christmas rambling

What is best?  The camino in Spain on to go down into Italy on the Camno Francigen to Rome.

I like the Southern camino from Seville and this sounds good. It all seems a bit much,  The camino del Norte or the Primitivo goes through Galician Mountains.  It may be too much elevation for us.
happy travels

HOLIDAY RAMBLINGS

The holidays are here and Christmas is so close.  I haven't felt like blogging and have been in a bit of a rut since the Cornwall trip. 

My job has been engaging and highly stressful.  Most of the stress is self induced brought on by expectations of school colleagues who are  not really supportive or helpful.  Again that is my perception and reaction to presenting behaviour.  It has the elements of great new year resolutions.

And the cricket...embarrasing....  feel for that pommy who walked from London to get here ..not...and then my secret santa turned out to be a very pleasant englih as in pommy teacher who  requested I wear different English gear each day...hence the photo  with   dressage                                                                                                           

Anyway I am experimenting with  WORDPRESS  blogs...have a look at http://www.accssq.org.au/

It is a web site I am looking after and I think wordpress is sooooooooooooo compleeeeeeeeeeeecated compared to blogger...maybe its the rolls royce compared to the toyota  landcruiser

 I just don't get it

OK so now I can't align the text

maligned blogger



CORNWALL REFLECTIONS

I have not thought too much about writing about the south west coast path.  We walked the Cornwall section and found that it was an exhilarating experience with many ups and downs physically and mentally..
The small fishing towns left a lasting memory.  Walking down into them after a hard days walk was a bit like walking into the past.
The great thing about walking is that you visit places a little more remote from the tourist track.  While you are still a tourist you can see in slow motion ( slower for us) many different and varied sights and particularly have time to talk with locals.

The sheer cliffs were awesome and somrtimes frightening as we inched past them on the beaten track which moved slowly inlland as the erroding cliffs claimed more of the landscape.

Would think this is a uniquely beautiful part of England that has a distinctive cultural history and a more recent economic history displayed in the remnant mine sites and the down sized fishing industry

CORNISH WALKING

While I was travelling to St Ives...sorry wrong St Ives..this is the Cornish version and not the St Ives with the wives.
However it is a beautiful coastal town on the west coast and we have arrived after 6 days of pretty solid coastal walking.

Coastal walking means up and down  but from the ups we have seen some magnificent country side  and seascape.  Rugged cliffs with scary descents as thecoastal track inches by the frightening drops.

On the second day the wind was fierce and when we later learned it was the tail of a hurricane we shook our heads as we were blown on that day all over...lucky it was blowing the other way from the cliffs.

The Bed and  Breakfasts have been a treat and I have almost been able to reist the large English breakfasts which have slowed down my walking.

We are going to do a little more bus shuttling packs as the journey goes. One hundred K's up and another 3 to go to Falmouth.

Walk on through the rain with a song in your heart as the English sing from the stands

.........and maybe a Cornish pasty as  well

Happy Trails

CORNISH THOUGHTS

CORNISH RAMBLINGS

Cape Cornwall, St Just in Penwith

"St Just in the Penwith area of Cornwall is famous for its historic tin mines that line the landscape – a reminder of its industrial past. Among the relics is a chimney that sits atop the headland at Cape Cornwall – the only cape that exists outside Scotland. Thanks to the combined efforts of those who maintain and manage the site, it’s now possible to walk around its summit. "

We set off for the South West Coast Path in Cornwall hoping to complete 300km from Padstow to Falmouth.

I have not put as much preparation into this walk as the camino but we are hoping that we can build up as we go and enjoy what appears to be a fantastic coastscape

NOT QUITE MAROONED

MT BARNEY FROM THE SUMMIT OF MT MAROON

Mt Maroon is approx 100km south of Brisbane,  It stands solitary apart from the main range and commands 360 degree views of rhe scenic rim with its commanding  massive cousin Mt Barney adjacent to it.

