Fort William, Scotland - September 2015

Sam and I found ourselves in the bright lights of Fort William last year after  finishing our walk on the The West Highland Way. Fort William is a town of just under 10,000 people that sits on the bank of Loch Linnhe, which links with the Caledonian Canal that itself links the east and west coasts of Scotland. The town was originally small fishing village named Gordonsburgh before being renamed Fort William after the nearby fort in 1901, with access from the railway and the Caledonian Canal and an idealic location tourism soon took off. The town now markets itself as the outdoor capital of the UK, and with a multitude of mountain biking, hiking, climbing and water based activities on offer who am I to argue with that.

The main street of Port William from the finishing spot of the West Highland Way.

The mall that runs through the centre of town has a large collection of outdoor shops which kept me interested as a lot of the brands and gear aren't readily available back in Australia, although I was happy to escape for a day and climb Ben Nevis as I don't think my credit card would of survived two solid days of shopping for outdoor gear. Fort William doesn't seem to have a huge collection of great cafes and restaurants from what I could see, infact easily the best meals that we had in Fort William were actually at our accommodation at the Lime Tree Inn.

On our second afternoon in town we jumped aboard the Souters Lass and took a cruise down Loch Linnhe with Crannog Cruises. The cruise more or less started in front of our accommodation so we didn't have far to walk to get on board, which was probably just as well as the weather turned a little bit crappy. Souters Lass is actually registered on the National Register for Historic Vessels in the UK, and on our little cruise we had the full on Scottish experience complete with a half pissed bag pipe player to add to the atmosphere, yeah there's nothing quite like the ordinary bag pipe playing, except maybe a cat getting strangled.

Ben Nevis towering over Fort William, the Lime Tree Inn is on the bottom right of the photo.

The only dodgy photo I could get of a Scottish Salmon breaching in the salmon farm.

As we sailed away from the pier we looked back to see Ben Nevis towering over Fort William, the summit taunting me by appearing to be free of cloud, I'd been up there yesterday and the cloud had stubbornly refused to lift. The cruise headed down Loch Linnhe towards Corran, on the way we checked out a large Scottish Salmon farm, a controversial industry here just like it is back in Australia. The good thing about the salmon farm though was that there were plenty of sea birds hanging around, the bad news is that I don't remember any of their names.  Our next wildlife encounter was at a spot called Black Rock, this low rocky seaweed covered outcrop that looks like it would completely disappear on a high tide, was home to a colony of basking Grey Seals, now if there's anyone out there who actually follows my blog they'll be quite aware that I have a bit of a soft spot for seals. Eventually, with smoke coming from the motor drive on my camera, we turned and headed back to Fort William, finishing off what had been a pleasant couple of hours.

Grey Seal.

Our accommodation at the Lime Tree Inn proved to be an inspired choice. The hotel was only a couple of hundred metres from the finish point of the West Highland Way so within 10 minutes of taking our finish photo on the WHW we were checking into our flash room at the hotel, although the three flights of stairs to get to my room almost did me in. We were in a loft room and had a great view out over the loch, but initially it was the king size bed and hot shower that got my attention, after a fairly solid last day on the walk this made the small luxuries appear even more decadent than normal. As I've already mentioned, the meals and we ate both breakfast and dinner, at the Lime Tree Inn were sensational. The other slightly quirky aspect of the Lime Tree Inn was that they had their own small art gallery and even more impressive for me a map room, what more could I want! 

Black Rock with Corran in the distance.

It was a little on the chilly side today.

The Dirt.

Fort William was a nice spot to recharge for a couple of days before we started a journey back to Melbourne, the town is big enough to have everything you need but not that big that you can't get around easily on foot. Probably the most famous tourist attraction is the Jacobite Steam Train (the Harry Potter train) but you have to book weeks in front and we couldn't get on. If you miss out on the train ride Crannog Cruises makes for a very pleasant alternative, especially if like me you like seals. The Lime Tree Inn was the highlight of Fort William for me, the room was good, the food excellent, and even more importantly the staff were friendly, I wouldn't hesitate to stay there again.

