Langkawi, Malaysia - January 2019

We went on a rainforest walk today so most of my photos will feature various shades of green.

On our Southeast Asian cruise back in January we were meant to visit Phuket in Thailand, but due to some dodgy weather Sam and I had missed yesterday’s trip out to James Bond Island in Phuket, there was too much wind to run the boats out there. So arriving in Langkawi this morning I was happy to look out the window and see blue sky, I was even happier to step outside onto the balcony to find the conditions were pretty still. Unlike in Phuket, the ship docked in Langkawi at a port so that made the day even better as we wouldn’t have to muck around getting on and off the ship on tenders.

It was nice to stretch the legs a bit today after almost 3 weeks of cruising.

Today we had signed up for the Rainforest Walk, the blurb for the tour said it would be a strenuous walk through the rainforest and we might have a chance to see Monkeys, Great Hornbills or Wild Boar. Jumping onto the bus I quickly realised that the tour wouldn’t be too strenuous as most of the other punters were wearing clothes and would be better suited to a days shopping than slogging through a tropical jungle.

I searched in vain for the monkeys.

I looked like the rainforest hadn't seen a lot of actual rain for awhile.

I try (moderately) hard but I struggle in rainforest to take interesting photos.

The bus dropped us off on the side of the road halfway up a mountain and the guides asked us to split into two groups, a group that would do an easier walk and a group that would do a longer harder walk. I was slightly dismayed that it looked like only Sam and a couple of others were doing the easy walk and all the others thought themselves up to the harder walk - it was going to be a s-l-o-w walk. Sure enough, after wandering up the road a few hundred metres the guide led us into the jungle and progress almost stopped.

Like I said 'lots of green'.

At one stage we dropped into this dry creek bed.

It was a slow old walk today so I had plenty of time to look around and take things in...and there was plenty of time for the mozzies to attack me!

Initially I was near the front but after getting eaten alive by mosquitoes whilst I waited for people to catch up I figured that I’d drop off the back, take photos and then re-join the slowly snaking conga line every 15 minutes or so. So that was the nature of my day in the rainforest, fifteen minutes taking photos, walk for five minutes to catch up and then another fifteen minutes of photos again, hey at least I was getting lots of photos I suppose.

There was the occasional opening in the canopy where one of the bigger trees had come down.

This Centipede moved faster than you'd imagine. The Centipede's legs can inject venom.

It's not just the fauna that's a little nasty, the flora can pack a punch too.

Rainforest (actually most forests) are my achilles heal when it comes to photos, I always struggle to do these spots justice unfortunately. Thankfully I had a couple of things helping me today, the first thing was that the rainforest was incredibly beautiful and secondly our guides were incredibly knowledgeable. It was one of these knowledgeable guides who was waiting with me down the back of the conga line who noticed a highly venomous Centipede on the forest floor, without her there was no way I would of noticed it. The Centipede was around the length of my hand and I was very surprised how quickly it moved, it was hard to get a photo of it as it scurried around. The Centipede’s legs can inject venom and they are particularly dangerous if you have an allergy to bee stings, so with no EpiPen handy I didn’t get too close to it.

We were probably never more than a few hundred metres from the road but it felt wild.

I'm sure our guide said that this plant has medicinal properties....or maybe he said it was poisonous. Hmm maybe it's best not to rely on any Feral Rainforest bush medicine!

The track was surprisingly rough and steep in a couple of spots.

The majority of there group had already moved on when we spotted the Centipede so it was almost like having a private tour now. Setting of again we soon caught up to the line, the guides split the group again here and offered a short cut back to the bus, this time more than half the group decided that they’d had enough adventure for the day and headed straight to the air conditioning on the bus. The rest of us set off on another loop a bit further into the jungle. I was a little surprised actually how rough the track was through here, if you’ve done any bushwalking before then the track was comparable to a rough bushwalking pad. After a few steep climbs and descents we could hear the traffic on the road and it wasn’t long before we emerged out from beneath the dense canopy blinking in the bright tropical sun.

I spent most of the time walking at the back of the conga line which meant that I was able to get some photos  without the other punters in them.

There was meant to be a chance of butterfly's today...I think the monkey's must have snacked on them....maybe!

At one stage our local guide went down with Hypoglycemia, after a quick search of our packs for sugar we were soon on our way again.

