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Greetings from the Bohemian Forest - Monica McCormack

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  My Czech Boyfriend Hello One and All, Fellow U3A Hikers I’m writing this long-winded hiking ‘blog’ from my forest sanctuary, a relatively remote area in middle Europe called Hamry na Sumava. Hamry is a small village of 140 non-permanent residents spread over about 10 kilometres in the depths of the Bohemian Woods in the Czech Republic (CR). It lies just over the border from Bavaria/Bayern, in Germany. I’ll deal with that side first so you get the picture of two quite different countries, which - until 1989 – were separated by barbed wire and armed guards. You can still see bits of wire in my area, and hear stories of young Czechs trying to cross in the middle of the night crawling on hands and knees, to get to ‘the other side’ during Communist times. This rural area, off the beaten track in many ways, is a paradise for hikers, bicyclists and skiers. Which is why I’d like to sell the concept to you, in case you ever get the urge to visit an area not over-run by Chinese, Russian an...
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Alan & Teena In England

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  Hi everyone, Well, we had good flights over and didn't really feel like we had very much jet-lag. We are staying with my sister and brother-in-law in Honiton, Devon. We have been out for a few short walks, mostly in the rain! We thought we would write our blogs and send them in so you can see what we are up to. 5 th Sept The rain was pretty bad all day, so we went for a drive to Exmouth. A lovely little seaside town about 20 minutes away. We had a few things to do in the town and then drove along the seafront. I have included a photo of the beach huts there, not as interesting as the ones we saw in Brighton.   6 th Sept Alan and I went for a walk around Honiton, it was raining all the time and yes, we got very wet! We walked around the back roads and into the town. We went into a cafe for morning tea and thought of you all on your hike the day before. We only had walked 5.4km that day, but it was a start. 7 th Sept After a lovely evening at our friends dau...
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Wollemi National Park

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  Crossing the ford at the start of the Glow-worm tunnel walk By Jan Herperger A couple of Saturday evenings ago I was invited to go on a spontaneous camping holiday into NSW with my daughters; leaving the next day. Who wouldn’t say yes to an invitation like that! So I packed a bag and the following day jumped in my car and drove to Myrtleford and stayed overnight with daughter number 2. Next morning we packed her station wagon and set off for Bathurst over 6 hours away. The countryside the whole way from Myrtleford was very attractive with rolling hills and farmland and forested lands and the road wound around and up and down (hmmm, a bit like our hikes!). Later that day after we’d arrived and were hurrying to the public toilets (!) we heard a “yoo hoo” and there was daughter number 1 who’d driven up from Sydney. After checking out some op shops and the supermarket we put all of number 1’s camping gear into the now very full station wagon, left her car on a ...
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5. Annette - The Overland Track - Tasmania

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  How do I start? Hiking The Overland track was everything and more than I thought it would be.   My friend Jacqui and I decided to trek with “Intrepid” as we had not done such a long hike before and had heard so many tales about the difficulty of this hike. (Safety in a group)   So, early on Saturday morning, we were picked up from our motel in Launceston by   a small bus and, along with 7 others and 2 guides, spent two and a half hrs traveling to the Cradle Mountain National Park, and the trail head of the hike at Ronny Creek.   They said day one was the hardest, and they were right. Boardwalk for the first couple of Kms, then up & up & up to Marion’s Lookout. Great views of Dove Lake and Cradle Mountain in perfect weather. We stopped at Kitchen Hut for lunch, then grabbed small day packs to scale Cradle Mountain itself. This was one of the best bits in my mind, as the steep track became a rock scramble, then rock climb, then boulder climb, as we scale...
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