It doesn't take us long to trash a room!

The highly recommended Lime Tree Inn.

Flinders Jetty to West Head - February 2016

After last weeks walk up Pine Mountain, this week my usual state of apathy set back in (well apathy and the cricket was on) and it was well after lunch time on Saturday before I headed out the door. Having only a few hours to complete the walk and get home doesn't lend itself to an epic so I decided to head down to Flinders and go for a bit of a beach side ramble. Flinders is on the Western Port Bay side of the Mornington Peninsula and was named by George Bass after his friend Matthew Flinders, being on the Mornington Peninsula it meant that it was only a short drive for me to get to the start of the walk.

Flinders Jetty and West Head.

I parked the ute at the lookout and George Bass memorial cairn above Flinders jetty and headed off down the quiet street in the direction of Point Leo, looking for a way to descend to the shore line. After last weeks baking hot walk the walking today was in more overcast conditions and the clouds to the north even looked a little threatening, but at least the low 20's temperature and sea breeze meant that I wasn't melting into a puddle of sweat. After descending down the quiet road past some very flash houses I met up with a beach access track and descended through the coastal scrub to the beach. Before leaving for this walk I'd checked out the tide chart and low tide was  on for about an hour after I would start walking so needless to say when I stepped onto the beach there was plenty of space on which to walk.

The George Bass memorial cairn marked the start of my walk.

The weather to the north looked a bit ordinary initially.

Meandering my way along the wide expanses of Flinders beach I was now at least heading in the general direction of my objective, West Head. First up though I passed underneath Flinders Jetty, this jetty is actually two jetties joined at the hip, on the north side is a concrete and steel construction and butted up to it on the south side is the old wooden job, needless to say the wooden jetty was a lot more interesting and I mucked around for awhile trying to get a photo of it. About 10 metres after passing underneath the jetty I came to an old slipway. In the early days Flinders was home to a thriving fishing industry, and after the railway to Stoney Point was completed in 1889 the fishing industry really took off, this slipway was constructed in 1949 to enable the fishermen to bring their boats up onto dry land.

Flinders Jetty.

The historic slipway.

Leaving the old slipway I meandered my way along the wide tidal flats, probably looking like a drunken sailor as I checked out anything that caught my eye. This end of Flinders beach is home to some extensive sea grass beds that are exposed at lows tide, the sea birds making the most of the small window to have a bit of a feed. In the middle of the sea grass there's the remains of another jetty, probably something to do with the Sailing Club which is hidden up in the dunes. I was now closing in on West Head and the wide beach and green coastal scrub was turning into rock shelves and cliffs.

The sea birds were enjoying the exposed sea grass.

I presume this old structure is something to do with the sailing club which is up in the dunes.

The cliffs on West Head are interesting geologically as the area around here has a bit of a volcanic history, well millions of years ago anyway. The cliffs give the opportunity to view the different layers of sediment, there's the usual soft red and yellow clays but also a bit of black volcanic rock to be seen. I was now stumbling along the rocks under the navy base at West Head, at one spot there was the remains of an old lookout bunker buried into the vegetation on a small headland.

The cliffs of West Head.

Passing the old bunker the coast is now exposed to the wild Bass Strait swell and the nature of the scenery turns from mild to wild. The cliffs of West Head were now getting a bit higher and I was walking along a big rock shelf, the rock shelf was full of small rock pools that all demanded exploration (well at least in my mind). With the tide almost completely out at this stage the rock shelf was easy walking but it wouldn't be a good place to be in a heavy swell or on an incoming tide. Reaching the end of the shelf I arrived at the spot that my notes suggested that you wouldn't get any further around the coast, with the tide low however I was able to scramble around a few rock ledges and get a bit further around, in fact one day when I have more time I'd like to go back and see exactly how for I could get around, I suspect you could get a fair way if you don't mind a bit of scrambling and some wet feet.

