Walking with Trevor

After many failures I had finally given up smoking in May 2011.

I was overweight and had put on more weight on our trip to Canada and East Coast of the United States and during the Christmas and New Year Festivities.

I needed to do something to get fitter and to lose some weight.

A combination of walking and control of my calorie intake seemed to be an appropriate course of action. I have mainly continued to control my calorie intake.

February 2012 was the start of my walking.

I decided that I would would do some walking each day.

My first aim was to be walk around the local oval without stopping. This was about 2k.I than started to extend the distance I undertook each day. After a couple of weeks I started doing this twice a day, After about a month I extended this to a walk to the adventure playground and back, about 4k. I did this twice a day. I continued walking each day until I was walking around 10k a day, usually in 2 lots.

The next step forward was to include some inclines in my walks. I decided on 2 circuits. The  Inkster circuit (5k From Home up Inster St, down Sulwood and up to Kambah Pool road and Home) and Urambi (6k From Home past the Adventure playground up past Urambi, along Smodgrass, left onto O'Halloran than turn at Woolshed and Home via walking paths). The first time I did each of these circuits I needed to stop going up the inclines. I am happy to say that by May I was not needing to stop. I also added another walk (Coolaman Court via the Stanhope Highway)

With the Flinders Ranges walk due at end of August I needed to start doing some serious climbing walks, Mt Taylor beckoned. In July I accomplished a double ascent of Mt Taylor, with stops along the way. In early August I did a triple ascent of Mt Taylor. I added a couple of additional walks on Mt Taylor. The first from Colquhoun around the base of the mountain to the top of the horse paddocks the second is the complete circuit of mountain.

Flinders Ranges here I come. It was with some trepidation that headed towards the Flinders Ranges. Being the first organised long walk we had undertaken I did not know what speed we would be walking. Lorraine has covered this walk in detail. The best can be said was that I surprised myself with how well I survived. 

In December I did, along with Lorraine and Michael, the Camelback Trail, Camels Hump and beyond. This was a real drag and whilst Lorraine and Michael walked ahead I brought up the rear. I was not fast but I did make it. This was probable as difficult a walk as we are likely to do anywhere.

Each day I was driving over to Duffy to walk the alpacas. I decided that instead of driving that it was probably a good idea to ride (7k each way, with numerous inclines). I borrowed Nic's bike and rode over a back each week day. After some time I decided that I should get my own bike instead of using Nic's. This I ordered and it arrived the day before we went on the alpine adventure.

The next planned trip was the Great Alpine Walk, around the Mt Hotham area in Victoria.This walk had for each day a standard walk followed by either an easy walk or a more difficult walk. I did the difficult walks each day even if I was much slower than the fast group, but I did have some slower than me.

At the end of January I suggested to Lorraine that that we do a walk and thought that perhaps one in Tidbinbilla would do. However Lorraine had pretty much exhausted the Tidbinbilla walks so she suggested that it was time to look at some of those in the Namadgi National Park. The Orroral Heritage Trail was the one she selected. This was a reasonable easy stroll and during the walk we must have seen half the worlds population of kangaroos.

My normal walk each day is between 10-15k, with some longer walk days. In addition, each day I ride about 15k. My campaign has been somewhat interrupted with swimming in the last month, especially with school swimming meets.

March has come and gone

I'm not sure where the past month has vanished to. I guess the combination of my regular swimming activities and the school swimming have really consumed a great amount of the month. Still, I have managed to get walks in most days.

Having tackled the loop around the western end of Lake Burley Griffin early in the months (see earlier blog), Trevor and I tackled the eastern circuit of the lake. We started at Kingston and managed it in pretty good time. I felt that the western circuit was the more pleasant of the two circuits and will probably tackle it again.

I can never tire of circuits of Mt Taylor. There is always so much to see from the views over the Tuggeranong and Woden valleys to the ranges, kangaroos turning up in both expected and unexpected places as well as delightful sunset lighting. This circuit is a little over 9km from home to home via the Colquhoun Street access to the Taylor Nature Reserve. The track offers some challenging ups and downs, particularly if you are doing the circuit at a fast pace. Adding a loop around the ovals near home brings the distance up over 10km and I have been doing this extra bit of late.

