Category Archives: TRAILS – Camping & The Outdoors

Long Weekend in Lake Tyres

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So I have officially moved to Victoria. We had a few days off so we asked my parents what their plans were. They were camping at Lake Tyres for several nights, so we decided to head down. I even managed to get my sister and her partner down as well, it was sort of an impromptu family camping trip.

We got down there Saturday and set up. Quite an amusing moment when we realised that we had never set up the outer on our tent before! You don’t really need it when camping in the dry season of Kakadu. Summer in Victoria is a bit different, you never know when it might rain. I have to say the tent looked rather new.

Had some fun on the beach the first day. It has been a long time since I have swum in the surf, something I really love. It was great to be among the waves again.

The next day Dad and I decided to do some land based fishing in the hopes of getting a flathead or two. He used bait, I tried my smaller soft plastics. He got a few bites, but we didn’t get anything. It was a shame we didn’t have more time, as we mostly spent it driving around and finding a few really cool locations.

Southern Forests of Tasmania

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Friends of ours were getting married in Southern Tasmania, so we used the excuse to get a rental car and explore some of the southern forests. This wasn’t a true outdoor adventure, as it was lacking a 4WD, tent, or boat. But it was fun to get around in our i20 and see some of a state I haven’t really explored.

We were limited to short day walks, but it was still quite enjoyable. The rivers were quite interesting, and the fresh water was coloured a brown/red from all the wood there.

We also went down to their famous “airwalk” which was a pathway in the forest canopy. It was certainly hyped up, and I think a little disappointing. But then, the things you hadn’t heard about, like the small walk among the forests themselves, or the amazing colour of the water were really cool.

We also had a look at a cave system there, which was the best cave system that I have explored.

They also had a thermal swimming pool which I was excited to try as I was struggling a bit having lived in Darwin for the past 4 years. This was perhaps the worst of the Tassie trip. They had turned it into a swimming pool! I have no idea why they would do this, but instead of a totally natural pool like Douglas Hot Springs, or one like Mataranka where it had a bit of work done, it just looked like a normal swimming pool, except the water wasn’t chorinated. I really felt it ruined the natural beauty of where it was.

That being said, I don’t want to sound too negative, with no food poisoning and no broken down cars, it was probably the best holiday of 2015! Except for our wedding of course, which doesn’t seem to count as a holiday.

And of course, the wedding we came for:

 

Katherine Canoeing

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The wife and I had plans to go down to Katherine and do their dinner cruise, however the mechanics that replaced suzi’s radiator had other ideas. It appears that they did not replace the thermostat, which meant we got half way down and ended up leaking water and overheating. We called the AANT, and they came down to tow us. We ended up having to stay for Sunday night as well, so despite missing the dinner cruise we did get a chance to do some canoeing down Katherine Gorge.

AANT premium membership is highly worth it.

Due to the nature of the trip I wasn’t game to take my camera with me, but here is a one from a previous trip to Katherine Gorge.

Litchfield Trip – the last?

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Claire’s friend Reb was up so we headed to Litchfield. Did the normal trip, photos at Wangi and Florence, swim at Sandy Creek falls and the Buley Rockholes.

The trip was great fun, perhaps a little sad as I am not sure if we will return again to Litchfield. Very unlikely we will return to Sandy Creek falls (Tjaynera) which is my favourite place in Litchfield. The build up is coming, the storms will hit soon, the barra will be biting… and we have the impending move to Melbourne.

It was a great day, though Claire had forgotten about the 1.7km walk to the waterfall, and she wasn’t happy with it. Nice to have a drink or two at the Buley Rockholes in the afternoon, it was the first time that I had drank at Litchfield, but I have to say clearly an amateur at it with my two XXXX Gold cans, most of the boys at the rockholes were carrying cases of bundy.

No complaints from me, apart from Reb and Claire ganging up on me music-wise, you try a few hours of clubland…

 


Sandy Creek Falls


Buley Rockholes

On the Edge to Whitehaven

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On the Friday it was decided we would take a trip on the catamaran “On the Edge” to Whitehaven beach. We had sent out this in the letters we wrote to everyone as part of the wedding invite, so we made up nearly half of the crew. It was an amazing trip. You don’t need a lot to make a great day of Whitehaven, it looks like every single photo of every beach after it has been photoshopped. I don’t even know how to use photoshop, so these photos are just on my small Canon camera.

Before we got there we had a snorkel around Chalkies beach. Pretty good, although I was off to the outer reef tomorrow.

Then we headed over to Whitehaven. I guess not a lot to write about apart from it was really fun, water was amazing, wind was down, everything was great.

Story of the trip is that another crew had found a large turtle on the beach. A shark had eaten its fin off, it was breathing badly. They tried to keep it cool until it decided it wanted to leave. It swam off leaving a trail of blood behind it. Hopefully he made it.