U3A Ballarat Hikers

Hike no 88 Hike Report by Dick Patterson Nine walkers met at the Gillies Street Aquatic Centre for the second of the second and fourth Thursday walks led by Gordon. We had Gordon, Andrew, Peter, Robert, Dick, Ian, David (a visitor from Melbourne), Geoff and Frances.   We drove to Beaufort independently and then in convoy to Richards campsite on the northeast side of Mt Cole where we left half the cars. We then set off along Ferntree Gully Road to the Middle Creek campsite on the western side of Mount Cole.  After a brief introduction to all for David and   a discussion about safety and the intended track we headed north from the campsite across the Waterfalls Road and into the bush that had suffered from a fire about twenty years ago. The track is known as the Bukkertilbe track. This is the local word for ‘cave’ for the Beeripmo Balug tribe who were part of the Djab Wurrung. The track heads through the granite boulders that have come to rest on the

Hike No 87 Hike Report by Andrew Parker  Due to the forecast temperature being raised and raised again in the few days prior to our hiking day, the eventual top temperature forecasted being 36 degrees and a Total Fire Ban. I accordingly changed the listed hike to an urban one. A 12km walk around Lake Wendouree and Victoria Park’ However, the day before, when I emailed the group regarding the change, I mistakenly listed the start time as 8:45am instead of 7:45am. Not realising this until about 7:15am, I quickly sent out text messages to the group. As a result, when we set off belatedly at 8am from the vicinity of the Lakeview Hotel we had a group of only six hikers. By the time we had walked halfway around the Lake the numbers swelled to thirteen, as we were joined from time to time by additional walkers. The wind was horrendous on the south side of the lake as it seemed to pick up speed crossing the lake. When we arrived at Victoria Park it was a r

Hike No 86 Hike Report by Peter Treby On Thursday 14 November 2019, three U3A Ballarat members, Gordon, Dick and I took off to the Mt Cole State Forest for an exploratory walk.  Starting at the Fern Tree camping area, we first visited Fern Tree Falls and the Cascades of Middle Creek, before heading off steeply uphill to Snowgums Lookout. Nice walking along single track, in tall forest, but it required an ascent of around 400 metres in 2 kilometres. The views as far as Mt Elephant to the south, and Mt Sturgeon to the west were terrific. We joined the Beeripmo Track to Mugwamp Camping area for lunch, then bagged another fine lookout near Mt Buangor (granite mountain or pointed hill in Djab Wurrung).  A knee-buckling descent took us steeply downhill to our starting point, completing a walk of around 14 kilometres.  Despite the forecast, we didn’t need rain gear while on the move. Thanks for Gordon for leading and navigating, and Dick for driving.

Hike No 85 HIKE REPORT BY GORDON TALBETT On a day when low temperatures, driving winds and heavy rain were forecast, 12 hardy Hikers gathered at Kirks. Everyone was hoping that their luck with the weather would hold once more. Andrew and three other drivers went off to leave cars at the finish point beside White Swan reservoir and the rest of us drove to Andrew’s house in Canadian. This would be the starting point for the revised Goldfieds Track, the section between Mt Buninyong and Creswick now re-named the Eureka Track. It now follows the Canadian Creek instead of the Yarrowee River. Soon we were pushing north along the Creek into a brisk headwind. A little way before Elsworth St we passed the remains of a ‘cyanide pit’; a circle of laid bricks capped with cement which was protruding by 2 courses above the leaf litter. This would have been used for the secondary processing of spoil left over from the original alluvial diggings (see the postscript below). Shortly