I've also done some loops around Lake Tuggeranong. From home to home this walk is a little over 13km. It is fairly flat with only gentle rises. The biggest challenge is coping with all the other people and creatures using the circuit.

I have continued to do my 6km walks between home and Tuggeranong Town Centre, Cooleman Court and Woden Plaza. Each have some pleasant aspects and I still enjoy walking through the Taylor Nature Reserve on the walk between home and Woden as well as the amble along the Stanhope Highway which is part of the walk between home and Cooleman Court.

On Saturday Trevor and I walked from home to Antony's via Cooleman Court and then home via the same route. That clocked up around 18kms.

On Sunday I tackled a walk from the National Library home. The first part of the walk took me along the south western shore of  Lake Burley Griffin before cutting off towards Weston Creek. There were interesting sections on the route with views across to the new Molonglo suburbs. I did enjoy a sit down and coffee when I got to Cooleman Court. To extend the walk I took a deviation from my normal route between Cooleman Court and home by walking around the outside of Allchin Circuit. All in walk this was a pleasant walk and totalled over 21km.

So, my stats for March ...

Distance: 370.42 (11.95km per day)
Duration: 65 hours 18 minutes 18 seconds
Calories: 15,039
Elevation gain: 4,721m
Elevation loss: 4,435m

My left heal has finally healed ... about time. Having blisters on blisters was no fun. I now need to ensure that I don't blister either of them again.

Forward planning is to consider adding some running in to my regime in April and in May I'll start doing some serious climbing again. By May the snakes should have disappeared and no longer present a problem on unformed tracks.

All in all I feel pretty confident that I can handle the Coast to Coast walk. Yes, I know that the average distance for the 13 walking days is 23.5 but we do have all day to do it. The average height gain is 450m per day with the biggest climb being 970m on one of the longest days ... one of the 32km days. Fortunately, that is near the end and the climb can't be any worse than tackling Grouse Grind was and I'm a lot fitter now, too.

Circuit of western end of Lake Burley Griffin

When Trevor and I do the Coast to Coast walk late this year (see earlier posts on this blog for more details) thee are a couple of days with 20 mile (32 km) walking. I keep including days with longer walks to build up so that the days following the long walks are not going to be "ouch!" days.

Yesterday I decided to do the western Lake Burley Griffin circuit. I parked at the National Library and this added a kilometre to 16km circuit.

Over the past year or so lots of signage has gone up on some of the frequently used tracks and I was pleased to see that the western LBG circuit was well signed. I did have my map with me so would have been able to navigate my way around however I did appreciate the signs clearly setting out which path to take at each of the junctions.

Yesterday was a Sunday and it was warm and sunny and half the Canberra population seemed to be out on this particular circuit. If someone told me that there was a bike race running on the circuit I would almost have believed it. There were hundreds of people out and about, not only on bikes, on all sorts of mobility devices as well as on foot.

Leaving from the National Library I crossed under Commonwealth Avenue and then crossed the Lake via Commonwealth Avenue Bridge. The early cloud was still around so the lake looked a little ordinary. As I was doing an anticlockwise circuit I passed the bike hire place which seemed to be doing a roaring trade and explained some of the less than competent bike riders I encountered. Next came the pedal boat hire place where I stopped and grabbed a cappuccino before continuing on my way. At this point the path hugs Parkes Way until Lady Denman Drive comes in.

Across the lake views of various parts of the city could be seen. At one point Woden's Lovatt Tower could be seen peeping over trees. It was a perspective of the tower that I had not previously seen.

As I was crossing Black Mountain peninsula I took advantage of the toilet block as I was not sure when the next one would be. As I returned to the path I was greeted by an acquaintance who was riding the circuit and had paused to gain his breath after slogging up the rise to the high point on the path as it crosses the peninsula.

The ACT rowing championships were underway and the boats on lake and provided a change from the racing bikes on the path.

There was a good view over to the National Arboretum as the path swept around the lake shore and headed towards Scriviner Dam. In this section there were warning signs stating that the blackberries had been sprayed with a herbicide and not to eat the fruit. I hope the birds read the signs before they tucked in to the miserable fruit from this summers poor crop. There certainly was an abundance of bushes even if the fruit was miserable this year.

The clouds had cleared by the time I got to the dam wall and the day was heating up. I was thankful that I had a good supply of water with me. The camelback pack is great when you only want to carry water and not much else.