The old bunker below the navy base.

Low tide on the rock shelf.

Today though it was time to start heading back to the ute, the change of direction giving the coast a slightly different perspective as I once again meandered my way back to the ute. Reaching the Flinders Jetty on my return walk I headed up the cliff back to the carpark instead of continuing on along the beach, this was part of the Flinders Cable Station Walk. In 1869 this was the spot where the Submarine Telegraph Cable came ashore connecting with Low Head 320 kilometres away in Tasmania. This piece of infrastructure effectively connected Tasmania with the main land of Australia and also, through Darwin the rest of the world. Initially the current was that weak after crossing Bass Strait that the messages were recorded on the shore, before being run halfway up the cliffs to a spot called Happy Valley were they were decoded. With the morse code decoded at Happy Vally the message would then be run up to another cable station on top of the cliffs and sent to their final destination in Australia or around the world. By 1891 a booster allowed Happy Valley to be bypassed. Climbing up the extensive staircase past the site of Happy Valley I couldn't help but wonder how many cables a day would arrive, it would certainly keep you fit running up and down here. Anyway, after one last photo of the yachts bobbing on the sheltered waters of Western Port Bay I arrived back at the ute after a very pleasant 2 hour ramble.

Meandering my way across the extensive beds of sea grass, don't try this with your boots on!

The Dirt.

I walked 5.7 kilometre on this easy ramble and climbed 85 metres. This walk needs to be done near low tide as the rock shelves around West Head would be dodgy at middle to high tides. If you like a bit of beach combing or are interested in history this may be a walk to consider, young children would probably enjoy this walk with all the rock pools to explore. Flinders has plenty of spots to eat and drink before or after the walk or you could have a picnic at the George Bass Lookout or the beach. I read the notes from Ken Martin's book Walks of the Mornington Peninsula before doing the walk, most of my route is covered by walk number 21 in his book.

Heading back to the jetty, the beach is very sheltered and calm here.

The steps leading up from the site of Happy Valley.

One last look at the yachts bobbing on Western Port Bay, that's Phillip Island in the distance.

Trephina Gorge Walk, Trephina Gorge Nature Park - December 2015

Yes it's time for another post from our trip to Central Australia late last year, this is story of an incredibly short ramble in the Trephina Gorge Nature Park so I'd hazard a guess and say that the post will be a little on the anaemic side as well. As I've mentioned before Trephina Gorge is in the less visited Eastern MacDonnell Ranges, I spent a bit more time than usual in the Eastern Macs on this trip due to some serious flooding out west preventing me from accessing some of the other walks. I actually did this walk on the same day, and after walking the N'Dhala Gorge Walk with Sam. Mentioning to Sam that I was thinking of going for another stroll she just raised her eye brows and gave me that look, yeah the look that says you can do what you want but I'm not walking anymore.

The walking in Trephina Gorge Nature Park is generally well signposted.

So leaving Sam in the ute I headed out on this short stroll solo. The route climbs up a sloping rocky ramp before levelling out above Trephina Gorge, this bit of the track is also the start of the much harder Ridge Top Walk. The view of the wide arcing sandy bed of Trephina Creek is quite good from up here, in fact its probably the best photo on the walk in hind sight. With the Ridge Top Walk heading off on its journey over to John Hayes Rockhole I continued on the gorge walk, it's a little hard to get a good overview of the gorge so you'll have to believe me that its quite a pretty little stroll. 

Probably the best spot to take a photo of the gorge is almost as soon as you gain the tops.

Trephina Bluff in the distance.

The Trephina Gorge Walk keeps more or less to the western edge of the gorge, spread out below Trephina Creek had a few lingering pools of water in it, left over from the recent rain, the sides of the creek lined by Red Gums. Part way along the western rim the track leaves the tops to cross a shallow side valley which today had a small trickle of water making its way towards the main gorge. After a steep climb out of the side creek the route once again regains the tops but almost immediately starts to slowly descend towards Trephina Creek at the northern end of the gorge, the descent allowing for some expansive views over Mordor Pound to the north.

