All the photos can be found here.
The Gap doesn't last long, until you arrive at the base of Byangee Mountain. The trail leads around to the Northern side of the mountain until you arrive at a very obvious rock cairn. Climb up the crevice from there, turning to the right and then following the trail up the mountain. There is a rope climb at one section, and just before the top, there is a small cave you need to climb through and then out of the top.
The views from the top are amazing, looking at The Castle, Shourded Gods, and Talaterang Mountain. I didn't make it past this location as it took 2 1/2 hours to get this far (about 8 kms).
Watch out for the wind at the top, as its just as strong as on The Castle!
]]>The trip is documented on hikeoz
The trip report can be found here.
And all the photos are found here.
It was so cold each time I went under a wave, the coldness took my breath away!
]]>The trip report is here.
All the photos can be found here.
]]>Check out the full report on hikeoz.
And the full set of photos are found here.
]]>Hike report can be found here.
All the photos are here.
The trip report can be found on hikeoz here.
You can check out all the photos here.
]]>This time we headed down Pretty Plain again, and then back via Farm Ridge fire trail. A great trip, with a great story!
Here are the photos from the trip
The details of the trip plan can be found on Hike Oz as Pretty Plain to Farm Ridge.
As always, we were a little late away from Wollongong, leaving at 3:30pm. We had planned to meet Richard and Joanne in Cooma at around 7:30pm. There were a few spots of rain along the drive, and there were a number of clouds hovering over the Kosi region. We met up as planned in Cooma and made what should have been a quick trip to KFC for dinner. I recommend that you never do this!! Cooma KFC is quite possibly the slowest ‘fast food’ restaurant in the world! In future we are going to stop at the pub as you leave Cooma to the south as it never looks busy, and it’s a pub!
We left Cooma a little after 8:30pm and made it to Round Mountain car park at 10:15pm. The road was slow as always, and should not be rushed as it’s a pretty dangerous and high accident area. The car park was already pretty full, and there were a number of people trying to find flat camping areas when we arrived. We were just dropping off our second vehicle here though as our starting location is a few kms down the road.
We reached the car park at the head of Dargals fire trail at 10:45pm, and after getting our gear ready, and toasting the trip with a glass of champagne, we were off by 11:00pm! The weather was fine at this stage, no rain, plenty of moonlight and a cool breeze. Our first decision came about two minutes into the trip!! Do we go straight, or turn left at the cross roads! We decided to go left, and it was the correct decision. We arrived at the newly re-built Paton’s hut around 11:45pm. After a quick check of the hut, we pitched tents, had a quick drink and then hit the sack.
Unlike most hiking trips, we all managed to sleep in a little on the first morning. Getting up at 8:00am, it was amazing to see the view from Paton’s hut which looks out towards the Toolong Dam. We looked around Paton’s hut in the day light, took some photos and eventually got underway at 10:00am. The track was easy to follow from the hut and wound around the plain and up the hill towards Tongue bend.
There were a number of tracks that intersected the main Dargals trail. First of all Thiess Village fire trail, and later the track to Wheelers hut. We were making good time and reached Tongue bend at 12:15pm at which point we need to go boots off and wade across the ford. It was at this point that Eddy realized the benefit of carrying a pair of thongs on a hike! We put boots back on and headed to Pretty Plain which would be our lunch stop for the day. We decided to break from the track walking and cut the corner of Hellhole Creek fire trail when we could, which probably saved us no time, but it was more interesting than walking the fire trail all day.
We found a great little spot alongside the Tooma River for lunch, which was a leisurely affair as we discussed the morning activities. We had also spotted what may have been a funnel web spider, so our selection of sitting positions was made with great care! It was around 20 degrees at this stage, so pretty much perfect walking conditions. We also managed to see the foot pad along the side of Pretty Plain while eating lunch.