Runtastic kept me informed of each kilometre I covered. this was good as there was not a clear indication of how far remained from the signs on the circuit. They simply kept telling me that the circuit was 16 km.

Nearing Lotus Bay the path lead straight towards Parliament House and its flag pole. There was not a breathe of wind. The flag hung limp from the mast.

In the days when the boys did cross country running I used to think that Lotus Bay was quite a distance along the road from Flynn Drive and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I covered the distance in almost no time at all. Well, it may have taken 10 minutes but in the overall scheme of things it didn't take long.

Back at Commonwealth Avenue Bridge I went under the road and headed back to the National Library. I had intended to grab some lunch at te library bu on seeing the long queue waiting to be served at Bookplate I decided that I wouldn't wait and headed back to my car.

All up I walked 17.17km. It took me 2 hours 50minutes. My average pace was 9 minutes 56 seconds per km. The gain was 207m and the fall was 208m.

Later in the day Trevor and I walked down to the Tuggeranong Town Centre and back, effectively doing a lake circuit.

All up I covered more than 30kms for the day and, yes, I was a little tired at the end of the day.

February - walking in the rain

February has been an interesting month.

The first part of the month continued to be hot. From time to time I did check on the fires which had been burning in the Victorian Alpine country. They had continued to burn for much of the month posing a threat to places we had visited during January: Dinner Plains and Hotham.

Trevor and I did not do any big walks during the month however we still managed to clock up quite a few kilometers.

Here are my statistics:
Kms: 324.96
Time: 57 hours 8 minutes and who cares about the seconds
Calories: 13,161
Elevation gain: 4545m (with an equivalent loss)

The blister on my left heel, which I managed to get back in December, came up again. On top of it was a blister on the blister. These are finally beginning to settle and, hopefully, will be cleared up shortly. The blister patches have been great even if a bit expensive. They certainly take the pain out of having a blister.

Towards the end of the month the weather hanged from the dry and warm conditions that had marked most of the summer to wet and stormy. A number of times I came home with very soggy feet. At least I know that my rain jacket will keep me dry.

Much of the organisation for the Coast to Coast and surrounding activities has been done. The flights have booked and paid. Both of the "tours" have been booked and the deposits paid. All the accommodation has been booked and either a deposit paid or paid in full. There is very little else to do except keep up the walking and ensure that we add even more elevation gains and losses into our training regime in the months ahead.

New territory and January statistics

The past week has been a bit up and down. A week or so ago Trevor had been feeling a bit off. It was my turn this week. Everything seemed a bit more of an effort than normal. I still managed to get in some reasonable distance but it was not necessarily at a lively pace. On Thursday night I couldn't keep up with Trevor and trailed behind for most of the walk.

On Thursday afternoon I had a meeting scheduled at Tilley's at 3:45pm so took the opportunity to do a walk between the end of my family history session and the meeting. Leaving from the family history centre, which is located diagonally opposite the Lyneham shops, I headed up towards O'Connor Ridge. While I didn't go on to the ridge I did parallel it and walked along the top side of Lyneham and O'Connor before heading along a path which followed Macarthur Avenue and eventually took me back to Lyneham. Apart from the heat, it was another hot day, it was a pleasant walk.

Walking through the older suburbs gives plenty of time to look at the urban renewal which is all the rage. There has been quite a bit of knockdown rebuild activity although a substantial number of the original houses still remain albeit tarted up here and there.

I have been using Runtastic, an app on my phone, to track my walks. Here are the stats from January:

Distance: 313km
Duration: 68 hours 46 minutes
Calories: 17,222
Elevation gain: 5457m

I did other walking over and above what was logged.

Great Alpine Walk: overall comments

Following the walk we were saddened to hear of the fires that burnt through the area in which we had just walked. The storm that had dogged our final full day of walking on day 6 appear to have ignited the fire. A dry storm is a significant hazard when the vegetation has dried off and dry fuel has built up on the ground. The landscape through much of the areas we walked will have been transformed, yet again, by fire.

This post is intended to provide overall impressions of the trip as well as the organisation surrounding it.

We had booked this trip with Auswalks, a company operating out of Victoria and headed by Phil and Monica Coleman. The booking had been done online and payments were straightforward. In most cases the information provided about the trip was sufficient for our needs. I did have a couple of questions and these were promptly answered.