Back on the bus we headed for the obligatory buffet lunch before returning to the ship. It had been a hot and sticky day out so I was pretty happy to jump in the shower and rinse out my sweaty clothes when we got back onboard the ship. It was soon time to head up on deck as we sailed away from Langkawi. Sailing out into the Malacca Strait into the tropical night with Langkawi disappearing into the distance our holiday was slowly coming to its end, life was very good.

It was pretty humid in the forest today. It makes me wonder what it would be like in the rainy season.

Dropping back down to the road and our bus (not to mention our buffet lunch - yep, I'm a hardcore explorer!).

The view from our ship at the Star Cruise Jetty wasn't too bad either.

The Dirt.
This was part of our Princess Cruise around South-East Asia back over Christmas 18/19, our day out today was booked on the ship. The tour today was called the Rainforest Nature Walk and set us back just under $100 each for the 6 hour tour. Lunch was included so I suppose the price wasn't too bad. The walk itself was a little on the rough side and it appeared that a lot of the punters struggled a bit with the heat, humidity and rough pad. Anyone who has done a bit of bushwalking should find it pretty easy though, I think.

Relevant Post.
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, 2018.
Penang, Malaysia, 2019.
Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Malaysia, 2019.

It was a beautiful sail away from Langkawi this afternoon.

This was our second last night on the cruise...

...and it was a good one:)

Byaduk Caves, Mt Napier State Park - July 2019

Bridge Cave

Byaduk Caves are in a fairly undeveloped area in Mt Napier State Park. I’d been here before many years ago with Sam and came way a little under whelmed on that visit. Twenty years later I was in the area again with a couple of hours to spare, so I decided to head back in and check things out again. Getting to the start of this walk requires a little detective work, the signposting in the area can be a little hit or miss, still after following a fairly nondescript dirt road for around 4 kilometres I successfully managed to arrive at the deserted Byaduk Caves Carpark.

Things are fairly low key at Byaduk Caves.

Grabbing my pack I locked the ute and set off into the park along an old walking track. Actually everything in the park is a little on the old side, from the walking infrastructure to the geology. Byaduk Caves are lava tubes that date back around 7000 years to when this part of Victoria was very volcanically active. In the spots where the roof of the lava tubes has collapsed it not only allows access but also allows for walkers to peer down into the caves. While access into the caves is possible in a few spots Parks Vic don’t want you dropping in as the caves are home to Bent Wing Bats, as well as being fairly fossil rich with the bones of Tasmanian Tigers having been found in them.

Typical lava fields scenery. 

Harman No. 1 Cave

Heading south on the grassy walking track I arrived at the lookouts above Herman No1 and No2 Caves before heading east for a couple of minutes to the lookout over Bridge Cave. Bridge Cave was where I left the short tourist track and headed off through the scrub to the south in search of more caves. With limited scrub and not much in the way of hills to negotiate you’d think off track walking would be pretty good here - but it’s not. What scrub that is there can be incredibly scratchy and even though there was no great variations in altitude the ground is covered in razor sharp volcanic rocks that are hidden in the long grass for a lot of the way, all in all this place still wasn’t doing a lot for my Feral mojo!

Harman No. 2 Cave

The formed walking track only heads into the park as far as Bridge Cave.

After following an old stone fence I checked out Church Cave and then swung east with the fence line to check out Bathtub Sinkhole. I’m thinking I missed quite a few caves along here as my heart just wasn’t in it. Obviously with the caves just being holes in the ground they are a little hard to spot until you are right on top of them (or falling into them if you are not careful!) and with my shins copping a thrashing by the nasty scrub I decided that it was time to start heading back. Once again I used another dry stone fence line to guide me back towards Bridge Cave where I’d pick up the track again, this time the fence was on the eastern side of the park. Actually to be truthful the dry stone fences here were of more interest than the lava caves I think - may I be struck down by Vulcan!

I kept to the left of this dry stone fence as I headed further south into the park.

I'm thinking that this is Church Cave (although that's a Feral fact).

Church Cave

Church Cave

With no track it requires a little detective work to find all the caves.

There were a few Wallabies out and about.

Heading back up towards Bridge Cave I started to come across quite a few feral goats, well I smelt them first and then saw them. The goats appear to be moving in and out of the park through a break in the dry stone fence and they only really added to my sense of melancholy this afternoon. The lookout platform above Bridge Cave helped to guide me the last hundred metres or so back onto the walking track. On meeting the track again I continued on around the short tourist loop back to the carpark.

This is about the spot where I started to head back towards the ute.

There had been a little rain last night and the country was looking very lush indeed.

