U3A Ballarat Hikers

 U3A Hike No 8 Hike Report by Jan Herperger Our group has swelled to 19 enthusiastic hikers - our largest number yet. After driving along a labyrinth of gravel roads and making a couple of U turns we arrived back at Toe Rag Track, the finish point of our last walk and the beginning of today's stage of our long walk in the bush. We stopped briefly at the site of the Wombat Forest Tramway turntable and learned that there also used to be a sawmill at this location. Fun fact: the small stream nearby was the Werribee River.   There were times that the track narrowed to single file walking but much of today's journey was tramped along fire tracks and other roadways lined by very tall, straight eucalypts. There were also some lovely damp areas with ferns and more varied species of trees. We stopped at Balt Camp which was a refugee work camp for displaced persons from World War Two. The camp was constructed in 1946 by the Forestry Commission and housed 45 displaced men from the Baltic

 U3A Hike No 7 Exciting to see such a good turnout for our first hike of 2017. Eighteen keen hikers is our best yet! We finished 2016 with an enrollment of 18 and start 2017 with 25 members. I only envisaged a hardy group of half a dozen when I floated the idea of stage-hiking last year. I would like to thank everyone for their support and encouragement to make this a robust viable group.  Thanks everyone: Andrew Parker Hike Report by Gordon Shaw On Thursday 2nd Feb 2017 the U3A Hiking Group commenced the first of this year’s series of walks which will cover the Daylesford-Bacchus Marsh Lerderderg Track. The walk organised, led and precisely navigated by Andrew Parker took us from Daylesford to the point where the track briefly joins with the Star Track on the way to Bacchus Marsh. We started with a short stretch on the edge of Lake Daylesford then headed south to Jubilee Lake and then into the Wombat Forest. The weather was wonderful, the bush often truly beautiful and the conversatio