
The bike path curves into Royal Park, joining the Capital City Trail (we once walked this loop in one day - and it remains one of my longest distances covered in a day at 30-something kilometres). We jumped off that path behind the zoo, and instead made our way to the native grasslands circle. This was our main additional detour of the walk - we did an almost complete loop, adding about 1km. It’s quite a nice spot to go for a stroll, with big skies and views of the city skyline.
Red box with multiple signs indicating it contains BOOSTER CONNECTION or SPRINKLER BOOSTER CONNECTION or HYDRANT BOOSTER CONNECTION or COMBINED HYDRANT SPRINKLER BOOSTER CONNECTION
I wonder what's in here...
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City glimpses, Flagstaff Gardens.
View down a street towards the city, with a two-pronged cactus growing as tall as a 2 story brick building
Spot the extremely tall cactus.
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Helicopter about to land on the Royal Women's Hospital.
We enjoyed the park beside the children’s hospital as the last bit of this long section of non-roadside walking, then headed through the streets of North Melbourne. A helicopter landed on the Royal Melbourne Hospital as we waited for the traffic lights. We passed the old Meat Market then headed south to stroll through Flagstaff Gardens. The skyscrapers of the city sprang up around us and we crossed William Street to avoid the stream of workers heading to the station. A nice little surprise was the Market Street Park, which gave us a great view of our destination: the super tall building with a golden ‘skirt’.
Garden scene with wide paths, lawn, oak trees and people walking and sitting
Dan on the way through Flagstaff Gardens. It was a very pleasant Friday afternoon, and lots of people were out.
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Late 20th Century vibes - mirrored glass ahoy!
View between tall buildings and over a small park towards an extremely tall skyscraper with a golden, spiky belt or skirt around it about 2 thirds of the way up
Our destination - the pool is in the gold 'skirt'.
It was a quick walk from there across the river and into Southbank. In keeping with my theme of having a swim after a walk, my sister took me to the infinity pool on floor 70 for a dip. Maybe not as refreshing as the creek, but pretty spectacular. I’ve definitely never been swimming somewhere that gives me a view over the top of other high rise buildings, parks, suburbs and the bay before!
View up a river showing autumn trees, tall buildings and a bridge with many wiry scupltures
Crossing the Yarra - autumn is here!

Notes

This was an easy 10km walk, and the only possible issue was that the majority of it was on sealed surfaces. My feet were slightly sore immediately afterwards, but I didn’t notice any twinges the next day. Having a swim helped stop any lingering stiffness, too.
Tabby cat resting one white paw on a table and wearing a serious expression
Nibs has an important point to make in this meeting.
View from high up, looking over a city scape with many tall (but shorter than the viewer) buildings, a lake and park and the sea
View from the couch. Didn't even have to climb a hill!
Small infinity pools and a poolside couch, with a view out the window to the edge of the city and the bay
Pool with a view.
Cup with flowers and cursive writing saying Oh for Fuck's Sake
It's a very good cup of tea in a very good cup.
Honestly, I wondered if I should even write this up as a training walk. But then, I started with 10km walks in January, so I might as well. It did tell me that my walking fitness has improved since then!
Two people in a pool with the same view out of the full length windows
It's pretty cool to look out of the pool you're in and see this kind of view. Wow!

This walk in Naarm (Melbourne) is on Wurundjeri Country. Sovereignty was never ceded and this always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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Walk: Tinamba to Heyfield and back

