U3A Ballarat Hikers

U3A Hike No 95 Hike Report by Joan Brick “Over the bumpy roads and through the woods To the Wallaby track we go Andrew knows  the way to  guide our sleighs Through winding  forest roads hooray!” Our adventure on Thursday took us along Stage 2 of the Wallaby Track.  Once we completed our car shuffling between our starting point of Dean and our finishing point of Leonards Hill, we were ready to hit the trail.  We were excited by the view we had at the start which looked pretty good as it was one long seemingly flat trail surrounded by tall straight gum trees but then Andrew took a sharp left and we were left wondering where this turn would take us.   As we were walking our attention was turned to the beekeepers in the area that seem to be getting ready to either place the bees in that area or move them elsewhere.  The trail along this section could be called the zig zag section as it kept us on our toes. We then came to the a...

U3A Hike No 94 Hike Report by Ian Egerton The walk was a circuit which started in light rain and finished with a clear sky at the Vaughan Springs picnic ground on the Loddon River and followed sections of the Goldfields Track, which is well signposted, although we also went off-track along a couple of ridges and then along Sebastapol Creek through light scrub. Features along the way included the Tubal Cain Mine, which had quite a ‘tall’ Cornish chimney running ingeniously up the slope of the hill; and a cavelike adit running into a hillside with a deceased kangaroo inside the entrance (we didn’t dare go any further!), and a large mullock heap out front. The track also passed through a number of areas dotted with old gold-diggings pits, others with extensive scatterings of quartz, as well as the odd section of water race and associated dams. We saw the remains of a number of stone buildings, many with just the chimney left standing. The ‘Big Chimney’ was the largest of these...

U3A Hike No 93 Hike Report by Joan Brick With a large group of eager hikers ready for the days adventure, we began with a car shuffle from Kirks Reservoir to Dean and finally   to Creswick.    We headed through the grounds of the School of Forestry making our mark by taking a group photo in front of the main building   which seemed to set off a few bells and alarms which really didn’t seem   to concern the locals.    Once on the Wallaby track we were introduced to the art work that appears on the track in the form of decorated mosaic tiles laid on the path,  painted totem poles and iron sculptures with a series of picturesque dams in the background.    We ventured into the Le Gerche Forest Walk which has been newly incorporated into the Wallaby track.   This was   a special part of the walk where we were able to appreciate the efforts of Le Gerche   in   reforestation of this area due to the   detr...