Courtesy of Thomas Osberg, here are some wonderful photos of the track in bygone days. http://www.finnsheep.com/THE%20UPPER%20YARRA%20WALKING%20TRACK.htm They begin at approx McVeigh’s Hotel (now under the Upper Yarra Reservoir), and finish at Walhalla. The captions are my surmise (and might not be correct). The changes in hiking costume and gear from that day to this are […]
This is our rig. We have a Landrover Defender – the 1995-99 models with the 300TDI engines are best – after that vehicles all became electric and impossible to fix when things go wrong, especially in the bush. In 2010 the camper cost us under $20,000 delivered. The vehicle cost us $10,000 around 2005. This
So, Spot and I headed back to the ‘Mystery River’ for another look-see. I have become more vague about naming such places as I see lazier folk wanting to track me there – someone had visited only the day before, though last time I was there clearly no-one had been there for YEARS. (I will
This is a lovely spot to go for a long or short walk. You can walk all the way to Cape Liptrap (or further) if your heart so desires. Went for a little drive (and walk) with the dogs here after closing the shop yesterday. The dogs really enjoyed their run. It was difficult to
This afternoon on our walk (around the forestry plantations West of Yinnar) a huge flock of these beauties came in to roost on some young gums near us. There must have been 200-400 of them, so it was quite a spectacular display with their strange erratic flight and loud complex calls. There was an astonishing
Having mastered the art of lighting a fire in terrible conditions (I hope you have: http://www.theultralighthiker.com/how-to-light-a-fire-in-the-wet/), and making a passable comfy shelter so you can enjoy your time in the bush, the next big step is mastering the art of walking. Too many men take overlong strides and land on their heels. I don’t know
That’s a map of the Mitchell on Matt’s phone, the (white) Tyvek tent between me and Spot, the Brasslite stove sitting on an upturned plastic bowl (a 19 gram leveling aid I am trying out) next to the box of Kiwifruit, my camo vest on the back of the chair, two magnifying glasses we have
I have had some feedback to my posts about the Tanjil River (http://www.theultralighthiker.com/tanjil-river/), Latrobe Rivers & etc. Some people phoned to thank me for an enjoyable trip on this section of the Tanjil. They are WINTER canoeists employing sit-on canoes and wet suits to access the much higher river levels usually available in the cooler
I needed to give the ‘Tyvek Solo Fire Shelter’ (I posted about here: http://www.theultralighthiker.com/tyvek-solo-fire-shelter/ ) a little practical test. What could be a better opportunity than the coldest June night since I was born, I thought. Combining Google Earth http://www.theultralighthiker.com/google-earth-gets-a-facelift/ and the GMA maps showing where it is lawful to hunt deer, (http://www.gma.vic.gov.au/hunting/deer/where-to-hunt/deer-hunting-locations/deer-hunting-in-eastern-victoria) I thought
A couple of delightful hours yesterday afternoon. The lower half of the track follows the one of the original Morwell water supply pipelines. There were/are a series of weirs (lowest shown) on the Tyers River long since replaced by the much larger Moondarra Dam. The first pipeline was wooden – you can see the carefully