We decided we should push past our estimated camping site for the night, so we got going again at 3:00pm. We started to fade shortly before 5:00pm so picked a nice spot just below the tree line above the Tooma. It took us a while to find the ideal place to camp, but with Eddy willing to keep looking while the rest of us sat back and rested, we knew we were in good hands! Eventually we had camp set up, although spread out, and we sat back with a great camp fire for the night, at the end of our first full days walking.
As we rested by the fire, we eventually realized that there was not going to be any sunset worth photographing. But that didn’t cause too much of a problem as we were very relaxed around the fire. The night was uneventful with no weather problems and not being too cold.
This morning turned out to be even slower than yesterday with breakfast being finished around 9:30am, and camp packed up, and walking started at 10:15am! We headed south along the valley and looked for a spot to cross the Tooma, eventually finding the spot right in front of Pretty Plain hut. Once again the boots came off for this simple crossing, although Richard managed to keep his on, but only because he was provided assistance to get across.
Last night when we entered the park, there was a sign indicating that the park now contains European Wasps, and to keep an eye out for their location. Well here at Pretty Plain hut, we managed to find them!! We sat around for a few minutes and then head off again, continuing south along the valley. There is a small foot pad here, but we basically stuck to the valley floor and followed the creek. At one spot, Richard spotted a rather large snake, which managed to cause a little concern from us all!
The next challenge we had to contend with was the hill up to the top of Strumbo range. Previous attempts to climb this hill have also been difficult so we decided to avoid the overgrown fire trail, and hit the overgrown hill face instead! Well it took us quite a while, lots of cursing, and complaining, but we eventually got to the top at around 2:00pm, for another late lunch in the brilliant sunshine!
After lunch, we found the Strumbo fire trail again and headed up ice tree hill before breaking from the trail and heading toward Grey Mare Bogong peak. At the bottom of ice tree hill, we filled up all the water bottles as we were not expecting to find any water on the range. We had also realized we would probably not make it all the way to Ryries Parlour for our scheduled night’s camp. We eventually found a fantastic spot, just below Grey Mare Bogong which looked out to the West and to the setting sun.
We established camp around 5:00pm again, and then sat back by the fire and watch one of the most amazing sunsets we’d ever seen here in the mountains. The night was a little cooler, since we were camping at 1800m. We even got a little rain during the night, but not so much as to cause us any problems.
We rose to another beautiful day, a little cloud around but no immediate threat of anything wet. We broke camp around 9:30am (a big improvement from the last two mornings!) and headed for the first stop of the day at the summit of Rocky Bogong Hill. The summit was easy to climb, but the views from the top were breath taking. It is not a location that many people would have been too, as its off the main walking trails, but it is certainly one of the best views you can find in the park.
After taking a few photos, we made a few decisions on how to get across to Grey Mare fire trail. The easiest way appeared to be across to Ryries Parlour, and then hug the contour of the Strumbo Range until we hit the trail. So off we went, down a rather steep hill which was moderately treed. It took us the best part of 2 hours to make it to Grey Mare, with mostly easy walking. In retrospect we decided it was probably just as easy, and possibly more interesting to have walked straight into the valley floor and met up with Grey Mare fire trail at the ford at the bottom of the valley…next time
We stopped at the ford for lunch, where we met up with a group of hikers from ANU. They had been just a few kms behind us for the first couple of days, until we turned off the Strumbo fire trail and across the range, they continued along the trail to Grey Mare Hut and beyond. Lunch was very refreshing and we were right to go again around 1:00pm. We had a pretty ambitious target today, although many alternative stops for camp if we tired early!
We continued along Grey Mare fire trail, turning right at the deviation with Round Mountain fire trail. Shortly after this, we met up with the ANU hikers again, and also another party that had just completed the Jagungal walk. We pushed on though, as we were trying to get to O’Keefe’s Hut before the end of the day. We passed the meteorological station at the base of Jagungal and then continued on to O’Keefe’s Hut. Although we were all pretty tired, we decided to press on to the Farm Ridge trail head. This would cut out not only a couple of kms for tomorrow, but also a very steep hill!
