Balcombe Estuary Nature Park Trail, 13th April 2014

We've had a miserable week weather wise in Melbourne, so with Sunday dawning fine and clear Sam and I decide to go for a walk close to home. We decided to head to 'The Briars'  and walk along Balcombe Creek to Mt Martha were we could grab lunch before retracing our steps back to the car.

Leaving the car at 'The Briars'.

The start of the track.

There's always plenty of parking at 'The Briars' and I soon had my boots on and we were on our way. The track follows the creek and then the estuary all the way into Mt Martha, about 3.5 kilometres away. Its a beautiful easy walk on board walk for a large percentage of the distance. Initially the creek has a couple of tiny cascades before it meets the salt water. The early sections also had plenty of plant life in the creek.

The track going under the Nepean Highway.

Crossing under the Nepean Highway we kept close to the creek, there's a couple of side tracks that aren't signposted but it would be impossible to get lost, just stay close to the creek and head towards Port Phillip Bay. Not long after going under the highway we crossed to the north side of the creek and followed an old fire trail for a few hundred metres, before crossing back to the south side and continuing on the board walk.

Plenty of board walk on this walk.

The upper reaches of Balcombe Estuary.

Its around here that the estuary starts and the flowing water is replaced by still.The track tunnels through the paper barks and there are plenty of place to stop and check estuary for birds, we continued on, arriving at Mt Martha less than an hour after we started. The most important decision of the walk now presented itself, which cafe for lunch! We chose a cafe called 'The Milkbar', very nice. As seems to be a developing trend on my walks we spent a relaxing hour and a half eating, drinking and reading the paper (I thought this blog was called Goin' Feral, might have to rename it Goin' Lattè!).

Lunch was as usual was a long and relaxing affair.

Mt Martha boat sheds.

It was a beautiful day to be on the bay.

After lunch we walked over to the beach, checking out the boat sheds and the yachts on the bay. It was then time to retrace our journey. The notable excitement on the walk back was a tiny snake sun bathing on the board walk, I'm not sure what type it was as I was more concerned with where its mum was.

Balcombe Estuary opens into Port Phillip Bay.

Well at least the middle bit is in focus.

The Dirt
We did 8.9 kilometres by the time we checked out the shopping strip and the beach. Apparently we climbed 84 metres.
The walk is very easy with a lot of walking on a raised board walk.
We used the notes from Walks of the Mornington Peninsula by Ken Martin, he doesn't appear to have a web site so I can't post a link. It is walk number 5 in his book.
The walking track and the surrounding area is maintained by the Balcombe Estuary Rehabilitation Group a volunteer group and they do a great job.

Balcombe Creek.

No blogs for awhile now as I'm off to Queensland to do some walking.

I thought I was back in Corsica!

I've worked out how to post goggle maps, they're pretty useless to use on the actual walks, but at least they give an overview of the area I'm in. If possible I'll mark the start point on the map.

Little River, 19th December 2013

Just before Christmas last year I thought it was time to revisit an old favourite, Little River Gorge. I was also hoping to be able to go for a bit of a swim if there was enough water and maybe get some nice photo's of the rocky bluffs. The photo's are so so, but the swim was good. As usual it was late in the day when I pulled up in the Little River Camping Area to start the walk, so, after a quick chat to a bloke camping there walking The Burchell Trail, I was on my way.

Starting the climb up McLeans Highway.

Easy walking along Griffen Hill Track.

Grass Trees near Griffen Hill Track.

Initially I climbed up McLeans Highway, an optimistically named dirt road, my lungs gave me plenty of time to check out the ironbarks and grass trees. On reaching the top I turned to the south along Griffen Hill Track, which provided easy walking until I ran into the long distance Burchell Trail. Here I turned to the left, taking in the views of Melbourne across the western plains, before the walking track dropped steeply into Little River Gorge.

That'd be Melbourne.

Descending down the Burchell Trail into Little River Gorge.

On meeting the river in the gorge I left the Burchell Trail and just wondered downstream along the path of least resistance, every now and again I would pick up a bit of a pad. After passing a couple of potential swimming spots I eventually decided that I'd gone far enough, stripping off I plunged in, making sure to be careful of the stinging nettles. All to soon it was time to start heading back to the car, so after drip drying for awhile in the late afternoon sun, I put my clothes back on and retraced my steps back up stream.