When we received our package of documents, maps, map case and book it was only one set. Whether you are a couple or two singles sharing may be OK however there was no discount for getting only one set. I'm pleased that Trevor and I didn't have to share a lunch bag!

The trip information was comprehensive. The only issue was that the pickup time was shown on both the first and second pages and was different. By the time I realised that there were two times given it was too late to check so we fronted up at the earlier time and, of course, it was actually the later time that was used.

I did have a couple of questions and these were answered promptly.

Having a list of the participants in the doco was great as it made it easier to identify each other as we gathered and mingled.

Our guides, Phil and Marie, duly turned up in Bourke Street and the milling crowd trooped over the road and we presented ourselves and our bags to them. They were both very welcoming, greeting previous clients warmly.

There were regular stops when travelling allowing toilet trips and acqisition of refreshments. It was also OK to eat and drink on the bus. Adequate time was allowed for us to do whatever was necessary during the stops without making them unnecessarily long.

Phil and Marie provided background information as we passed through areas which helped to fill in the time. Sitting on a bus can be boring if you are just beetling along a multi-lane highway so it was good to turn off the highway onto the country roads which took us through to Falls Creek.

The trip notes gave information about the accommodation we would be using. It contained information about the hosts, too, which was a nice touch.

The accommodation and both Falls Creek and Dinner Plain was very comfortable and the facilities more than adequate. The spa was a very welcome offering at our Falls Creek lodge and Trevor and I took advantage of it on day 2.

Lisa, the host at Diana Alpine Lodge in Falls Creek, was very accomadating and the food she served us for the two dinners and each breakfast along with the lunch rolls was excellent. Trevor didn't appreciate the corriander in one of the dishes but that happens.

The dinner we were served at Rundell's, our Dinner Plain accommodation, was outstanding as were the breakfasts. I think that we were all beginning to wonder if we would return home after a weeks walking a little heavier than we started!

There had been a change in where we stayed in Harrietville. This was beyond the control of Auswalks as they had apparently booked the accommodation 12 months in advance only to to flicked at the last minute. The rooms at the Snowline Hotel sufficed as we were tired and a comfortable bed was all that really mattered. I'm not sure when the room we had had been last cleaned. It had been occupied by a mouse between being cleaned and when we arrived. I dealt with that and hoped that the little rotter did not visit again during our stay. There was only one chair in the room which was a bit odd. There was seating outside the rooms under the verandah which was a problem as it meant that people sat outside talking loudly when the rest of us were trying to sleep.

The food at the Snowline Hotel was excellent. Both the dinner and breakfast were very well done.

The walking
My comments are coloured by my Flinders Ranges walk experience so readers need to take this into account.

Flexibilty is fine and generally necessary to take into account weather and other on ground conditions as well as the individuals in the group however it would generally be expected that the listed offerings for the day would be catered for. This was not the case on day 3 when a whole section of the plaaned days walk simply didn't happen as a track was missed and by the time it was determined that it had been missed we were ks away from where we should have been to take that track. The frustrating thing was that I had thought that we should have taken the track that proved to be the correct one but the guides notes were insufficiently clear which lead to the error.

Both guides had notes that they followed. It was apparent that some things had changed since the notes were prepared and this was the cause of some problems on at least two occassions (days 3 and 5).

Trevor felt that quite a bit of the walking was through similar country. To an extent that was true however it was an alpine walking holidays so it was not unreasonable that we walked through alpine areas on most days with a degree of similarity from one area to another. There was definitely enough change in the geology and flora to make each walk interesting.

Given that the holiday had been chosen as a preparation for the Coast to Coast walk which we will be doing later this year I believe that it met its objective. I didn't realise how physically tired I was until I just about went to sleep while eating dinner on the last night.

All up I had walked at least 108km with quite a bit of climbing and descents. Most of this, 100+kms, was done across the middle five days which means that those days averaged a good 20kms a day.

Of the climbs and descents ... I'm not sure which is worse - going up or coming down. Both have their challenges.

Only time will tell whether the Great Alpine Walk was a good preparation for the Coast to Coast walk

Nice touch
Our guides had taken quite a few photos during the week and we were presented with a CD containing over 100 images at breakfast on the final morning. Not only did we get a copy of the photos we were also given a slide show.