We arrived at our camp shortly after 5:00pm, with the slight sprinkle of rain starting. So we quickly set up camp and prepared for the worst…which never happened The rain cleared away, and we were able to sit around the camp fire comfortably again telling stories of the day, and of other days, which can only be told around a camp fire! Eddy spotted a scorpion while we were preparing dinner, which gave us a few things to think about. But the rest of the night was uneventful again, a few more spots of rain, but nothing serious.
Our final day, and of course the morning looked like it was going to rain again!! We broke camp around 9:00am (better every day!) and headed up Farm Ridge fire trail. We met up with another solo hiker, and walked with him most of the day. The rain did start quite soon, and we had to pull on the wet weather gear. It wasn’t too much at this stage though, but just enough to be annoying.
We continued getting some amazing views, despite the rain. And when we eventually started to descend into the Tumut river valley, we were all amazed at the sites that spread out in front of us. The river and its tributaries were flowing well, and the valley was green and shrouded in mist!! It really was spectacular! We made it down to the river crossing, took boots off and raced through to the other side, where we relaxed for a while and ate lunch.
With only one more hill to climb, we were all trying to savor these last few minutes of isolation. Shortly after starting up the hill, the rain started again!! And this time it wasn’t going to let off until we were back at the car park. We made a brief stop at Round Mountain Hut, where we caught up with some old friends, including a guy that we met on Gungartun Peak Easter 2007! The final hill was climbed quickly, and we retreated to the car park, where half our party continued getting wet, while the other half performed the vehicle shuffle that was necessary before we could all celebrate the trips conclusion with a mildly cool beer
There were so many great photos from this trip, which one certain person keeps reminding me!! So I have highlighted a few of my favorites right here
Here are the photos from the trip
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Here are the photos from the concert
The upgrade has included:
I'm still investigating options for a High Def receiver to get the most out of the new Blu-Ray audio formats.
Along with the new theatre room, I've also made a few changes to my Movie web page, so go over and check things out there.
]]> The new playstation is also being used to access my media library, which is stored on my 1TB Linus file server. I am using a free media server package to stream to the playstation using DLNA, the product is called Mediatomb.Connectivity between the projector and video output device is HDMI as this then provides a fully digital connection, so no loss of image quality. Unfortunately my current receiver is not compatible with HDMI, and this is the only interface that provides the new High Def audio formats. So I will be looking to upgrade that last component very soon!
I've probably planted a little too much variety, but it is hard to resist when everything is growing so well!
]]> I've started harvesting a number of crops, including lettuce, capsicum, silver beet, radish basil and chillis!Still to come include eggplant, zuchini, peas, runner beans, spotted beans, corn, tomatoe and carrot.
The walk is based off the Jagungal to Geehi walk from hikeoz, except I bypassed Jagungal this time and headed straight for the Bulls peaks.
There is a trip report to come, but for now you can enjoy these amazing photos.
Trip report now available....click more for details
Day 0 - Thursday
I left the office 4:00pm with the weather not looking too promising, but I thought I’d continue on anyway. I went via Queenbeyan and cooma and the rain didn’t stop the entire trip. And I was even driving at 60km/h at times because the visibility was almost zero!! Anyway, I arrived at Round Mountain trail head at 10:15 pm and the rain had reduced to a mere sprinkle. I was energized by this so I packed up and headed down the trail.
I walked straight past Round Mountain hut, as there were five tents pitched here! Everyone was obviously tucked in for the night as there was no activity or light anywhere, which was not surprising at 11:30 pm!! So I pushed on for another 1/2 km or so until I found a nice spot to pitch camp. The rain had almost stopped now, so I was expecting tomorrow to work out just fine!
Day 1 - Friday
The rain had stopped by the time I had finished packing up camp. And I was able to set off by 8:00am. My target today was to try and reach the northern most Bulls Peak, which was almost 20kms as the crow flies!!
The Tumut was high and cold as always, but this time I brought some thongs to walk across the rocky river bed, that made things so much easier!! Then the hard slog up Farm Ridge began!! I was buggered by the time I got to the top of the ridge, so a quick stop for morning tea and admire the very small slither of blue sky in the distance.