Making my way down the gorge looking for somewhere to have a swim.

This will do.

Not sure what happened, but the photo's of the bluffs that should have been cool, look pretty washed out, I must have been facing towards the setting sun, makes you wonder why I didn't just turn around?! After re joining The Burchell Trail I had about another kilometre back to the car, getting there just as the sun was finally going down.

Heading back to the car in the late afternoon.

The Dirt.
The walk is in the Brisbane Ranges NP about an hour west of Melbourne, it starts at the Little River Camping Area, the roads in are sometimes a little rough but should be OK for a normal car.
I used the notes from Glen Tempest's, Daywalks Around Melbourne second edition, its walk number 21. I did the walk in reverse hoping to get some good photos in the gorge in the late afternoon sun as well as have a swim near the end of the walk. My GPS says I walked 6.7 kilometres and climbed 193 metres.
Including a swim and plenty of stops for photos the walk took about two and a half hours.

Honolulu, Hawaii, 15th September 2013

September last year found us in Honolulu on a cruise, with a day to have a bit of a look around we were keen to make the most of it. I was wanting to do a walk, Sam was wanting to go shopping, so the compromise was Diamond Head in the morning and shopping in the afternoon.

We've just arrived in Honolulu.

We got a lift out to Diamond Head on a tour, there was only about 8 of us on the tour off the boat, obviously most of the cruisers had shopping on their minds. Dropping us of at the bottom we had a climb of around 180 metres to the summit. Should be easy hey, but after more than a week of eating and drinking on the boat I was feeling very slothful. The climb up however was fairly easy, at one stage you pass through a long curved tunnel, then you are deposited before a set of extremely steep steps, once up that we had a spiral staircase inside an old bunker, before we finally popped out at the top. The view from the top was magical, looking down at the turquoise water, and along the coast to Waikiki and Honolulu.

The track up Diamond Head, we weren't lonely.

Waikiki, from Diamond Head.

The lighthouse at Diamond Head Beach.

After taking in the view for awhile it was time to return to the car park, there was now a conga line of walkers climbing up, I was happy we got here early as crowds aren't really my thing especially on a walk. Luckily our driver was fairly flexible and he agreed to drop us of in Waikiki and not take us back to the ship, so we were soon checking out the shops. First of we went to Denny's for something to eat, when Sam and I first met there used to be a Denny's in Dandenong and we used to go there occasionally to catch up, as far as I know Denny's is long gone in Australia now.

The start of the walk on the inside of the crater.

Did I mention there was some steps.

We then headed to the International market so Sam could buy some presents for her students, an interesting place with a huge Banyan Tree in the middle of it. The next few hours are a blur of shops to me, I'm the wrong person to write a blog about shopping as they all look the same to me, my main tactic when shopping with Sam is to immediately scope out the shop for somewhere to sit and wait, even better is to find a coffee shop and get Sam to pick me up when she's finished. After the shops we headed to the beach, checking out the statue of Duke Kahanamoku. The beach looked beautiful and wasn't particularly crowded but that was because people had been warned not to swim because of a molasses spill which had attracted a lot of sharks, hmmmm.

The big Banyon Tree at the International Market Place, Waikiki.

Wondering around the shops in Waikiki.

It was now time to head back to the mother ship to drop of the shopping before we headed out again, this time to the Ala Moana Centre, the mother of all shopping centres. Luckily for me it had a good book shop so that gave me something to do. Just on dark we grabbed a taxi and headed back to the ship, after once again dropping the shopping off we headed down to the Aloha Tower Marketplace, after checking out a few more shops we headed to Hooters for dinner, now where's that camera? :) After eating enough saturated fat to last me the rest of the cruise we made the three minute walk back onto the ship. We had a couple of hours before we left Honolulu so I mucked around with some long exposure shots on my camera whilst we walked around the decks waiting to sail away. At 11pm we sailed out of Honolulu on what had been a busy day.

Kahanamoku Beach, Waikiki.

Apparently the Duke was fairly handy in the water!

The Dirt
Diamond Head is an old volcano, its a fairly easy climb to the top, maybe three kilometres, max. It gets very crowded though so go early.
Sam tells me that the shops were 'ace' so if that floats your boat check them out.
Waikiki beach looked beautiful, but as I mentioned, we were warned not to swim because of a spill.
We only had time to go to two restaurants and both were of the fast food franchise variety, still when in Rome.

