Van Dyke and Claude

Dave and I went walkabout one good day last month to climb up the mountains. We had a plan, but ammended it along the way. Read the epic adventure <here>.


Dave on top of Mount Claude

A baby echidna!

Black Bluff with K

Full screen slides <here>

Today seemed a good day to go up Black Bluff. About a 40 minute drive from home, we started the ascent at 10am. Stopping every 10 minutes to change layer configurations (to cope with snow and heatwaves and everything in between), we made it up in 4 hours - including a few stops and lunch. Two hours is all it took on the way down! We were buggered at 4pm back at the car.


Black Bluff, at 1340m above sea level, is the highest peak along the 76 km Penguin Trail which starts in the northern coastal town of Penguin. Following the Leven River southward through Leven Canyon over Black Bluff Range to Cradle Mountain, this trail connects with the Overland Track.

Black Bluff is a true alpine mountain experience which includes a glacial cirque tarn called Paddy’s Lake ( a rounded like basin surrounded by cliffs). This is the northern most feature of its kind in Tasmania. Black Bluff summit track starts 2 km passed the Loongana Bridge and climbing to 980 metres it is about a 7 hour - 12km walk.

The above info was borrowed from <here>.

Quamby Bluff

Katherine and I got a chance to make a run for our favourite local mountain, Quamby Bluff. Great day to walk up! Was easy enough, almost routine!


We figured the people who live here at the trail head are regulars but not premanent.

Plenty of puddles up the top.

The rest of the photos are <here>.

Copper Cove Walk

Finally made it along a Dave Curtis walk. Dave is a colleaque of Katherine's.
We walked from the ranger station at Bakers Beach to Archer's Knob where we found a geocache.

At the end of Baker's Beach we had a rest, and Judy a swim!

View from Archer's Knob.

We walked around Badgers Head and ate lunch on the rocks at Copper Cove before scrambling back to Baker's along the rocks. Photos of the walk are <here>

Burnie Hash House Harriers

OK, I admit it, I went out of my way to run with the Burnie Hash... They are a good bunch of people, and I can't go to Devonport Hash tonight.


Bitofthis is looking at me pointing my phone at her...


Check out this rainforest pond! Almost difficult to spot the water due to the reflection. Double Click the image to see the full sized one.


Trust Giggles to prove a point and drag us up this hill!

Here are a couple more <slides>.

Gippsland and the Snowies

Martin and myself...

We drove to Jindabyne, on to the Snowy Mountain Highway to Adamaniby. Camped at Providence Portal, drove past Kiandra, turned off to Khancoban and up to Thredbo again. Up Kosciuszko, camped along the Thredbo River, drove through Jindabyne down the Snowy River Road to Gippsland, and ended up near Sale.

David's Hilux, ahum, I mean Martin's new Hilux worked a charm. We are getting about 30mpg out of it! And the last few days in Melbourne. There we parted ways. I caught The Spirit back to Devonport.
All the photos are <here>.

Deua National Park

A bunch of dirt roads from Araluen, past Majors Creek, and voila, the Big Hole. We camped the night after walking to the two main attractions here. Even spotted a life wombat at the camp after seeing a bunch of dead ones along the road :( .
All the exciting pictures from here can be seen in the slideshow <here>.

Araluen Camp 2008

It was that time of the year again... and for the first time in about 13 years I managed to make an appearance! Great to see old mates again, catch up a bit, relax, have fun... I was with Martin on my way to Melbourne and on a bit of  a schedule, so unfortunately we had to shoot off again the following morning.

For all the pics click <here> for slideshow.

Cataract Gorge Again

This time we went to Launy for an evening TUPPERWARE party at Nicole and Rob's place! So we had our obligatory visit to Bunnings, to the Cataract Gorge, and an hour or so of sampling Tasmanian White wine with Ivor at cafe Fluid on the Seaport.

It was raining and overcast, but us tough folk (K and I) left the raincoats in the car.

The bridge to the Duck Reach power station provided us with shelter for the worst of it.

We had a good two hour walk doing the usual circuit.

It was a long drive home late at night along the remote Frankford Highway.

Hiking with HOFT

Wow, dude, what a day. The Devonport Hash House Harriers occasionally get together for a bit of a bushwalk. Normally we keep it fairly casual, but we were warned about this one....

http://dhhh.blogspot.com/2008/11/hoft-on-16-november.html

The trail we followed is very accurately described <here> (in reverse). We thought it would be tough for people dragging a 10day backpack on their back, but since we just did the one day we only had lunch to carry...

But no, we still only moved at around 1 kilometer per hour!! We had two less agile hikers with us which slowed us a bit, but still, we were all pushed to the limits!

In the end the 8 of us with 3 torches had to split up in two groups. Three of us could rush out and get to the cars by dark, and the other five went their own pace with the torches. We made the cars around 830pm, and the others came out at 930pm, well and truly in the dark! No injuries despite a few slips and falls down cliffs and ravines, but we all made it.

All the photos are <here>.
Found three geocaches on the way too!

And it all started so nice with a huge bridge across the river!

No Cache

We did three geocaches on the walk since Skid, who also goes by Geoskid, had been geocaching here in the past and done his homework!

We thought this was a vandalised cache! We bagged the remains and went to return to its logged location and found the real one intact! Had we looked more carefully at the contents, or had we been more interested in fishing, we would have instantly recognised it as a tackle box!

Kelcey Tier

Katherine has great eye-sight seeing this little lizard on the road as we marched past.

Ken Gourley

Ken Who? You mean Ken Gourley the Long-haired Urban Cowboy from San Francisco's? No, I mean Ken Gourley who sailed solo around the world! Our famous Ken from Launceston. I read his book when I was about to write mine and was inspired by his writing. He was at the Rotary 80th birthday function at our local RSL club. He was selling his books there for $30, but I had no money on me and I had already read it (someone else's copy)... I proudly gave him my book and DVD!

Not happy :(

Seeing the pink mist?

MOvember

Matt Prouten and I are going to grow MOs!

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) I'm growing a Mo. That's right I'm bringing the Mo back because I'm passionate about tackling men's health issues and being proactive in the fight against men's depression and prostate cancer.

To donate to my Mo you can either:
Click this link <HERE> and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account, or
Write a cheque payable to ‘Movember Foundation', referencing my Registration Number 1801571 and mailing it to:
Movember Foundation, PO Box 292, Prahran VIC 3181.

Remember, all donations over $2 are tax deductible.The money raised by Movember is used to raise awareness of men's health issues and donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative. The PCFA and beyondblue will use the funds to fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer and depression.

An Artist's Impression of what I will look like next week!






Did you know:
Depression affects 1 in 6 men....most don't seek help. Untreated depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.
Last year in Australia 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and more than 2,900 died of prostate cancer - equivalent to the number of women who will die from breast cancer annually.
For those that have supported Movember in previous years you can be very proud of the impact it has had and can check out the details at: [ Fundraising Outcomes ].

Movember culminates at the end of month Gala Partés. If you would like to be part of this great night you'll need to purchase a [ Gala Parté Ticket ].

More information is available at http://www.movember.com/.

Movember is proudly grown by Holden and Schick.
Movember is proud partners with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative.

Kayaking on the Mersey

We paddled out the Mersey River, past the statue of Hercules (which is not there yet!),
Past the lighthouse, and past the cormorant rock..


Quick stop on the dog walking beach where Sarah got caught with her pants down by unsuspecting dog-walkers.

A quick drink and back the way we came.

Some more photos on Facebook <here>

Gotta love this place! Minutes from our house.