10/4/2022

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After a few slightly more adventurous and far-flung hikes, I returned to the trusty Gippsland Plains Rail Trail for my final walk in March.
Green-wrapped circular bales lined up behind a few trees and a fencline, with a blue and white sky above
Wrapped hay bales lined up against the fence beside the rail trail. Also, a cool tree.
We (Dan, my parents and I) started walking from Tinamba just before 9am, after our car shuffle was held up by roadworks. Our plan was to walk 10km to Heyfield and have lunch, then Dan and I would walk back while Mum and Dad would pick up their car outside the cafe and head home. It was a cool and slightly foggy morning, though the forecast promised a sunny day with highs in the mid-20s.
Map of the trail (photo of an info sign)
I haven't posted a map of the whole trail before. We've now walked all of the trail between Heyfield and Stratford.
Person in front of a grey colorbond wall with a sign saying AdBlue on it. The person is in blue shorts, wears a large bum bag and has a back pack on the ground beside them.
Posing with my huge bum bag, while Dad buys snacks!
Three figures walk away from the camera on a gravel track
Off we go!
The nice thing about this part of the rail trail is that almost two thirds of it does not travel beside a road. Instead it cuts southwest through farmland, diagonally across the grid of back roads, before running alongside the main road into Heyfield for the last few kilometres. Although there weren’t any particular highlights on this section, it was probably the most pleasant so far. There were stretches of shady wattles (including blackwood) and some really lovely established eucalypts around Heyfield and on the hill (“hill” being a generous description) in the middle of the section.
Person walking away from the camera on a wooden bridge with a dark red steel frame
Crossing the waspy bridge! They were less active in the morning than on the way back.
Pair of shoes with a white mushroom breaking out of the earth
Mushrooms popping up all over.
Rusty red mushroom
Some very big mushrooms, in fact.
My folks set quite a good pace! I told Dan it made me notice how often I stop to take photos or look at things along the way - let alone field recording, which takes a minimum of a few minutes each time. Luckily they stopped at the handily spaced benches (pretty much breaking the section into thirds) to let us catch up, take off the pack, stretch a bit and have a snack. We arrived in Heyfield a little sooner than we would have at our usual 4kph standard!
Looking out into paddocks across two farm gates.
The trail is occasionally used as an access track for farms, or crossed by farm tracks. We saw a few vehicles in the morning.
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Water and distant hills through the long grass.
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I don't know my grasses. This one looked cool, though.
Possibly the best bit of the day came in the form of a cute, friendly little cat at the Stag & Doe cafe in Heyfield. It was pretty snuggly! We enjoyed our lunch and drinks (thanks for shouting us, Mum and Dad)... but I enjoyed meeting the cat more.
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At a crossing of one of the back roads, the rail line is still visible in the asphalt.
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The spiky nuts or cones of a casuarina tree.
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What the casuarina tree looks like from further back.
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Crossing the main road into Heyfield, where traffic lights for the roadworks worked in our favour (not that it's a hugely busy road anyway).
After lunch, my folks dropped us back up at the trail (saving our legs all of 500m) and we faffed around for a bit - emptying our shoes of gravel, reapplying sunscreen - before setting off at 12:10pm. Dan and I discussed how much easier we were finding this walk than the Maffra-Tinamba one last month... and then it got sunnier and hotter and the flies came out. Still, there weren’t too many flies and it wasn’t too hot, so it wasn’t all that bad.
Close up of fingers holding a red wrapped Cherry Ripe chocolate bar, with trees and grasslands behind
Dad got us a few snacks from the Tinamba general store. And when I really needed some sugar, the Cherry Ripe actually tasted amazing.
Three people walking away from the camera on a straight gravel track
Lots of long, straight path on the rail trail...
Straight dirt track between trees
... yep, a lot. Enjoyed the larger trees beside the trail in this section.
It often feels quicker walking the return leg, regardless of how long it actually takes. We knew the benches would break our trip in thirds, so we had something to aim for. We didn’t stop long - just enough to sip some water, do some circles with our ankles and take the weight off. The shady trees and a very slight cool breeze kept us pretty happy for the first half. We both had a couple of twinges in the foot and leg department, but we kept up a fair pace up over the hill (well, it does offer a slight gradient!) and down onto the plains.
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A body of water (possibly part of an irrigation channel?) on the way there...
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... and the same one on the way back!
We hadn’t seen any other walkers or cyclists on the way to Heyfield, but we saw four cyclists (a pair and two solo) on the way back. The last one we met just before we crossed over the bridge not far from Tinamba, and he kindly warned us of the wasps that frequent the structure. We’d noticed them in the morning and they were still hanging around. They weren’t aggressive or anything, though, so we just wandered through and tried not to disturb them. I wonder why they all hang out on that bridge? Are they collecting wood for nests underneath it?
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Site of the old Heyfield station. There were lots of signs in this park about post WWII migrant workers in the area.
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A butterfly caught in one of many spiderwebs along the trail.
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The cute cafe cat in Heyfield!
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There's something very soothing about this kind of path - this is where you're going, no need to think too hard, just walk and be present.
We didn’t see a huge number of mammals - Dad spotted a bunch of rabbits, but I only saw their poo, and there were a few herds of cows along the way. Once again, we were treated to clouds of butterflies, making us feel like Disney princesses. There were also a lot of spiderwebs with large orb weaver spiders in them - as well as a couple of unfortunate butterflies, dragonflies and other insects. Birds once again made up most of our sightings - magpies, currawongs, little ravens, sulphur crested cockies, corellas, straw-necked ibis and fantails all made multiple appearances. We heard a kookaburra and a butcher bird and saw a shrike thrush and a couple of blue wrens. Towards the end of the walk a small brown bird of prey (maybe a brown falcon?) darted ahead of us on the path and was pursued straight back out into the paddocks by a few magpies. We also stopped to watch two whistling kites turning circles above us. They’re big birds!
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It's hard to get a good photo of the distant hills - they come up a little better in black and white.
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Dead trees beside the trail.
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Classic Australian scene: paddock and windmill.
Dan and I made it back into Tinamba at 2:40pm - exactly two and a half hours after leaving, which is spot on in terms of our average pace. We got a nice cold bottle of lemonade at the general store and headed home for a shower, tea and hot cross buns. Yum!
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Dan, somewhere near the top of the "hill" between Heyfield and Tinamba.