Melbourne to Rawlinna, March 1999

"Where's Rawlinna?" I hear you ask (we'll I would if anyone actually read my waffle). Rawlinna is a tiny siding on the Trans Continental Railway Line more commonly known as the route of The Indian Pacific, on the western side of Nullarbor. We decided to head over to visit a friend who was working as a caretaker for the old railway houses that were left there, an interesting bloke who was also a roo shooter with a heart, he'd bring orphaned joeys home to his family and hand raise them.

Now the easiest way over would be to head across the Eyre Highway,turn off at Cocklebiddy and after 150 kilometres of dirt we'd have been at Rawlinna, an easy two or three day trip. We had a bit more of an adventurous route in mind however. With our mate Graham in his 75 series ute and Sam and I in the troopie, we decided to head to Rawlinna via the Anne Beadell Highway, before turning south on the Connie Sue Highway. Now the word  'highway'  is a bit misleading, both these tracks are lucky to see a few 4wd's a week, in fact according to the log books we were the 3rd and 4th 4wd's to traverse the Anne Beadell that year, fairly remote country!

Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges NP.

So with permits in hand two clean 4wd motored out of Melbourne with our first nights camp on the Murray River near the Hattah-Kulkyne NP, a short day at only 528 kilometres, we arrived early enough for time for a swim. The next day saw us heading over towards South Australia, first to Mildura, and then up the Silver City Highway, after around 100 kilometres we turned to the west and followed station tracks past 'Loch Lilly' station to eventually call stumps on the banks of a dry creek near 'Lilydale' station a grand total of 346 kilometres today. The weather had been a little damp today so it was into the tent nice and early.

At the open cut, Leigh Creek.

The troopie was feeling the strain.

Next day dawned fine and we were soon packed up, hitting the bitumen at Yunta we re fuelled and then pointed the trucks north towards Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges NP, we have returned here many times over the years, its spectacular and remote country, I've written a walking journal if anyone's interested. Our first stop in the Gammon Ranges was Weetootla Gorge, we wondered through for a few kilometres before returning to the trucks and heading over to Grindell Hut for the night, todays grand total was 370 kilometres. We were now getting into more remote country, our fourth day saw us head out to the bitumen at Leigh Creek, where we headed north enjoying 30 kilometres of bitumen before once again taking to the dirt. Lunch was had at Marree checking out Tom Kruse's old mail truck, then after a beer at William Creek Hotel we headed towards Coober Pedy on the William Creek Road. After making a side trip to check out Lake Cadibarrawirracanna (you should try typing that with one finger), we pulled up stumps on a dry creek bed next to an old abandoned truck. Todays kilometres were 517.

Lake Cadibarrawirracanna.

Access track to Lake Cadibarrawirracanna.

Breaking camp the next day we headed to the big smoke, Coober Pedy. Here we filled up all our water containers, topped up with fuel and supplies and then headed off on the Anne Beadell Highway into some very remote country. The first 50 odd kilometres to 'Mabel Creek' station was a good dirt road, but from there to Rawlinna, still 5 days away, was all slow going with the hubs locked, mostly in high range, but also with some long sections in low range. Passing the homestead the track immediately deteriorated, the corrugations being the worst and most sustained that I have experienced, it was just a matter of dropping my tyre pressures as much as I dared and stopping frequently to tighten anything that was about to be shaken loose off the truck, you know the corrugations are bad when they start to blur your vision! Our first stop on the Anne Beadell was in the Tallaringa Conservation Park, no worries about finding a discreet spot, we hadn't seen anybody since leaving Coober Pedy this morning. Today we did 356 hard won kilometres.

Crossing the Ghan Line on the way to 'Mabel Creek' at the start of the Anne Beadell Highway.

Anne Beadell Highway

Next day we broke camp and continued our journey west, today we travelled through Maralinga Tjarutja Lands, famous for the atomic bomb tests that were carried out here in the 1950's at Emu. A lot of the roads we were travelling on owe there existence to the atomic bomb testing, Len Beadell having been contracted to push the roads through the deserts so that the scientists could monitor the blasts. We checked out totem 1 and 2 the sites of the two atomic blasts, however I wasn't keen to linger and we pushed on to make camp at Vokes Hill Corner, before we got a radioactive tan. The corrugations today were still bad and we were now starting to get sections of sharp limestone to contend with, not something to hit at speed. We managed 285 kilometres today, haven't sighted any other people for a day and a half now.

