U3A Ballarat Hikers

 U3A Hike No 12 Photo: Gordon Shaw Today was the sixth and final stage of the Lerderderg Track between Daylesford and Bacchus Marsh. Would the rain hold off long enough for us to complete this walk. The weather forecast for today had changed everyday for the last week, so some doomsayers amongst us suggested wet weather gear. Fortunately this was to prove unnecessary. The weather was generally fine but windy and the rain finally came at 6pm, well after our walk. We started at Mt. Blackwood which is the highest point in the area (it is the high point with the phone tower you can see on your left at Myrniong as you travel to Melbourne). From here we headed east down the steep slope towards the Lerderderg river which looked to be far below us, the noise of tortured aging knees echoing across the valley. Fortunately when we arrived at the tree line the path turned to the south and soon passed through dappled eucalypt forest, making for very pleasant walking. The track generally followed th

 U3A Hike No 11 We finished this hike on top of Mt Blackwood While a rela tively short walk of 9.6 km and without the hairpin curves of stage four it was quite a demanding walk: medium-hard given some of the terrain. A small group of eleven met at Myrniong before driving along a ridge which afforded spectacular views of farmland stretching to the west with Mt Buninyong and Mt W arrenheip in the far distance and folded bush covered hills to the east. We left some cars atop Mt Blackwood before heading to the starting point at O’Brien’s Road    After walking a short distance on the road accompanied by the sounds of raucous white cockatoos and the more subdued yellow crested black ones, we came to a track labelled a Parks conservation area. This gave us a leafy and mostly shady walk through bushland with some early blossoming pink and white heath, stands of prickly hakea, young blue gums and a scattering of older trees among mostly regrowth bush.   Our easy pace altered when we reach