While it is not too hard of a climb it can't be taken too lightly with a scramble up a ridge line and through outcrops, a crumbling traverse over to a chimney gully and then a rather  scrubby bush bash and slabs on the top.

It was a late decision on a beautiful sunny winter day that saw me at the base at 12.30pm.  I set myself a turn around time of 3pm and reckoned that would be getting me back before sunset.

The start is at a small off road and isolated spot charmingly called Cotswold and I was staggered by the number of cars there.  Everyone was choosing this as  Maroon day.

I soon met the descending group SES State Emergency Services
" Not a good idea to do this alone" said the leading walker who was armed with every saving device available it seemed on sight
." You're right. Not a good idea " said I already confirming that I had thought that I was letting my heart rule my reason....
Then there was a south sea islander church group..." we started at 8.30am" they said .. my legs pumped faster.
Ran into two lady walkers from the National parks Assoc.
."Always thought I might join that " I said
'We only walk slow" they said.
" Sounds like my sort of club " I said,

The traverse was slow and steep down to the chimney..The chimney at times hand over hand...Met a few brisbane Bushwalkers coming down and didn't really want to tell them who I was as the ethics of walking alone is not condoned  usually.

However, Chrissie Dott who went on a Binna Burra walk with me was there.  She is a great photographer and I am hoping for some pictures from her of the top of Maroon and of the surrounding mountains.

Into the saddle and scrub and fluked a group coming off the slabs where an indistinct but time saving track wound through the scrub.  Kept getting back markers as i climbed and thought" come three and I am out of here"
  reached the top at 3.05 and it was really spectacular.
Well three minutes of spectacle..then I was off.

Heard some shouting coming from the scrub..thought it was crows or birds and then as Isearched for the delivering track two SES guys in orange vests appeared.

"OK guys I'm pretty sure this is the track"  They looked lost and disoriented and I thought that I wouldn't want them to rescue me.  Then they were gone without so much as a how are you going etc....

The scrub where I had become a bit lost in past climbs was great and I made up time but the chimney was terrible.  I had to be specially careful as it was  getting dark and late in the shadow of the mountain.  Reached the bottom with much relief and then overbalanced and nearly continued the descent.

The traverse was OK but I thought  I would make time on the ridge but it was much crumbling rock and loose gravel.
Reached the car at 5.30pm without the use of a torch.
I was ready to camp out in the cold but felt that it wouldn't have been great to be marooned ( excuse the pun ) on this mountain.

COOMERA FALLS -LAMINGTON NATIONAL PARK

I thought we had visited Coomera falls last year but it turned out it was three years since we were here.  That was a drought ago and now the area was all shades of green.

Another late start or was it a late night that made the start late?

  We didn't hit the track until one o,clock and luckily a late breakfast was good for a late lunch.

We drifted off the Border track after 2km and started to descend into the Coomera Gorge. The track passed through sub tropical and warm temperate rainforest which was wet and quite muddy. It soon passed into giant brush box forrest and then arrived at the gorge,

The gorge is 160metres deep with the falls plummenting 64m from the top of the crevice gorge . This is a particularly beautiful part of the Lamington National Park and we were sorry that the lateness in the day meant we couldn't continue...another day.

LAZY RAMBLES ALONG LORNE GREAT OCEAN ROAD VICTORIA

HOLA , BUENOS DIES!!!

The Spanish Camino is many miles away but as we came to this remote picnic area we were suddenly in Spain.
Next table ( well there were only two tables) were two very volatile spanish couples dining and wining  with passionate debate on world cup soccer and Spain's form. What seemed to us as  an Aussie fight is really a heated debate in Spain, and it brought back many happy memories of our Spanish pilgrimmage last year.  Their loud voices bounced off the nearby mountains...
Thats where we headed after lunch and thought that a ramble along the creek aptly named 'sandy' was a suitable after lunch exercise.

However the road kept going  we thought it enough and headed back to the Spanish quarter......

