U3A Ballarat Hikers

 U3A Hike No 313 Hike Report and Photos By Geoff Howard Twelve Hikers gathered at Kirks Reservoir, ready for our hike this week and, defying our usual experience of fine weather, as A A Milne would say: ‘It rained… and it rained… and it rained..! !’.    This meant that, as hikers scurried to their allotted cars, our convoy departure from Kirks didn’t go according to plan and the three cars left separately finding their own way to Gambles Lane Leonards Hill. One of the cars even overshot the departure point from the Ballan-Daylesford Road because the wind towers being identified as a key marker were lost in the mist.    It was still raining consistently when we set off along Post Office Track.  On a positive note, t he overnight gale force winds had died away, allowing conditions to feel relatively mild and peaceful.  W ell rugged up under our waterproofs we were in good spirits and able to enjoy the experience of walking through a forest of tall eucalyptus.    Conditions underfoot wer

 U3A Hike No 312 Hike Report By Myra Trudgen Thirteen of us followed our leader Mark Hawley up the first gentle slope of the hike in very chill  but calm conditions. The track was muddy and slippery in parts and both of these conditions became slightly trickier as the hike went on. It was a delightful walk, as the track snaked up and down many inclines which gave us varying vistas of the surrounding bush. However, some care was needed to negotiate the conditions  and at least one of our group succumbed to the wet and lost his balance. The bush was just beginning to show very early signs of spring: the Grasstrees have obviously enjoyed the recent rain and looked very healthy and even the gorse had unfortunately begun to bloom in a few places. It is a credit to ParksVic however, that very little of it was in evidence on the day. After about an hour, a slight Scotch Mist or light rain fell, although it hardly penetrated the tree canopy and added to that indefinable sense of a lovely winte

 U3A Hike No 311 Hike Report By Tina Evans With the weather forecast earlier in the week giving lots of rain, just 6 hardy souls tuned up at Kirks. We headed to Mollongghip. Once we got out of our cars the icy wind hit us. So, we quickly set off along Slaters Road for the cover and shelter of Wombat Forrest. Just before we started to follow the signs for The Goldfields Trail, we saw about 30 kangaroos in the paddock on our right. Soon we saw evidence of The Andersons Tramway in the form of a station for loading the logs onto the trams that were pulled by horses to the sawmill in Barkstead. When we arrived in Barkstead, we could see that logging was still a source of income for the locals. The Andersons were six brothers that sailed to Melbourne from Scotland in 1850. The tramway was initially 5k long, but it was extended to 23k. When they eventually cut all the timber down in their area, they got into a dispute with other landowners. The dispute led them to stop logging and move to

 U3A Hike No 310 Hike Report By Chris Charleson A dozen keen, if chilly hikers - including our first timer Chris Nielsen set off through the fog to Linton. As we approached the town, bright sunshine broke out and cloud banks caused by the temperature inversion appeared in the valleys to each side.  A spectacular  effect for our arrival. We parked at the Recreation Reserve and commenced the walk northerly along the rail trail (est.2004) in the stillness of the pines. This a rea an evocative collection of place names chosen by the miners. Mark led us into more varied terrain and a succession of gullies: Candlestick, Wattle, Bakery, Possum and of course Nuggety. Spider webs were visible in the shafts of morning sunlight shining on the understory plants. We encountered recently covered deep mine shafts, several adits cutting into the ridges and lots of evidence of shallower diggings. Our morning tea stop was at the mossy bank of an old dam in the company of lots of parrots and a group of c