Mt Rosea, Grampians National Park - 7th June 2014

I've climbed Mt Rosea before but my memories from that day are of being buffeted by wind and rain, with low cloud obscuring the views. So, with the forecast in Melbourne looking decidedly ordinary I thought I'd head north for a couple of hours and see if the weather looked better. Approaching the Grampians from Ararat things looked promising, Mt William was visible so I was hopeful that Mt Rosea would be clear as it is a couple of hundred metres lower than than Mt William at just over 1000 metres. I bypassed the temptations of Halls Gap and headed straight up to Rosea car park on Silverband Road.

The start, a few metres up Stoney Creek Road.

Easy going initially, even a bit of sun.

The walk initially heads west skirting the massive east facing cliffs and then doubling back and eventually reaching the top of the cliff line from the west. The view to the west as I was climbing was slightly disconcerting as there was a bank of black cloud coming in, and it appeared to me that it was going to reach the summit before I did. Once I achieved the top of the cliff I headed south along the escarpment, the cloud was coming and going, but it wasn't to bad. The views opening up through the mist to Lake Fyans, hundreds of metres below.

The Valley of Mystery.

A native pine, as I was approaching the top of the cliff line.

The weather coming in from the west.

Making my way along the top of the escarpment it was becoming obvious that there would be no views from the top today.

The walk along the top of the escarpment is top fun, there's plenty of easy scrambling, caves to walk through, snow gums, and, in my case intermittent views. I arrived at the Gate of the East Wind still dry but it was becoming obvious by now that I wouldn't be getting any views on the summit. I had around another 100 metres to climb and the cliffs ahead were shrouded in cloud. Crossing over the bridge that spans the chasm that is the Gate of the East Wind I was soon enveloped in cloud, oh well...

Looking back along the Wonderland Range.

A wind pruned snow gum with Lake Fyans in the valley below.

Luckily there are plenty of caves to get out of the weather for a bit.

Lake Fyans, still in the sun in the valley.

Gate of the East Wind.

The route passing through a cave.

The good news is I was able to get plenty of moody photo's in the mist, with the snow gums and rocky outcrops looming in and out of view. So far the rain had more or less held off,and with the help of a fair bit of cover from rocks towering above me I was still fairly dry. The situation change when I got to the last open hanging valley that I had to climb, I could just see the summit in the distance and now the rain started pissing down. Dropping my pack I quickly grabbed my jacket, at the same time swapped the DSLR for my little water proof camera. By the time I'd walked the last few metres to the summit the wind had also picked up, it looked like I'd timed my arrival to coincide with a southerly change blasting through. There wasn't much point in sitting at the lookout in the wind and rain so I had a bit of a poke around and found a rock ledge to sit under and contemplate life, whilst I chewed on some snakes and hoped for a window in the cloud.

Getting close to the summit.

The cloud added a bit of atmosphere to the photos.

A couple of walkers are just visible leaving the summit in the top left of the photo.

Sitting under a rock ledge eating snakes, on the summit of Mt Rosea.

The summit pic.

After 15 minutes under a rock on the summit I was starting to get a bit chilly, so deciding enough was enough, I put the pack back on and prepared to head of back to the ute. First though was the summit picture, so after scrambling around the rock, which now had approximately the grip levels of wet soap, I found a flat spot to sit the camera where it wouldn't get blown off the edge of a 200 metre cliff and got the money shot. I now headed off to the south to intersect with the Burma Track, parks have done a fair bit of work on this section of track and there were a lot of bits of the route that had changed since I was here last. I made my way down over the wet rocks and through the small cliff lines very cautiously as my ankle still isn't 100%. I'm assuming parks have up graded this section of track due to the fact that it is gong to be part of a new walk that will lead from Mt Zero to Dunkeld and take around ten days, whatever the rational, the stone steps and benched track made this section a lot easier than it used to be.

A section of the new track that heads down to Borough Huts.

More of the new track.

