U3A Ballarat Hikers

U3A Hike No. 101 Report by Rick Frank At 7:45am 16 ready and able hikers met at the car park at the corner of Barkly and Eureka Sts and proceeded on a very warm day to hike some 13 kilometres up the Canadian Creek trail to Recreation Road then down to Whitehorse Road and finally back to the Ballarat CBD along the Yarrowee Creek.   The topic of conversation was the corona virus - what we thought about it and how it affected each of us. We were conscious of keeping a social distance between ourselves. Along the way we had a group photo outside of Gordon’s house. Then there was the apple tree on Whitehorse Road that was laden with fruit. The only thing that saved that tree from being emasculated was the barb wire fence separating us from the tree. Along the Yarrowee Creek, we stopped for morning tea near Bala Street. All in all, it was an easy, enjoyable walk with good company on a nice warm summer day. We returned to the car park around 11 o’cloc

U3A Hike No. 100 Report by Ian Egerton “This will be a difficult walk in a remote location…” – it would appear that these were the famous last words for some, as only five intrepid walkers turned up at Kirks for this adventure - and it was an adventure, charting new territory along the Pyrites Creek. Early in the walk we came across the remains of an antimony mine which was worked in the late 1800’s.  You may well ask ‘how do you pronounce antimony?’, and the consensus on the walk seemed to lean towards an emphasis on the ‘tim’, but this didn’t sound right to me, and I couldn’t check it online as there was ‘no service’ in the creek valley. I have subsequently found that there are multiple pronunciations according to various ‘authoritative’ sources, so take your pick. Apparently antimony can be used for hardening other metals, such as lead (why would you want to do that?), or for castings, because antimony expands when it’s frozen (like water) which helps it to fill small holes i

U3A Hike No 99 Report by Monica McCormack It didn’t look promising: steady drizzle, low lying wisps of rain cloud hanging like  washing over the hills, average visibility, soggy pathways. Still, 30 hardy hikers  turned up in the grey light at 7.45am – more or less on time – at the usual place,  Kirks Reservoir. The day had its advantages: no total fire ban, no looming  bushfires. This was a special occasion, theoretically speaking: a celebration of the  100th walk arranged by Fearless Leader (FL) Andrew Parker. A milestone and  tribute to his impeccable organisational skills and exhilarating choice of walks. In  reality, however, it was the 99th occasion: due to an earlier hiking cancellation it  fell short of the milestone. But, who was to quibble over just one numeral? Thirty hikers divided between eight cars took off for Lyonville, for the beginning  of the walk, 40 minutes away. Unbeknown to most, however, reality once again  superseded theory. A ninth motor - maroon, isol