U3A Ballarat Hikers

U3A HIKE NO 124 Hike Report by Mark Hawley After 4 days of parking the car in a valley and walking up to a spectacular view, this walk was the perfect way to end a busy week. A 9am rendezvous at the Halls Gap parking area saw Gordon presented with a thank-you gift of a book about Grampians wildflowers for his great leadership, preparation and organisation over the week. Next a short drive to the Sundial Carpark located up the back slope of Sundial Peak.   Part One  (approx1.5k) of the day’s walking was to Lakeview Lookout. As the name implies it offers a view of Lake Bellfield, plus the entire valley with Halls Gap nestling below. Lurking next-door to the north side is The Pinnacle - hardly Everest but it still prompted the Edmund Hillary quote:  ‘We Knocked the Bastard Off!’  from our walk a couple of days ago. Next the path – part of the 36km Grampians Peaks Trail which took  us along the top of the ridge until it offered a choice of continuing on  to The Pinnacle or looping back to

 U3A HIKE NO 123 Hike Report by Fiona Deutscher We completed several  challenging walks on this day including Hollow Mountain,  Gulgurn   Man j a  Shelter,  Flat  Rock & Mt Stapleton.   Hollow Mountain   We commenced  this strenuous 2.2km walk from Hollow Mountain Carpark -after travelling 45mins along the dusty Mt Zero -  Halls Gap Rd. The track commenced on a flat sandy track through a densely vegetated gully with a very colourful display of wildflowers. These included Pink Fringe Myrtle, Holly Leaf Grevillea,  Cats Paws Grevillea , Desert Peas &  Nodding Blue Lily . The track  lead us to  the base of  an iron stained cliff. It was  then  a steep & strenuous climb through fallen boulders & squeezing along narrow exposed ledges to a sparsely vegetated  high  rocky outcrop. A group purple noddi ng lilies were a surprising contrast growing amongst  the grey mass of rock. The summit of Hollow  mountain  afforded  impressive  views of Mt Stapleton and  the Amphitheatre. We

 U3A HIKE NO 122 At 7.55am nine walkers welcomed Fiona and left the carpark at Halls Gap to tackle the thousand ironing board steps that head towards Wonderland. (So named  because the steel shapes resemble ironing boards!)   The day was perfect with no wind and plenty of haze that would soon burn off to a perfect walking day. The steps levelled  to a delightful bush track that wound its way through house sized boulders until we reached the Pinnacle and our upper limit of 740 metres. (On Monday we reached 1009 metres on Mt Rosea but from a higher start.)   For the first time in three  days,  we encountered other walkers in larger numbers. Their walk, from the Wonderland carpark, is the most popular of all Grampians day trips. We had done the hard yards.   After morning tea, which was almost eaten by a crow (Raven), we headed down through the wonderfully named Silent street. It resembles a deserted street complete with cobblestones and sidewalks. (A little imagination is required.) We t