U3A Ballarat Hikers

 U3A Hike No 330 Hike Report By Sharon Moss Nine enthusiastic hikers set out on Day Four for the final leg of our trek .  We set off briskly following in the footsteps of Mark, our leader for the day, although there may not have been quite the same spring in our step as on Day One!  We picked up where we left off the day before, following the Coliban main channel for the first 3rd of our 16k walk. There is no history of mining along this area of the channel & no known mining relics. Native bush carpeted with everlasting yellow daisies & yellow dogwood(?) made this part of the walk very pleasant .   We eventually reached Sandhurst reservoir where we left the main Coliban channel.  Gordon was very relieved that we all managed to not fall into the rapidly flowing channel  water!  Although at one point, there were workmen cleaning out the filters in the channel, including a dead kangaroo .  The final two thirds of the walk passed  through areas that were heavily mined in the 1800s.

 U3A Hike No 329 Hike Report By Jan Herperger Today's 15 km walk was really terrific! We gathered at yesterday's end point just off the Harcourt-Sutton Grange Road and met Mark's relatives-in-law, Kim & Simon who joined us on our penultimate day of the Goldfields Track. It was a beautiful sunny day as the 11 of us set off on a wide track beside the burbling water in the Coliban Main Channel.  The Goldfields Track guidebook accurately described the countryside as "picturesque boulder-strewn hills and long views across farmland." It was Very pretty.   There were all sorts of things along the way to keep us interested (in no particular order) - a picnic table and seat made out of a thick slab of granite that will probably still be in great shape for hikers to rest at in 1000 years;  wattle trees in flower;  grey shrike thrushes singing;  not one but two tunnels (one called Wirths and the other called Brennans) where the channel disappeared underground for a while