Notes

I’m not sure if it’s my general fitness, the nice terrain, the cooler weather, new shoes or a combination of all four, but this was a pretty easy 20km walk. I carried a heavier pack than I have so far in my training walks (maybe 7kg?) but I still felt pretty good afterwards. I also used the big bum bag again, which I’ve patched and done a couple of minor alterations on (see below).
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Removing the zip that attached to a larger bag.
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Removing rattly zip toggles (see bottom).
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Patching and reinforcing in contrast colours!
I was a little tight in my calves as usual, but stretching helped. My feet were less achy than after other flat walks. And I definitely wasn’t as tired as I have been after my previous few outings. I’ve been a bit concerned about making the step up to 25km walks, but maybe I’ll be fine! However, I’m still not 100% sure what my training walks will be like in April and into May. Options include:
  • Increase mileage (weekly walks of about 25km)
  • Increase pack weight (up to about 10kg including food and water) 
  • Do more consecutive days (e.g. 15-20km one day and 10-15km the next)
  • Do some multi-day walks with camping (keeping the days pretty low mileage)
I might end up doing some combination of these - and I need to fit things in around various commitments, so it might end up a little more patchy!
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Looking back towards the low hill from the Tinamba side. No special highlights, but a really nice quiet section of rail trail.
Before I head off on the Heysen Trail, I definitely want to have done at least a handful of multi-day “shakedown” walks to test out new gear/gear combos. I also know that in the first week of the Heysen there will be a couple of 28-30km days, so I want to make sure to do a couple of walks of that distance with similar ascent/descent and a decently full pack before I leave - just so I know I can do it.