The track junction, turn left here otherwise you'll end up down in the valley at Borough Huts.

Descending through Sanderson Gap I eventually intersected the management track that leads to Burma Track, if anyone reads this waffle and contemplates this walk be careful here as the new walking track is by far the more defined route and if you keep following it you will end up at Borough Huts, a long way from your vehicle. Turning left onto the lightly over grown track I was soon on Burma Track, now last time I'd walked Burma Track it was a traffic-able management track that provided a pleasant easy way back to the start of the walk, that was around ten years ago before fire and floods had re arranged the scenery. Nowadays its slightly altered (he says with a voice dripping in irony), actually its completely fucked changed. The track is now regularly crossed by huge erosion scars that that have washed away large sections of the mountain, some of these little chasms are 3 or 4 metres deep and many metres wide and apart from looking ordinary they also have to be negotiated, in the rain the shear walls of clay were a bit slippery and took a bit of time to get through safely.

I was still getting the occasional glimpses through the cloud.

It was now officially 'pissing down'.

I suppose the advantage of climate change is that I'll never get bored re visiting some of my walks, as it appears that every ten years or so the mother nature will re arrange the scenery for me (what's that I hear.... "In my day sonny we had snow in Melbourne in January and we sun baked at St Kilda in June, if you don't believe me sonny just ask Bolta!"). Hey this is my blog, dementia's starting to set in so if my mind wanders a bit you'll understand, now where was I, oh yeah doing the Burma Track obstacle course in the rain. Apart from having the odd chasm to negotiate there was also a lot of fallen trees to climb under, over, or around, all in all the fire track was a lot more adventurous than it used to be. Getting closer to the intersection with Silverband Road I could make out the cliffs of Sundial Peak across the valley, I could also see the sheets of rain against the trees on the other side of the valley. Due to the re positioning of the scenery I now had a few new waterfalls to check out, although the house size boulders that had washed down the mountain when the new waterfalls were created made me slightly nervous.

The Burma Track steeplechase.

A new waterfall on Burma Track.

Another new cascade crossing Burma Track.

Check out the house sized boulder perched a hundred metres above Silverband Road, what could possibly go wrong?

The clay walls on the eroded chasms reminded me of Kokoda, they took a bit of care to negotiate in the rain.

By the time I made Silverband Road I'd had enough, I was wet through. Looking down to where Delleys Dell used to be all I could see was a massive scar, the track may have been re built but I was ready for the ute now, so I just walked up the road for a kilometre until I reached the car park. Quickly drying myself off, throwing wet boots and gear in the tray, I was soon on my way home to Sam. It looks like it'll have to be third time lucky for Mt Rosea, I'm determined to get a view one day.

A little bit more of the destruction.

The Dirt.
I used the notes from Chapman's Day Walks in Victoria, its walk # 6 in the second edition. I also used the Northern Grampians topo map. According to my GPS I walked 12.31 kilometres and climbed 595 metres. I would class this as an easy to medium walk, there is a bit of climbing and also there is a fair bit of rock to negotiate which seems to freak some people out a bit. The degree of difficulty goes up a bit if its wet.

The intersection of Silverband Road and Burma Track.

Chambers Gorge - 10th July 2011

After my aborted attempt to cycle the Mawson Trail we found ourselves with a little time up our sleeves. As we had already booked accommodation in the Flinders Ranges for the Mawson Trail we thought that we may as well use it and do a bit of walking. I'd been to Chambers Gorge about 26 years early on trip around Australia with my best mate in a panel van, so I thought it was about time to go back and check it out again.

Sturt desert peas on the drive into Chambers Gorge.

We were based at Rawnsley Park for three days so after breakfast we headed off on a bit of a drive. The first objective was Blinman, the highest town in South Australia, from there we hit the dirt for a bit over an hour until we came to the turn off to Chambers Gorge. The bitumen road up to Blinman is a peach, the road twists and turns, following the contours of the land, every now and again it plunges into a dry creek bed before jumping up the other side, the whole time you are passing through scenery that is some of the best in Oz in my opinion (but you know what they say, "opinions are like #*%$holes, everyone's got one!"). Turning onto the dirt at Blinman we had another hour and a half through more great country before we finally pulled up at the start of the walk.