The route drops into this nice side valley.

Mordor Pound.

Looking back into Trephina Gorge from the northern end of the gorge.

Reaching the wide sandy bed of Trephina Creek it was just a matter of heading back through the gorge via the creek bed. I zig zagged my way down stream avoiding the deeper pools of water, checking out the gnarled Red Gums on the way which starkly stood out against the red ochre walls of the gorge. It only took me around twenty minutes to walk through the gorge and I picked up the track back to the ute, hey I told you it was a short stroll, the whole walk took me less than an hour.

The soft sandy bed of Trephina Creek coming in from Mordor Pound.

There were a few pools of water, left over from recent rains.

The Dirt.

I walked 2 kilometres on this ramble and climbed 75 metres. I'd rate this walk as an easy stroll but.....it's probably not a walk for young children as there are some sections along un-fenced cliff lines. The walk starts at the gorge car park near the campground, so it is feasible to camp out here, there is drinking water available near the start of the walk. Trephina Gorge is a bit over an hour east of Alice Springs and is normally accessible in a 2wd car, 95% of the drive out is along a sealed road. John & Lyn Daly have written this walk up in their Northern Territory book.

Trephina Creek is lined by these impressive gnarly Red Gums.

Red Gum.

There's also a few Ghost Gums eking out an existence on the harsher higher ground.

Pine Mountain, Burrowa-Pine Mountain National Park - February 2016

I have been eyeing off a trip up Pine Mountain for awhile now, in fact I'd even got as far as getting to the car park at the bottom of the climb one day, but I was defeated by the amount of time it took just to get to the start of the walk. After the 7 hour drive from home there wasn't enough daylight left to actually do the walk, oh well at least I knew how to get to the start of the walk now. I had a cunning new plan for this trip though, I was going to drive up after work on Friday morning and arrive at the summit for sunset, spend the night up there and then reverse the process on Saturday and head home, what could go wrong?

Day 1.      Pine Mountain Summit    6.3 kilometres.        717 metres ascent.
So as I mentioned above, after a few hours at work I set off on the long drive to Burrowa - Pine Mountain National Park last Friday. I had worked out the rough timings in my head and knew that to make the summit in time to catch the sun set would make for a fairly solid day so I didn't muck around much on my jaunt up the Hume Highway. Leaving the Hume I set off in the general direction of Corryong before cutting across the towards Pine Mountain along the quiet Cudgewa North Road, it was along this remote dirt road that my hopes of being on the summit for sunset hit a bit of a hurdle. Rounding a corner on the dusty road I was confronted by the hurdle, literally. There was a reasonable sized tree fallen across the road, to cut a long boring story short I had to man handle the tree sideways until it lay flat on the road, the weight of the tree meant that I could only edge it sideways about a fist width at a time. Eventually after much sweating and swearing I managed to drop one side of it off the bank, which was enough to (just) creep over it in 4wd. I was now wondering if that lost twenty minutes would cost me the sunset.

It took me about twenty minutes to drop this tree onto the road so I could get over it.

After negotiating the fallen tree the rough Pine Mountain Track didn't pose much of an issue and I was soon at the trail head, setting off on my climb at the somewhat late hour of 5:30pm. Pine Mountain is granite monolith that is 1.5 times larger than Uluru, but while Uluru is basically un vegetated Pine Mountain, as the name suggests has a good covering of trees. The walking alternates between open forested sections interspersed with large rocky slabs of granite. First up though I was heading to Rocky Knob, the first high point marked on my map, now I suppose I should mention that the ambient temperature when I left the ute was 38C, oh yeah, and I was lugging over 5 litres of water up to my high and dry bivy. So before I'd even made it twenty metres up the track to the trip intentions book I was sweating more than George Pell at a royal commission. The walk to Rocky Knob turned out to be a reasonably easy introduction to the climb though, with only the last bit being a bit grunty and the constantly changing flora helping to take my mind off the climb.