Here are photos of our party (as supplied by Auswalks):

... our guides

Phil

Marie

... and the walkers ... except for Trish who managed to miss the photo sessions ...

Ian

Trevor

Maria

Joan

John

Lorraine

Alec

Peter

Sam

Anne

Marie

Alison

Would I consider taking another walk with Auswalks? Yes.

My Runtastic phone app got a good workout during the week. I worked out on day 2 that I needed to set the phone to flight mode to conserve battery power on long day walks. I found the prompt at the completion of each k useful. A couple of other people in the party were impressed enough to get Runtastic, too. Over the course of the week it was not unusual to have people ask how far we had gone.

I wasn't the only one with a gizmo. Joan had an altitude metre, well he is a mountain climber after all, which was useful on day 6 when we were descending from Mt Feathertop down to Harrietville.

I think that Trevor thought that much of the country we walked through was the same. To an extent he was right however there was always something different to see and there was variations between each of the trails we walked.

I also suspect that I was more prepared for sameness having done quite a few walks in Tidbinbilla. This will always be a glass half full/empty situation. Yes, there were similarities but there were also differences and it is the differences that always have the ability to surprise.

We had a great week which allowed us to check out our equipment, clothes and current level of preparedness for a strenuous period of walking. It gave us pause to think about what sort of luggage we should take to England when we do the Coast to Coast walk and how much clothing is needed.

The water bladders were definitely a good investment. Being able to drink without having to stop and de-pack or having to carry a bottle in your hand all the time was hugely beneficial.

I'm sure that there are other things that I meant to say which have slipped my mind.

I will do a flora post when I get a chance. We have quite an array of photos which will need to be sorted through before I attempt to put them in a post.

Orroral Heritage Trail

Trevor suggested that we do a walk this week and thought that perhaps one in Tidbinbilla would do however I have pretty much exhausted the Tidbinbilla walks so I figured that it was time to look at some of those in the Namadgi National Park.

Namadgi covers a huge area and there are plenty of trails. Some are short, others longish. Some are easy, others moderate while others are just plain hard. I selected that Orroral Heritage Trail as it was longish, 12km return, but only classified as moderate. Trevor did not want a walk that was overly difficult and this one seemed to fit the bill.

So, today, after lunching at Brothers Oven we headed off. We were equipped with our day packs and were carrying wet weather gear as the day promised some rain. In reality were were carrying almost a much as we will be on most days when we do the Coast to Coast walk. We were wearing our hiking boots as I was expecting the ground to be wet following the recent rain. We also had our short gaiters to combat the effect of grass seeds on our socks.

To get to the start of the walk we had to travel through Tharwa and then towards Adaminaby, along Naas Road. We called in to the Namadgi Visitor Centre to check that the chosen trail was open and to use their toilet facilities. According to the ranger on duty their was no problem with the trail however it might be a bit wet underfoot.

Our starting point was some 19km from the Visitor Centre. From Naas Road we took Boboyan Road and then Orroral Road which we followed until we reached the Orroral Campground, our starting point. The road was sealed all the way out but quite narrow and windy. There were a number of low level crossings which were not to be crossed if covered with water. Fortunately the crossings were dry. A number of rural properties still operate through this area and passed the odd cluster of farm buildings. These places really are isolated, tucked into valleys with steep sides.

There were no cars in the carpark when we arrived so we were able to select a shaded spot in the hope that the clouds continued to clear.

A lovely old tree in the camping ground

The camping ground was quite spacious with reasonable facilities given its remoteness. Perhaps we should consider a camping trip one of these days ... on seconds thoughts perhaps not!

The camping ground is tucked down near the Orroral River and the trail follows its course up the valley, sometimes quite close to the river and at other times moving away from it and up on to higher ground away from the marshy flats.

The track meandered up and down through open forest with a grassy understory. the track was generally quite narrow forcing us to walk in single file for much of the first few ks. While there were a few large trees, as evidenced by the one down at the campground, most of the trees were saplings leading us to conclude that they have grown since the 2003 bushfires raged through the area.

The slender trunks of the saplings suggest that most are quite young

 Along the trail were notice boards providing information about the area and features that we encountered. While some of the boards were faded the intent was good and it provided sufficient information to keep up our interest. It always helps to have an idea of what it is you are actually looking at.