This walk, and the Gippsland Plains Rail Trail generally, is on Brayakaulung (GunaiKurnai) Country. This always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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Walk: Stockdale to Blue Pool

8/4/2022

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A solo walk through the foothills and fringes of the Briagolong State Forest.
Dirt road through tall trees and an understory of bright green bracken ferns
Probably my favourite moment of the walk was finding this unexpectedly lush pocket of forest.
I’m still quite behind with my walking blog posts, sorry. I have another four walks to write up! Anyway, way back on the 23rd of March, a bit before 9:15am, Dan dropped me off at the intersection of Beverleys Road and Stoney Road, near Stockdale. It was very pleasant walking up the dirt track as the weather was cool and the sun was peeking through the clouds and trees. Many, many frogs were singing from the puddles that pooled in gutters and old wheel ruts beside the road - it had rained the day before. The track was smooth and climbed gently for the first 4km.
Yellow gravel road with green surrounds and trees on both sides
At the start of the walk the sky alternated between overcast and blue, the sun breaking through.
A straight dirt road hemmed in by tall trees that cast shadow stripes
Morning light in the bush.
Close up of leaves, the newest ones red and the more mature ones a grey-teal colour
New growth - love the contrasting colours.
reddish gravel road with a grassy border on its uphill side, and trees under a blue and white cloudy sky
The moon is up there, calling me on! I could hear frogs at many points along this track.
I was loving every moment of the walk so far! The bush smelt amazing - eucalyptus, dogwood, hop goodenia, wet earth... The sky was clearing and the three-quarter moon hung before me, calling me west. Views opened up to the forested hills north of the valley, and back east I caught glimpses of a landscape made silvery by the morning light. I heard black cockies, saw a couple of wallabies, a feral cat (uh oh), kookaburras, magpies, currawongs, native snails and tadpoles. As the bush woke up, later in the morning and into the afternoon, I saw more birds - lots of wrens, some red-browed finches, shrike thrushes, sulphur crested cockies and, towards the end, a quail that scuttled across the road in front of me. I also photographed a dead red bellied black snake - it looked like it had been run over on the road, poor thing. (Photo not included.)
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As I took this photo, a dragonfly zoomed over. I wasn't sure if it would show up, but there it is!
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Zoom in for the silvery landscape in the distance.
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A little native snail friend. I wonder who got to their destination first?
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There was a lot of this purple flowered plant around. Not sure what it is? Against the red dirt it looks very central Australian.
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Taddies! I didn't see a single frog, though.
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More new growth.
I turned off for a 2km walk downhill past a section of bush that had been burnt more severely a couple of years ago judging by the black trunks and fallen trees. Dad reckons a fuel reduction burn - if so, it might have got a bit out of hand. I stopped for a few minutes at the creek for a drink and half a protein bar, then started climbing again. The track was very slightly steeper than the first climb, but still not too hard - about 200m ascent over 2km. Clouds were gathering overhead, threatening rain. Towards the top of the climb, the road circled to the south of the hill where mountain ash (I think) joined the stringybark and box- tall, pale trunks rising from a dense understory of bright green bracken. A shaft of sunlight shot through, illuminating a patch of the forest. Magical!
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A more recently burnt area, with blackened trunks and sparse undergrowth.
paw prints in sandy soil
Dog prints, I think?
close up of pale yellow wattle blossom
Wattle!
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A lot of wattle! The photo doesn't really give the full sea-of-blossom effect.
A three way sign for STONEY RD, STONEY No 1 RD, and STONEY No 2 RD
Absolutely no possibility of confusion here.
Green ferns and shrubs in a little valley with tall trees behind
Rest stop down in the creek.
Selfie of a smiling person in a cap with a backpack in front of green ferny background
I think you can probably tell I was pretty happy with the walk at this point!
At Insolvent Track, I turned left and began a long, easy stretch of mostly downhill walking. Insolvent Track was the first main colonial route up to Dargo, which was interesting to consider as I went along. The sun came out again, and the weather was heating up. I spotted Mount Moornapa Fire Tower on the horizon. For the first time, I heard signs of other humans - mainly a chainsaw in the distance, and an aeroplane passing overhead. I was getting hungry, so I stopped for lunch near a clearing that belongs to the plantations and seems to have some kind of quarry in it. I could hear a digger or truck working in there, but I didn’t see anyone. I later noticed the wheel marks and fresh firewood collection spots of the chainsawyers, but didn’t see them, either. Lunch was far too big, but I didn’t want to carry it in my pack any more, so I ate it all!
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Australian bluebell with maidenhair fern in the background.
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Orange fungus.
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Red fungus, looking a bit rude.
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Lunch spot. Even a nice seat (if you like ants and mosquitoes).
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Stripy stone.
Tree trunk with a blue C sprayed on it, and a rock with the same
Do you C? I C.
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O 44 - not sure what these were all about.
Immediately after lunch, a sharp downhill and uphill. Yuck. But then a stretch of relatively flat walking allowed me to digest. I realised I had started talking to myself at some point. Oh well, the birds weren’t judging me. I hope. With about 6km to go, I called Dan and let him know I should be at Blue Pool before 3pm, so long as I didn’t conk out on the steep climb that I knew was coming. I was getting a little achy as I headed down to the end of the charmingly named Letter Box Road, past signs for planned burns, firewood collection and wild dog baiting. And then I saw The Hill and I wasn’t pleased. Oh well, the only way is up! I ground it out, counting my steps and stopping regularly for a sip of water and to turn around and check if there was a view yet (there wasn’t). Two steep but relatively short climbs later, I was at the top.
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Most of the walk was relatively 2WD accessible, but this bit was a little boggy.
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Furry caterpillar friend.
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Art just happening in nature.
I spent the last couple of kilometres down into Freestone Creek following the same route as we did at the end of our Mount Moornapa walk. I reflected on how I felt now vs last time, and concluded that I felt better. The Mount Moornapa walk was shorter, but with more ascent - and really hot. This time I was carrying a bigger pack and went a bit faster.
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Grey dirt track through the bush. There was such variety on this walk.
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So many colours in a bit of wood.
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At the bottom of the hill - that means...
Dan arrived at Blue Pool about two minutes after me. And he brought my swimming gear! So we went down to the water and I had a brilliantly refreshing dip. Again, an excellent end to a walk!