Rocky Knob.

Leaving Rocky Knob the easy walking continues for a little while, but all to soon the real climbing began. The track was now heading up on a fairly serious gradient (at least for this broken old man) towards a spot known as Murray View, which as you may have deduced had a great view of the Murray River in the valley far below. The walking was now either through dry eucalypt and Callitris Pine forest decorated with a smattering of huge boulders or across large rocky slabs, and while the track was well marked in the forested sections the slabs of granite were another matter all together and I had to keep a fairly good lookout for the sometimes sparse line of cairns.

There were quite a lot of these beautiful trees, are they Blue Gums?

After a final scramble I arrived on top of Murray View, sweating like a pig in the oppressive late afternoon heat. Glancing over my shoulder at the sun I could see that it was going to be touch and go whether I made the summit for sunset, there was no option to crank up the pace though as I was already red lining in the heat, and at the same time I was making good headway into my 5 litres of water. The low sun was not hurting my photos though, with the granite slabs starting to put out a red glow, not quite Uluru but still pretty sweet. Leaving Murray View behind the walking gets a fair bit rougher, requiring a bit of concentration to stay on the correct path.

The final rock scramble up to Murray View, the Murray River flows through the valley on the left of the photo.

Those granite slabs are the start of the final climb to the summit.

The granite was starting to give off a reddish glow as the sun set in the west.

With the sun slowly dipping below the horizon I started my final steep climb for the summit, the trees now also starting to give off an orange glow as the sun taunted me to walk faster. Yeah that's the story of the climb really, in the end I reached the summit cairn a couple of minutes after the last rays of the sun had sunk below the western horizon, oh well. With the sun now gone my thoughts turned to finding somewhere to bivy for the night, a rocky spur leading north east from the summit looked promising and, following a very sparsely marked track I headed towards those large rock slabs that I could see through the trees. Finding myself a flattish rock I dropped my pack and soon had my bivy bag and sleeping bag set up, this was a stunning spot to stop for the night as I had about a 300 degree field of view, with the country dropping away 100's of metres to the valleys around me. Eating my dinner and enjoying a long drink I sat and watched as the night sky slowly turned black and the stars started sparkling above, with a tepid breeze blowing strong enough to keep the temperature comfortable and at the same time keeping some of the bugs away. Life was good, and only got better when I eventually climbed into my bivy bag and settled back to watch the satellites flying through the starry sky with only the odd Bogong Moth to interrupt my view.

Approaching the summit with the sun slowly slipping below the horizon.

Sunset from my bivy.

Day 2. Pine Mountain Car Park   6.6 km,  12.9 km total.    211m ascent, 928m total ascent.   
A low glow on the eastern horizon signalled the start of what was going to be another stinking hot day, laying in my bivy bag for awhile I watched as the glow spread over the Main Range in the distance. Eventually I climbed out and grabbed the camera, the light was great but I really need to carry a tripod as most of my photos in this low light are slightly out of focus. Enjoying breakfast from my rocky perch I slowly eased my way into the new day, rousing my stiff body every so often to take what I was sure was going to be a stunning photo. Slowly, piece by piece, I got dressed and packed up camp, my foggy morning brain and the rising sun meaning this operation was a little slower and disorganised than my normal weekday routine, I'm normally up, showered and out the door within 15 minutes on a work day, this morning it took at least an hour and a half to get going, but gee the view was a lot better than a normal morning.

Sunrise slowly lightening the sky behind the Main Range in the distance.

Early morning Pine Mountain.

My bivy on Pine Mountain.

