U3A Ballarat Hikers

 U3A Hike No 262 Hike Report by Leona Mt Cole Reservoir? Really, who knew? Certainly not me. This appealing element of mystery led 14 rugged up hikers to set off in a convoy of five vehicles from Selkirk Stadium towards Beaufort. Thick fog hugged the hills to the right while patches of blue sky to the left held the possibility of some greatly anticipated warmth.  After a short stop in Beaufort we pointed the vehicles towards Elmhurst and travelled along the Raglan Elmhurst Rd, turning left onto the Raglan Mt Cole Rd. The following 14 km stretch provided atmospheric weather conditions, wallabies and some curiously named tracks. Among them - Frees Point Track, Dairy Maid Rd, Mugwamp Track, Sugarloaf Rd, Sapling Bridge and last but definitely not least - Hell Hole Track. Thankfully, the latter was not to be part of our journey. Instead, a couple of left turns took us to our circuit walk start and finish point at Nando's Hut. Probably not related to any packaged food company, Nando R

 U3A Hike No 261 Hike Report by Teena After meeting at Kirks Reservoir ten of us carpooled to Castlemaine. We then travelled in convoy to Chewton and parked at The Garfield Wheel car park. Setting off, just 50m North, we came to the foundations of the Garfield Wheel. The wheel had been constructed in 1887, used until 1903 and then dismantled in 1904. It was quite impressive to see how high it would have been when the water wheel was insitu. Continuing North after 200m we then followed the Goldfields track for about one kilometre. We reached the Manchester Mine, and, heeding Gordons advice, we kept away from the edge as it had a very deep shaft! Walking on we crossed Sailors Bridge, where Gordon informed us that this was where the Troll lived. Not wanting to disturb the Troll we carried on, leaving the Goldfields track and followed Fairbarn road along the vehicle track to a dam. We skirted the dam and walked to the junction where we turned right and 100m later came across a ruined chi