Unfortunately there is a large population of feral goats in the park.

Heading back up to the ute I followed another dry stone fence.

Pushing through this stuff wasn't a lot of fun.

The Dirt.
According to my GPS I walked 3 kilometres and climbed 28 metres on this easy walk (I did say that there wasn’t much in the way of hills here). As you can probably tell from my lukewarm write up, this place didn’t exactly fill me with joy, unfortunately this spot suffers from a lack of love I think. With some decent signage and more information, some feral weed and animal eradication and a walking track that accesses more of the caves, then this spot has would have the potential to draw walkers in, for now though it’s only really for people with an interest in volcanology, I think. I used notes and a mud map out of one of Tyrone Thomas’ books for this walk.

Relevant Posts.
Mt Eccles Lava Tubes, Budj Bim National Park, 2019.
Mt Napier Circuit Walk, Mt Napier State Park, 2019.
Mt Noorat, 2017.

Approaching Bridge Cave again.

Bridge Cave

Back on the formed walking track and heading for the carpark.

McIvor Range, Heathcote-Graytown National Park - November 2019

Hmmm.....I wrote this post up in early November when I was a bit bitter and twisted about the fires up at Binna Burra...seems that my thoughts are still accurate now, maybe even more so with the fires around Sydney....and summers barely started!

The Powder Magazine.

I had some big plans for when I arrived home from Sweden. Before Christmas I wanted to head to both South Australia and New South Wales and do some overnight walks. Yes I was gunna do that, except that, well, work got in the way. So instead of heading interstate to some (relatively) exotic walking destination I’ve been stuck at home in Victoria.

To make things even more depressing the weather on most of the recent Saturday’s that I’ve had off has been the grey and overcast kind. We’ve had snow predicted in the mountains around Melbourne for the last 5 days, not that unusual in Winter but pretty odd for November. Soberingly as I type this post up large areas of New South Wales and Queensland are on fire with over 100 houses burnt and tragically three people dead. Of course the conservative politicians and their media mates are on the front foot already declaring that now isn’t the time to talk about climate change - although when will be the right time for Slowmo and his fossil fuel loving mates to talk about meaningful action on climate change is a little less clear - fuck!

Early morning on Barrack Street, Heathcote.

Anyway with the Melbourne weather not looking all that conducive for taking photos I decided to head over the Great Dividing Range to Heathcote and try my luck there. After a fairly uneventful early morning drive I parked the ute near Visitor Information Centre in Heathcote and set off on my stroll under a blue sky, all good! This is a walk that was written up by Mr Tempest and I swear he added the first (and last) 300 metres just to add to the stats a bit, as after parking the ute on a side road I wandered back up to the main road through town and followed it south for 300 metres before turning left and heading for the hills where the real walking began. After leaving the main drag along Jenner Street I crossed over McIvor Creek on a suspension bridge (always a bit of a novelty in Australia) and made my way up to the historic Powder Magazine.

McIvor Creek

I headed up the middle track towards the Powder Magazine.

The grounds of the Power Magazine would make a nice spot for a picnic I guess, although at 8:30 am on a day where the temperature was well down in the single digits there wasn’t any picnicking going on this morning. Apart from the Powder Magazine itself there is also a couple of pieces of rusting machinery here which are worth checking out here. Leaving the historical site my route entered the Heathcote-Graytown National Park and started climbing into the hills, after 100 metres or so meeting what would be my return route later this morning. Turning right at this track junction I now climbed for 10 minutes up to check out the Devils Cave. The forebodingly named Devils Cave is an overhang in a rock slab, the cave facing east towards the hills and not east over the valley as I’d imagined it would of.

There is a couple of old relics slowly being wasting away on the Powder Magazine Picnic Grounds.

I been pretty lucky with the weather so far this morning.

Climbing...fairly easily...up to the Devils Cave.

Devils Cave

Leaving the Devils Cave I continued climbing as I headed up onto the crest of the McIvor Range to meet Range Drive. As I was now gaining a bit of altitude my views down towards Heathcote and south towards The Great Dividing Range started to open up a bit, while I’d been shuffling my way up onto the range under blue sky the view of the dark clouds to the south west had me thinking that I’d be getting wet sooner or later. After what was a very pleasant climb I arrived on the ridge crest and set off south along Range Drive. For the most part Range Drive stayed fairly close to the crest, with the 4wd track making for fairly easy progress as I climbed up to the highest point on the McIvor Range at 369 metres (yes, we aren’t talking huge mountains up here).