With over 3 litres of water gone I swung my somewhat lighter pack onto my shoulders and headed off on my return journey. My first objective was to revisit the summit cairn, the dodgy light last night had prevented me from getting a photo. With the summit cairn successfully photographed I set of back down the mountain to the ute. The good thing this morning was that as I was basically walking west I was more or less walking in the shade thrown by the mountain, now this was a good thing as it was already quite warm and as I lost altitude the temperature climbed rapidly. Now even though this walk is a retrace its not too bad, the rough pad meant that I was concentrating on staying on the route on the way up, so on the way down with the route a little more familiar now I was able to look around a little more and take in the scenery.

The summit shot.

The Pine Mountain summit cairn.

Descending the slabs off Pine Mountain, I was in the shade for a lot of the descent.

It looks like the cairns have been there for awhile.

It's not named Pine Mountain for no reason.

Reaching the huge rocky slabs below Murray View I startled a large brown snake (actually I'm not to sure who was more startled me or the snake!) sun baking in the middle of the track, the extra shot of adrenaline seeming to help me make the climb back up to the open slabs at the top of the imaginatively titled Murray View a bit quicker than I might have otherwise. Apart from the superb view down to the Murray River the rocky lookout also provided a grandstand view of the spur leading down to my ute, a good spot to have a little break and give Sam a call to tell her that I was still breathing. It's slightly surreal to be standing on a rocky perch high up in the sky, sweaty and smelly whilst talking to your partner who is 100's of kilometres away at home still tucked up in bed.

The view from Murray View towards Mt Burrowa on the other side of the valley.

The start and finish is on the edge of the paddock in the saddle.

The country opened up a bit as I descend from Murray View towards Rocky Knob, in between view points the diverse flora kept me interested, I've got a bit of a soft spot for native pines and there were a few very pretty white trunked eucalypt trees that looked sensational, I'm not sure what they were but the smooth white trunks reminded me of the Ghost Gums that I'd photographed up in Central Australia on my last visit. As I got closer to Rocky Knob I started to get that familiar euphoric feeling that I get when I'm out in the bush sometimes, a feeling that basically means that I'm totally chilled out, relaxed and at ease with the world around me. Rocky Knob provided the last big view from the walk and I soon plunged down into the dry forest again, with the gradient easing, farm land started to appear through the light forest to my right which signalled that I was fast closing in on the end of the walk. Sure enough after passing over one last gentle knoll the ute came into view below, all that was left to do now was to sign out, have a quick wash, and then jump in the ute for the 6.5 hour trip home.

Climbing up Rocky Knob on my way down Pine Mountain.

The open paddocks through the trees signalled to me that the walk was nearing its end.

Crossing over one last knoll the end was in sight.

Pine Mountain Track.

The Dirt.
This was a fairly hard walk for me, I walked 12.9 kilometres over the 2 days and climbed 928 metres. The walk is actually pretty rough in places and you have to be on the ball with regards to navigation, especially after passing Murray View. The forested sections are pretty well marked but the pad fades in and out in places, the long sections of rock slabs require more concentration as the cairn line is old and sparse. Some of the slabs of granite are quite steep as well and will require the use of hands in at least a couple of spots. I bivied on the slabs of rock near the summit, I'm not sure if this is 100% legal but the way I figure it what's the difference between laying in a bivy bag at night or having a nanna nap on a picnic rug during the day, so long as I leave no trace I don't think I'm harming the environment to much. It is possible to access this walk in a 2wd drive car but you may have to park before the last steep climb up Pine Mountain Track to the car park which would add a couple of kilometres and a fair bit of climbing to what is already a fairly solid walk. Every man and his dog seems to have written up this walk, including Mr Thomas, Mr & Mrs Daly, Mr Tempest, and Ms Ball. I think the best notes and maps are in Glen Tempest's book Daywalks Around Victoria and Melanie Ball's book Top Walks in Victoria. Telstra mobile reception is patchy down low but fairly good as you get higher.

A couple more sunrise photos from near my bivy.

That's the Murray River flowing in the valley far below, this was the view I had over breakfast, yeah I've had worse....