Walking up the dry creek bed.

Mount Chambers.

There's no official trail head on this walk, we just parked near the camping area and started walking, basically heading downstream along Mt Chambers Creek for around four and a half kilometres before turning around and heading back to the ute. Mount Chambers (Wadna Yaldha) towering off to the south like a giant mesa. The creek walk was enlivened by the odd pool of water and small cascade. The further into the gorge we went the more rugged it became with red bluffs towering around us, unfortunately we didn't spot any Rock Wallabies, but we did spot heaps of feral goats.

The cave near where we turned around.

Eventually we spotted a cave high up on the side of the hill and after I'd gone up to have a poke around we decided that we may as well head back. It was walking back to the car that a truly bizarre incident occurred, as I mentioned earlier we had seen plenty of feral goats, they were mainly keeping to the ledges and steep sided hills. On the walk back we noticed that a few Paddy melons  were rolling down the hills towards us, initially we didn't take to much notice, however when they kept barrelling down the hill at us,we glanced up. The bloody goats were rolling the melons off the hill so that they barrelled, canon ball style, straight down at us. Now for people that don't know a Paddy melon is about half the size of a Water melon, not something you really want hitting you as gravity and the goats conspire against you.

Mount Chambers in the distance.

After running the gauntlet of the goats shooting range we were soon back at the ute, we enjoyed a nice lunch before a relaxing journey back to Rawnsley Park. Another hard day on holidays, if only I could fund this lifestyle forever.

Scree on the side of Mount Chambers.

There was even some flowing water in the gorge.

The feral goats that were rolling Paddy melons down the hill at us, Bastards!

The Dirt.
Chambers Gorge is in the Northern Flinders Ranges, its a fair drive from anywhere. There is plenty of camping at the start of the gorge but no facilities or water. There is no track or markers, you just follow the normally dry creek bed through the gorge. We walked around 9 kilometres, but you could walk as far as you like. We used the notes from 40 Great Walks in Australia by Tyrone Thomas and Andrew Close the map in the book is adaquate for the walk. This is an easy walk if you want to stretch your legs on a trip up to the Gammon Ranges.

Almost back at the car.

No place for soft SUV's, hey Skip.

Base Antarctica Gabriel Gonzalez Videla, Antarctica - 15th January 2008

As we were travelling down the east coast of Australia in January 2007 I made myself  a vow that next Christmas I was going to avoid the crowds. Stopping for the night at the Quest in Wollongong I happened to pick up their corporate magazine off the table to browse through, inside the mag there was an article on cruising Antarctica, well that was all she wrote, there wouldn't be any crowds down in Antarctica. As soon as I was home I was onto the other long suffering women in my life, Ali, my travel agent, and she soon had us booked on a boat out of Ushuaia in January 2008.

Gentoo Penguins escorting us to shore.

MV Discovery.

More from the zodiac on our way ashore.

Our second stop on our cruise was a Chilean air force station, Base Antarctica Gabriel Gonzalez Videla, it really rolls of the tongue doesn't it. As usual for Antarctica we went ashore by zodiac, pulling up at a small jetty. My main memory of the base was all the Gentoo Penguins that were nesting around the huts, the other vivid memory was the smell of all the penguin poo.

The red stuff is penguin poo!

Yes, even Antarctica has a tourist photo op!

This little bloke was on a mission to build a bigger nest.

We were able to wander around for a couple of hours taking it in, it was like we were in a national geographic movie. We watched the males carrying small stones to build their nests, the babies being fed in the nest, and the Skuas waiting to swoop onto any unattended eggs. All the time conscious of the fact we weren't meant to get to close to the wildlife but aware that the wildlife was just as curious of us as we were of it, there were many occasions when a curious penguin would waddle straight up to us to check us out!

