Members Adventures

  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...

By Joan Brick While I have always loved camping and bushwalking since I was in Girl Scouts, I only really started doing serious hiking in the last five years.  With work and family activities keeping me busy during the week, the weekends were as just as hectic, thus restricting my time for interests I enjoyed to those after 7:00pm which really was not conducive to hiking. After I left work to care for John, I decided that I needed to find an activity that was both physically and mentally challenging as well as socially stimulating.  A Google search put me onto the Ballarat Bushwalking and Outdoor Club which laid the foundations for many of my hiking adventures with the club and on my own.  My early hikes were close to Ballarat and included the Grampians, Mt. Cole State Forest, Brisbane Ranges, You Yangs, Steiglitz, Great Ocean Road and Werribee Gorge. Each walk, though challenging, only wet my thirst to try new hikes  with varied terrains. The first walk that I put m...