At the bottom of Farm Ridge trail, I was hit by the flies. The ruins at the bottom of the trail must attract them as the area sees a lot of campers. Continuing along the trail, I went over Bogong creek without being eaten by the ants!
I turned off the main trail at O’Keefe’s hut and headed up through the bush to the Eastern side of Jagungal heading for Jagungal saddle. I’d already walked 12km, and the saddle looked like another 5km before stopping for lunch…I must be crazy!
The landscape through here is amazing, although I stayed a little to high in the valley for most of the walk, so in future I need to remember to drop down in the valley early. But getting to the top of the saddle was a major achievement at 1:30pm!!
I had a long lunch, as I needed to recuperate. My target for the day was only a few more km’s along the saddle. A little more altitude was still required, but the weather was not look too bad now, and in fact was improving by the minute.
I climbed through McAlisters saddle which provided great views in either direction, and then I hit the last climb before the end of the day. I could see the Toolong range from here which was the track we followed last time we were here. There were some great views of The Big J from here to the north.
I got to my final destination around 4:00 pm, which was a short distance from the North Bulls Peak. There was a scientific collection station here, what it was collecting was not obvious, but it was pretty cool to look at. There was lots of little campsites around here, and also to the East towards the North Bulls saddle. I found a spot which overlooked all of tomorrow’s targeted peaks. I could see the three Bulls Peaks, Mailbox, Cup and Saucer and Tarn Bluff. And now the weather was perfect!!
Lucky for me, the sun was not setting until 8:00pm out here, so I had a couple of hours to collect fire wood, water and then relax with a Cigar and Whiskey while the sun set in the west.
Day 2 - Saturday
After falling asleep at the fire last night, I dragged myself off to bed very early. The morning was very early, as the sun was already beating down on the tent. I could see outside the weather was looking fantastic! No more cloudy skies, the day was clear, and apparently windless.
I left the damp tent to dry out in the sun while I made breakfast and packed everything else up. The beauty of being alone meant that I could get things done nice a quick, so I was able to break camp before 8:30 in the morning. Today the challenge was to hit the 8 peaks of the bulls area, it’s a big challenge but I know I am up to it!
I dropped into the valley to the south and then along the ridge line to North Bulls Peak. Unfortunately, the peak was a little too rugged for me to ascent by myself, so I took a few photos and then moved on to Bulls Peak. Once there, I got some amazing views all around, including of the dozens of crow’s that had been circling all morning!!
There was an old fire trail up here too which I followed around a while off to the South Bulls Peak. There are also a number of useful little campsites up here with heaps of fire resources, but not a lot of water. From here I traversed past South Bulls and across the saddle to the west and on to Mailbox hill.
Mailbox was amazing, very rugged and very flat at the top. I had become snake paranoid at this stage though as the sun was beating down, and I’d already spotted two snakes slithering away from me. I reached the top of Mailbox and hung around for a few minutes before moving on to Cup and Saucer.
Once again the views were amazing from here, but I got to what I thought was the top of the Cup, and realized that everything was too rugged here for me too. So I headed off quickly towards the evasive Tarn Bluff. The walk was mostly down hill to start with and I ended up on the amazing saddle with a great little creek running in all directions. Once I climbed out of the saddle, I got disoriented for a while until I managed to get my bearings again and dropped down towards the Geehi River Lake.
I was not too sure what to expect when I got to the lake, but this place was amazing!! The lake was much bigger and deeper than I was expecting, and full of bird life….until I arrived!! There was also some great rapids here and some huge rocks. I didn’t need to take the boots off to cross though, so I pushed on up the other side of the river and towards Strawberry hill.
I walked up the centre of the valley, through the bog to the bottom of Strawberry hill, before sinking into the bog and twisting my ankle!! I sat for a while and thought about what might happen if I broke a leg here….nothing….I’m too good to be caught out by mother nature!! So I picked myself up and walked up the hill to the spot I had previously identified as night two’s camp site…it was lunch time!