Feeding time.

Yumm, fresh Krill.

I think meal times over.

Time for a nanna nap now.

All to soon it was time to jump back on the zodiac and head back to our ship, after the usual boot cleaning we had plenty of time to check out the scenery on deck whilst the other groups went ashore. All in all another stunning day in Antarctica.

A Shua waiting for a feed, the penguins don't look happy.

The name of the base just rolls off the tongue.

The Dirt.
We went down to Antarctica on the MV Discovery out of Ushuaia down the bottom of Argentina. The cruise was around $6000 each which I thought was pretty good value, we had our own room with a porthole and an en-suite. The official instructions with the wildlife was not to approach closer than two metres, but the penguins in particular were very inquisitive and would come right up to check you out, I probably wouldn't get that close to the Leopard Seal's that were waiting just off the shore ready for some take away penguin.

The little jetty at the base.

Some more Gentoo's on an iceberg on the way back to the boat.

Just about to climb back on board the mother ship.

Queenscliff - 31st May 2014

We were greeted by a grey overcast Saturday this weekend. As I had to drop some gear into Point Cooke for repair we decided to keep heading west and do a walk at Queenscliff. First things first we settled in for a long lunch, coffee, and news paper session at Ginger Mai's, at charming little cafe, my chicken parma sandwich was particularly good. If you ever find yourself in Queenscliff this little cafe is definitely worth checking out.

Lunch at Ginger Mai's.

The view back towards Shortland's Bluff from the start of the walk.

It was around 2 pm when we finally pulled on our boots, leaving the car near the ferry terminal we followed the Bellarine Rail Trail around the shore of Swan Bay. I took a shit load of photos but there all crap so I probably wont up load to many. The reflections off Swan Bay were particularly impressive, along with a big variety of sea birds. We passed by the old Queenscliff train station which now houses the Blues Train, a steam train that goes out to Drysdale with a changing variety of Blues players providing entertainment in the old carriages.

Queenscliff pier.

The bridge over to Swan Island Navel base.

Swan Bay.

The Blues Train

A big old gum tree from the rail trail.

Eventually we crossed over from Swan Bay onto Narrows Beach, we now were heading back towards the Queenscliff light house with views across the rip towards Point Nepean National Park. With our usual tardy start we once again found ourselves walking into the gloom, the good bit was that it provided the only reasonable light of the walk for taking some photos. Reaching Shortlands Bluff we climbed up to the lookout at the Lighthouse, the last time we'd seen this lighthouse was as we sailed out the Heads on our way to New Zealand.

If the trains don't get you the snakes will!

Reflections in Swan Bay.

Finally a bit of blue sky.

Sam, on the board walk at the Marine Discovery Centre.

Making our way around the Queenscliff Fort we were soon back at the car. After taking off our boots we headed down to the car ferry and got ourselves on the 6 pm service to Sorrento, less than an hour later we were home.

A Pelican looking for a free feed from the fishermen.

Heading back to Queenscliff late in the day.

A fishing boat heading out the Heads, with Point Nepean National Park in the distance.

The Lighthouse on Shortlands Bluff.

The Dirt
We used the notes from the Tyrone Thomas and Andrew Close book 150 Walks in Victoria, its walk # 57 in the book, there's no real need for a map as the one in the book is adequate. The car ferry from Queenscliff to Sorrento is run by Searoad who I think also run the ferry over to Kangaroo Island in South Australia, and like the Kangaroo Island service they don't miss when it comes to prices, $69 for a forty minute ride with the car, such is life! This is an easy walk that anyone could do, with a few detours we walked around ten kilometres and climbed less than 100 metres.

The fort at Queenscliff.

The second lighthouse at Queenscliff is behind the fort.

Some of the historic building along Gellibrand Street, about 100 metres from the finish of our walk.