Every now and then we saw clusters of huge granite boulders scattered randomly about.Geologically, the area started life as ocean floor on which silt was deposited over eons. The ocean floor was then thrust upwards and now sits some 900m above sea level. The surrounding hills range from 1200m to over 1600m above sea level.. As we saw when walking in the Victorian alpine region the uplift has exposed the layered rock and this has then eroded. Next came volcanic action ... hence the granite tors and boulders which are a feature through our local ranges.

The boulders were huge. Perhaps I should have got Trevor to stand beside them to demonstrate their size.

A number of wooden bridges crossed streams, some of which had water, others dry even though there had been recent rain. Eventually we came to a footbridge across the Orroral River which took us out of the forested area and onto the cleared valley floor.

The babbling brook otherwise known as the Orroral River

Once over the river we started encountering track markers. These were important as there was quite a bit of marshy land to cover and picking the wrong path could have left us with very wet feet.

A guide post. Can you spot the next one?

By this time the clouds which had looked like they were clearing had decided to return.

We are quite used to seeing kangaroos, sometimes in quite large mobs, around the Taylor Nature Reserve and Michael and I have seen large gatherings of roos on some of the meadows at Tidbinbilla but I was not prepared for the number of kangaroos we encountered today.

The kangaroo population in Namadgi was definitely going strong.

The Orroral Valley is long and wide and the early settlers had taken advantage of its terrain and cleared much of the valley floor and then ploughed the resulting cleared land. The slopes are well timbered even following the fires of recent times.


The site of the first European settlement in the area is marked by a plaque. There is no substantive evidence of that original dwelling or any of the other buildings.

Continuing up the valley, crossing a number of swampy areas, we finally sighted the Orroral Homestead. Scattered across the valley were a shearing shed, which was used for local dances and currently is in a state of disrepair, the remnants of the 1950s house which was removed after it had been vandalised, an orchard and the Orroral Homestead.

View up the valley with the homestead and other bits and pieces

Fences have been erected around all but the shearing shed although most are in a state of disrepair. Kangaroos were everywhere. I am not sure what the fences were meant to stop.

Kangaroos under an apple tree in the remains of the orchard

The remains of the 1950s house

Here is a series of photos of the Orroral Homestead which probably dates back to the late 1860s. It was built of slabs and consisted of three rooms with a separate kitchen. Only a chimney remains from the kitchen. There is a verandah along the front of the homestead which looks out onto the Orroral River and Cathedral Rocks  which stand out on the ridge across the river.

The back of the house

The front of the house with the verandah

The kitchen chimney stands a little way from the back of the homestead

And here is the shearing shed:

A short distance from the homestead were dilapidated cattle yards which were occupied by kangaroos!

By the time we left the homestead it had started to rain. We did put on our rain jackets and we were pleased when the rain cleared as the day was reasonably warm and it was hot walking in the jackets.

The last part of our walk was along part of the Australian Alps Walking Track which runs from Walhalla through the Victorian Alps through the Snowy Mountains and then Namadgi ending up at Tharwa. We had walk along bits of this track during our Great Alpine Walk week.

We continued up the valley towards the site of the Orroral Tracking Station which had operated in the valley from 1965 to 1984 before being dismantled. The remains have got informative explanatory plaques.

There is a picnic area at the with tables dotted around a shady area. You can also get to the site without doing the 6km walk that we did.

Looking back along the valley over the remains of the dish platform

After wandering around the tracking station site and visiting their welcome toilets we headed back the way we had come.

We encountered more light rain but decided to keep going without rain jackets as it was still quite warm.

Trevor stopped on the track with examples of the regrowth all around

All in all this was quite a pleasant walk over relatively flat terrain. The round trip of just on 12kms took just under 3 hours which included frequent photo stops as well as plaque readings and checking out the homestead and the other relics.

I'm pleased that I wore my hiking boots as the track was often rough and rocky when it was not marshy/swampy.

And as for the kangaroos ... what can I say? We did see quite a few birds. There was plenty of evidence of rabbit activity, freshly dug holes with rabbit droppings nearby, however we only saw two rabbits. Perhaps we would have seen more if we were walking in the early morning.