This must be part of the major trail leading from Boonah to brisbane and so we will return better informed ......

RAIL TRACKING

This ride was 20km on from the last ride.   From the Cominya rail siding we headed out and expected a pleasant 20km ride.
The trail was mostly broken rock and hard going as we rode into mid day sun.
We were tempted to call it off or head for nearby roads which seem to run next to the trail and then disappear into the bush.  The bush was rough and thick and had not been cleared.
We came eventually to cleared farmland with fruit orchards. what fruits we couldn't quite make out but there was small activity going on.
It was slow progress to the rail bridge our destination.  At the bridge there is still work in progress to make a track down into the gully and out.  I walked half way across the former rail bridge  and thought better of it. The ride back was much faster as we ventured onto a country sealed road.
If this was acompleted section I wouldnt be that keen on the next unfinished section.

HOW WE SEE THINGS

WE SEE THINGS
NOT AS THEY ARE
BUT AS WE ARE

HARDINGS PADDOCK RAMBLE

Harding's Paddock we discovered last week in a visit to Mt Flinders south west of Brisbane.  It is in a Conservation Corridor and tracks along the Teviot Range which includes many isolated but unusual peaks.

The trail is muti purpose recreational and forms part of a horse trail with the occasional but not thankfully sighted mountain bikes.

It was a short but steep heart starter up to Rocky Knoll, a walk along the range and another short up to Goolman's lookout.  We had lunch looking out to the Western Divide with also southern views of Mts Barney, maroon and Lindsay.

To the east we could have seen the Pacific Ocean. Well Matthew Flinders the sailing exploreer cerainly saw Flinders Peak as he sailed around Australia..liked it ... gave it his name....

The walk was only 8km and we could have explorered further down the trail towards Flinders Peak but decided to do a car shuffle on another day.

The day was a beautiful Queensland start to winter.. well it was officially Queensland Day ( for the uninitiated that was the day Queensland was declared a separate state 151 years ago...... Happy Queensland Day

RAIL TRAIL RAMBLING

A Sunday ride along an old rail trail in the Brisbane Valley.  The rail closed 20years ago and the trail now follows the Brisbane River Valley through many small towns which border on Brisbane's water supply Wivenhoe and Somerset Dams.

Riding was pleasant along a mostly flat gravel based trail . The country is green after the summer rains and we had a brief autumn shower which we just avoided.

The whole rail trail is not finished but there are many sections opened so we will be back

Lowood was a sleepy little town which time seems to have forgotten but is now on the edges of the Urban sprawl.  Did not see any koalas but there was a huge bat colony outside the town, and i mean huge.  Must have been thousands and thousands of bats.  In view of the recent virus outbreak I'd be keeping the horses inside.

LAZY DAISY HILL

This was a 13km walk through a Koala Park Reserve  on the south side of brisbane called Daisy Hill........It's one of those walks you walk along a trail looking up in the trees to find the elusive koala and then walk into a tree or log

I have never really seen a koala there but I have walked into trees and the occasional pond but I believe that they are there somewhere...(mm probably having a bit of a laugh on their gum leaves  actually

One thing I always forget about this walk as I start is that it is hilly.  Well it is not called Daisy Hill for nothing and there are really a lot of daisies hilly parts.

There is even the remains of a disused quarry there.  Oh yes and it is a popular place for mountain bike riding and the occasional horse rider....horses good, bikes not so good.

One bike rider shared the secret life  of the quarry with us.  " Go up on the cliffs of the quarry" he said " that's where they filmed a scene from Sea Patrol ( TV Series)"

"Really?"   mmm I started to think how Sea Patrol got so far inland. No wonder they have trouble finding refugee boats...

Guess this could be part of a celebrity tourist circuit like in Scotland, Hamish Macbeth or Doc Martin in Cornwall

" You just gotta see the cliffs and the quarry that they pushed a Sea Patrol over"

Anyway we were impressed and if we didn't see any koalas it sure was at least something