U3A Ballarat Hikers

Hike report by Mark Woowookarung – ‘Place of Plenty’ – Wadawurrang People What a great way to end the U3A Hikers year – walking and eating! Firstly the large group met early at Andrew’s place to set lunch arrangements in motion then convoyed to the start of the Dementia Friendly Trail in the Woowookarung Regional Park. A perfect cloudy warm day and 8.6km of dry tracks awaited us. A km or so found us the long range target end of the now derelict Canadian Rifle Range where we explored the ruins of the once impressive targets now very overgrown by gorse.  Hike leader Andrew read some historical notes about some of the less impressive target shooting, for example a bullet that ricocheted off  a local lady’s sewing machine as she worked on it. (read the newspaper report and other info in the Notes link after photos) Onwards past Pax Hill  Scout Camp the walk joined the newly created Cherry Ballart Loop Walk. The Cherry Ballart is a hemiparsitic tree which grows on the roots of mainly Eucaly

 U3A Hike No 282 HIKE REPORT BY GEOFF After a very varied week weatherwise, Goldilocks would have said today was just right, not too hot not too cold.  Eleven hikers met at Kirks today and soon after we were on our way to Basalt Road,  Eganstown. Our hike saw us setting off on Bottle O Porter Road, which leaves Basalt Road opposite Brandy Hot Road.  This very pleasant, occasionally used, vehicle track saw us walking between a pine forest to our left, and an impressive eucalypt forest to our right.  Over our first hour we gently descended down the track to reach Sailors Creek. Numerous, brown, Monarch butterflies fluttered around us as we walked. Walking along the track, above the creek, we were careful not to step too far right, into the blackberries which disguised the perilous drop down to the creek. We enjoyed this particularly attractive part of the walk before reaching Tipperary Springs.   From here Gordon led us up a poorly defined track through the open, eucalypts forest, toward

 U3A Hike No 281 Hike Report by Monica An early bird start saw 12 U3A regulars meet within the Werribee Gorge state forest, at the second public carpark, after a winding road leading down, down to Meilkes Picnic Ground. The picnic spot, complete with toilets and tables, is popular with families on the weekends, and offers an abundance of well sign-posted walks: The Discovery Walk (short), the River Walk (3 Kms), the Centenary Walk (4 Kms), the Ironbark Gorge Walk to Falcons Lookout and the Short Circuit (3 Kms).    Naturally, being hardened hikers, we were led by Mark on the only possible alternative: the greater Werribee Gorge Circuit Track, billed as 10 Kms and graded as medium-difficult. To be fair, Andrew’s highly accurate gps at the completion of the walk noted just 8.1 Kms, while grading by yours truly could be summed up as 50:50 (med:diff), and categorised into roughly four stages: uphill, downhill, sheer-rockface-help!-feels-like--abseiling, and flat. Such variation comes with