Red sand was heaps better than corrugations.

Len Beadell's original signpost, Vokes Hill Corner.

From Vokes Hill Corner we travelled through the Mumungari Conservation Park, the country got a lot more interesting and the driving more enjoyable, we were now travelling over and along small red sand dunes, with Spinifex and Red Gums giving the country the appearance of a park. The sandy track was a relief after the limestone and corrugations, now we had to be careful of Spinifex building up around the tail shaft and exhaust, its highly combustible and this is the last place you'd want your truck to burn to the ground. Crossing over the Western Australia border late in the day we made camp at the beautiful Serpentine Lakes, now over half way across the Great Victoria Desert we celebrated by listening to an AFL match on the radio that we picked up after the sun went down. Today we travelled 170 kilometres, haven't sighted another person for two and a half days now.

Beautiful desert scenery, well into the Great Victoria Desert now.

We had to watch out for the spinifex collecting on the tail shaft and the exhaust.

They stayed up all night to come up with this name.

A bit of erosion on the Anne Beadell Highway.

Continuing west the next day we past the site of the 'Ilkurlka' Roadhouse, unfortunately we were years to early as the roadhouse was still a long way off in 1999. Pushing on we made a side trip to the site of a light aircraft wreck, it'd be a long wait for help out here, but I suppose a least they weren't swimming. It was on this little trip that I got my only puncture for the trip, so I supplied the nights entertainment pulling the tyre off the rim and patching the tube, who needs TV hey. We were camped near Neale Junction that night, 352 kilometres from our last camp, oh yeah that was three and a half days since we had seen another person.

Trust me!

They would of had a long wait for help.

The evenings entertainment.

Today at last we turned south along the Connie Sue Highway towards Rawlinna. A low pressure system caused by a cyclone had dumped a lot of water here over summer, so we had to contend with quite a few wash outs and some long sections of mud, it was just on dark when we sighted a few lights on the horizon that had to be Rawlinna (don't forget these were in the days before Sat Nav). Pulling up we were quickly made to feel at home, being shown to our own abandoned house to use. Today we covered another 197 kilometres and after four and a half days we finally saw another person.

We turned south onto the Connie Sue Highway.

Graham next to the sign to Warburton on the Connie Sue Highway.

The next day, after making friends with all the Kangaroos hoping around, Sam and I decided to go and check out Lake Boonderoo, a fresh water lake filled over summer by the rains from the cyclone. Armed with a mud map and permission from the station we eventually located the lake and spent a relaxing day swimming and laying in the sun, feeling a million miles away from the real world. That'd be another 210 kilometres on our rest day! Heading back to Rawlinna we caught up with Graham and started to plan our return journey to Melbourne, it'll pop up on the blog one day!

The locals at Rawlinna.

Lake Boonderoo was a beautiful place to relax for the day.

The Dirt
We travelled 3161 kilometres on our convoluted route to Rawlinna including one stretch of 1500 kilometres without fuel or water (we still had another 150 kilometres to go for fuel).
Both trucks were 75 series Toyota Landcruiser's, I was able to carry 270 litres of diesel in my tanks, Graham supplemented his tanks with jerry cans. I carried 100 litres of water in various containers, including a 65 litre tank. We used a HF Radio (No Sat Phones in those days). I used the first edition of the West Print Map, from memory I think Graham got a copy before it was even published.
The only mechanical on the trip was a flat tyre, easily patched as I was running split rims.
Both these tracks are very remote, even by Australian standards, it would be somewhat easier nowadays with the roadhouse at Ilkurlka but it still a very serious trip. The first couple of days on the Anne Beadell had the worst sustained corrugations I've experienced, however.......  this was almost 15 years ago and conditions change quickly out there so it would pay to get up to date info if planning a trip along these tracks. Also, Rawlinna has no facilities, I just finished my blog there as that was where we turned east and started to head for home.

I've just finished part two of this trip, click here if you want to check it out.