The climb up to the crest of the McIvor Range is a pleasant one.

I was starting to get a few views south towards the Great Dividing Range now.

Heading south on Range Drive.

There are a few old mine shafts off the side of Range Track.

With the black clouds closing in on me I dropped steeply down (the un-signposted) Pannells Track, to arrive at some private land at the bottom of the descent. The private land marked the spot where I’d turn north along Hylands Track, it also marked the spot that the rain caught up with me although thankfully, while it looked pretty dodgy there wasn’t as much in it, I didn’t even bother pulling on my wet weather gear. Hylands Track followed a dry gully for a fair distance before eventually climbing up onto a ridge where I did a bit of a left-right dog leg and started to drop down Pannels Track.

From the high point on the McIvor Range I could see the black clouds getting closer.

Pannells Track drops fairly steeply in parts.

Looking east towards the Great Dividing Range from Pannells Track.

As you’ve probably guessed already from my dry write up, this is one of those walking by numbers jobs, with a lot of left / right / left kind of navigation. After dropping down Pannels Track for a few minutes I turned left onto Gormans Track, the rocky 4wd track again dropping fairly gently until I eventually arrived at some farmland. It was very interesting to see how dry the country was up here north of the Divide, both the native bush and the rural land were looking very stressed. I mentioned the fires burning up north earlier but large sections of Australia are currently in a once in a lifetime drought…the second one in the last twenty years! With the somewhat parched paddocks in front of me I soon picked up Range Drive again and started a fairly gentle climb again.

Meeting Hylands Track I headed north for awhile.

Heathcote-Graytown National Park

Hylands Track

Eventually Hylands Track climbed up onto a ridge.

Heathcote-Graytown National Park

Gormans Track

Gormans Track

This section of Range Drive provides 2wd access up to Viewing Rock and its picnic ground so it made for pretty easy walking this morning, the main interest for me was an interesting rib of rock, just off the side of the road that I managed to take a very average photo of. Arriving at the deserted Viewing Rock Car Park I quickly picked up the walking track that would drop me me back down to the Powder Magazine and Heathcote, only stopping to climb the actual Viewing Rock itself to check out the view down to Heathcote through the trees. Like the walking track that climbed the range at the start of the day the walking track that drops down here is another good section of the walk, these two sections of walking track being a lot more enjoyable than all, the 4wd tracks in my humble opinion...

The country north of the Great Dividing Range was looking very parched.

This is a fairly ordinary photo of this rock rib... you'll have to trust me that it looks a lot better in real life.

Looking down over Heathcote from Viewing Rock.

It was only ten minutes or so after leaving Lookout Rock when I arrived at my outward route back at the track junction above the Powder Magazine. From here on I was just doing a bit of a retrace, although with the sun being a bit higher in the sky now (when I could actually see it, that is!) I still mucked around a bit taking a few photos. After crossing back over McIvor Creek I once again followed the main drag back up to the Visitor Information Centre, Heathcote now bustling with a lot more activity than it had been back at 8:30am this morning. Avoiding the bright lights of town (being a mostly solitary walker tends to mean I generally don’t go to a lot of the small cafés that I see on my walks, a situation that I may remedy one day) I was soon back in the ute and heading home.

Viewing Rock

The walking track that drops down from Viewing Rock to the Powder Magazine makes for nice walking.

The historic Powder Magazine dates back to 1864 and was built from locally quarried stone.

The Dirt.
I walked 12.8 kilometres and climbed 389 metres on this easy - medium grade walk. This walk features a fair bit of old gold mining history along with a few decent views through the trees on the McIvor Range. The walking along the quiet 4wd tracks through the dry Eucalyptus forest can be a little ho hum sometimes, although while the scenic highlights might be a little thin on the ground I still enjoy walking in what is fairly quintessential Victorian scrub. Navigation on this walk is fairly easy although with so many tracks heading off on on random tangents you do need to keep an eye on the map. For today’s stroll I used the notes and map out of Mr Tempests Victoria’s Goldfields Walks.

Relevant Posts.
Mt Ida & Dargile Forest, Heathcote~Graytown National Park, 2018.
My Ida, Heathcote~Graytown National Park, 2017.

Crossing back over McIvor Creek on the  suspension bridge - a bit of a novelty on an Australian walk.

The main street of Heathcote was a little busier now than it had been when I trudged through at 8:30 this morning.