The flies were pretty bad, so I ate quickly, strapped my ankle, and the headed off again. I decided I would try and get out to Dershko’s by the end of the day to make tomorrow’s walk a little easier.
I got to Grey Mare fire trail at 3:00pm, after walking along the overgrown Strumbo Hill fire trail. It is a little hard to find, but I’ve taken some good GPS waypoints now, so it should be much easier next time. I had thunder rolling around me for most of the walk so far after lunch, and once I hit Grey Mare, the sky started to darken further.
I had just a few spots of rain on me before I got the wet weather gear out, and then the heavens opened!! The rain was incredibly heavy (like always out here)! But I pushed on as I wanted to get to Dershko’s to dry off. I decided to take a short break at the top of one of the small hills, in the trees but just as I got there a bolt of lightning hit a tree not 100m from me which nearly knocked me off my feet!! So guess what, I started to run down hill!!
I got to Dershko’s a little after 4:00pm, with the rain easing considerably. I hung around here for an hour while the rain stopped and I dried out and warmed up. I had decided to push even closer to the car park before ending my days walk, so I managed to walk another 5kms before ending the day. This meant I had another 22km day of walking today!!
I picked a camp site just off the main trail up in a small stand of trees. My camp was fine and I sat back with a small fire and watched the sun set again. While the sun was setting, I saw this huge storm form above me. The clouds were spinning just like on a weather map and the lightning was flashing 15km over head! It was an amazing site, and would have been very cool if I wasn’t so worried about mother nature having another crack at me once I went to bed!! Fortunately after an hour or so, the clouds abated and I started to relax again.
Day 3 - Sunday
I was up early and sat back and watched the sun rise above the hills behind my camp in the morning. My body was exhausted, and the ankle a little sore. But I slowly packed up and headed off by 8:00am. There was only 10km to do this morning before getting to the car, but I know how many hills there were!
I managed to hit the first river crossing by 9:00am, and then on to the bottom of Round Mountain at 10:00am in preparation for the big hill climb out of here!
I slowly moved up the hill towards Round Mountain car park which I finally arrived at by 11:00am. Total trip distance was now 56.6km, a mighty effort for my first solo trip!
]]>We played on Koowinda Waters on Saturday, and then Magenta Shores on Sunday. The two courses were very different, but unfortunately my game was very similar to 'the old graham'!!
Photos from the trip are here.
Here are the photos from the trip
The plan was to head out of Round Mountain car park, and head straight for the Jagungal saddle via Farm Ridge fire trail. From there we would attach the peak, and then on subsequent days walk over the Bulls Peaks and back over to Strawberry hill. The final day would see us walk out on Grey Mare fire trail, and Round Mountain fire trail via Dershko’s hut. That was the plan anyway! The trip plan is documented here as the Jagungal to Geehi track
We left Wollongong at 4:00pm, and after collecting the hikers along the way, we arrived at Round Mountain car park at 11:00pm. There was a little rain falling, but we decided to hit the trail out to Round Mountain hut before pitching camp. A little champagne was had before we left the car park, so our spirits were high!
The trail is pretty easy to navigate in the dark, plus there was a full moon so seeing was easy. We arrived at the hut around midnight and quietly made our way inside out of the rain. It was warm in here, which would usually indicate a group of people were inside. Not quite a group, we managed to scare the life out of one injured hiker that had been left behind by her group and was in deep sleep when woken by a bunch of wet walkers!!
Once introductions and apologies were made, we bedded down for the night. Some inside, and some outside in the wet
The morning started at 6:30am, but it took us a while to get away from camp around 8:30am. The weather was looking fine at this stage. The trail is very clear, no problem finding the directions and at the bottom of the hill, the boots come off for the Tumut river crossing.
The hill out of the Tumut river valley is a steep one and goes on for much further than you think! There are some amazing views looking both ways along the valley, and many camp sites once you hit the top of the ridge line.