Notes

A total of 19km in exactly 5hrs 30mins. With a break of 20mins for lunch, that’s between 3.5km and 4km per hour. It included >550m of ascent (do you know Naismith’s Rule and variations?). I kept track of my water as noted last time.  I carried 2L, drank 1L during the walk, 500mL right after, and another few hundred mL on the way home.
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... who ordered this hill?! I don't wanna! (Of course, as always, the photo doesn't do it justice!)
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Halfway up the hill. Why do I do this to myself?!
My new Altras didn’t pose any major issues for my feet. I transferred my old insoles into the new shoes to help wear them in (if needed) and to stop my feet slipping around too much - I’ll probably keep them in for one more walk and then swap them out for the new ones. I was a bit sore in the arch of my right foot after lunch. No blister under my toe - that callus is doing its thing. I used my poles, so no falls (only one near-miss) and my knees were fine.
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Eyyy! Made it to the end. Never looked so happy to be standing next to a toilet block, haha!
I’m not yet carrying a full load, and I estimate I started with about 6kg on my back (including the backpack) and a bit extra in my bum bag. Speaking of, I found a much bigger bum bag at an op shop the other day and this was my first outing with it. It held everything I wanted and still had space for the things I forgot (i.e. my sunnies!). I will have a go at altering it - maybe make it a bit smaller and hopefully change the angle that the strap joins the bag so it doesn’t jut out at the top so much. I’ll also cut off the zip part from where it used to attach to a big backpack.
Picture
One of the highlights of the walk - a dip at the end. And I had the pool entirely to myself.
Maybe related to using the bum bag, maybe the new shoes, or maybe just the terrain, my hips and lower back were quite sore after the walk and into the next day. My calves and thighs were also very tight, so I made sure to stretch immediately after, that evening and the next day.

This walk is on Brayakaulung (GunaiKurnai) Country. Sovereignty was never ceded and this always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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