Once down the other side of the ridge, there is an old farm ruin that can be used as a good camp site for a large group if necessary. The weather was still ok at this stage, but the flies were pretty ordinary! But just when we thought the flies were bad, the ants attacked us! Crossing the Bogong creek we paused for a moment and were covered in ants! So we trudged up to the top of the hill and away from the attacks.
Shortly after lunch, the weather changed. We watched a storm breaking across the valley first, then very soon it hit us. This was just after turning off the main trail and up the ridge for Jagungal. First it rained, but then the hail hit! It was only small hail but uncomfortable. The rain only lasted an hour or so, and eventually found a good campsite sitting below the Jagungal peak.
We managed to get a small fire going to warm and dry us out. But shortly after darkness fell, the rain started again, so it was off to bed for an early night.
The morning was amazing, we were surrounded by mist first thing, but as the sun came up the mist burned off and we were provided with amazing views of the surrounding peaks and valleys.
We set off to Jagungal was day packs at 9:00am. The walk was further than we expected, but some amazing views meant we sat around for a while checking things out. There were a lot of crows up there too which is a little eerie. We climb the peak to the East first, and not sure if this was actually the peak, we moved then to the Western peak. Then decided the peak was definitely the East!! There was still some snow around too, so we played around there, and took a bunch of photos.
We returned to camp and completed packing up before heading out for the rest of the days walking. We left at around 1:00pm and the destination was going to be the Bulls Peak range.
The walk to us around to the East of Jagungal, and then along the Toolong range. The views were amazing again, with views of Jagungal and the surrounding valleys. There was more snow on this side of the peaks, so once again we walked around in it!
We eventually found a place to cross over the Geehi river, and found a camp site below the ridge on the Western side of the valley. It was still early, 3:45pm but we were worn out from the walk up the peaks and needed a good slow afternoon with a big fire, few drinks and a cigar!
The night had been very windy, and the morning was cloudy. We broke camp at 9:30am, and we were now planning on heading out to Strawberry hill and then off to the fire trail. We were cutting out the Bulls Peak range.
We headed west, which was directly into the wind! But we eventually found our way across the Strumbo range to the base of Strawberry hill. There was an amazing little camp site here which I am sure we will use in the future. But after a short break there, we headed for the peak of Strawberry hill.
This was were the weather started to change again!! The wind increased, and the rain started. We headed towards Strumbo hill with the plan to find an old disused fire trail, Strawberry Hill fire trail.
We eventually found the trail and followed it around Strumbo hill to the south until it hit Grey Mare fire trail. The weather was still pretty ordinary, so we continued on for as long as we could before stopping for lunch. That was Dershko’s Hut. The rain had stopped about 30 minutes before we arrived, but we were pretty wet by this stage. We did spot some wild Brumbies though which is not something you see every day!
We dried out a little in the hut before setting up camp on top of the hill above the hut. Then I took a short walk to the bottom of Jagungal to check out a few other camp sites, before returning back to the camp site to warm up next to the fire. After dinner, we watched a storm roll around the horizon, lots of lightning, but at this stage there was no rain here.
That changed in the deep dark of the night. The wind hit first, then the rain, then the lightning, so much lightning the tent was lit up for 30 seconds at a time. And then, the hail!! If I didn’t know better, I would have thought I was in the tent test tunnel! Mother nature threw everything at us, but come morning we were still alive! And only Richard got a little wet
After that night, I can highly recommend the DHM Hike Lite Cygnet tent! It was great, no water on the inside despite the weather and wind. It didn’t even shake around in the wind like most of the other tents.
The morning was looking pretty good, so we head off to the North along Round Mountain fire trail towards the car park. The walk was going ok for a while, until the rain started again, but very soon, the rain turned to snow!! But it didn’t last too long so we kept on walking until we got to the bottom of the final hill at 12:30 where we rested a while before heading back up the hill to the car park.
Overall a very good trip, which we finally managed to conquer Mount Jagungal!! We also managed to experience pretty much every weather condition imaginable!
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