It's on again the next big walk

Part of the Bicentennial National Trail our next walk will be out of the Jenolan Caves valley to Wallerawang

The Australian Bicentennial National Trail runs from Healsville in Victoria to Cooktown in Queensland it(BNT) is a 5,330 kilometre self-reliant multi-use route through bush, wilderness and mountain areas. It is suitable for horse riders, walkers and mountain bike riders. The Trail winds through some of the most magnificent terrain in Australia; unsurpassed views, wilderness valleys and the excitement of the pioneering spirit will keep you enthralled as you travel along the Trail or any section of it. It is not suitable for, or available to, any form of motorised transport such as four-wheel-drive vehicles or trail bikes.
Preparation in advance is of paramount importance to ensure you have adequate supplies to remain fully self-contained for the duration of your trek. There are few supply towns along the trail so you need to take everything with you.
Usually there are no facilities provided and water is obtained from creeks and dams so water requires treatment before drinking.
The Trail traverses a variety of track surfaces, from formed bitumen roads to unformed natural terrain.

image from http://www.nationaltrail.com.au/index.html

Karaoke with a difference

Di's capers

Fish and chip dinner at Neville Hotel

A shortcut?

Camel Cam?

Out into the sunlight

A good way to end the day

Mt Macquarie in view- something to look forward to!

Wattles abloom along the way

Winter Walk

Millthorpe – Carcoar – Neville, and back again.

DAY 1

Our group left Millthorpe at 8.30 on the dot
Walking to Carcoar no matter what
Back to our seven on this sunny morn
John, Marnie, Stewart, Gordon, Virginia, Pete and Dawn.

Marnie found a spanner and gave it to Pete
It will go in the shed other spanners to meet
John checked the map, holding it steady
The thought crossed my mind - are we lost already?

The ewe in the paddock a lamb by her side
Protective to the end even though it had died
At lunch the discussion was centred on boots
A serious subject – we are not into suits.
Alpacas, Sheep and an emu too

A change of plan we will walk the rail track
Decision made there is no turning back
So triumphant we walked into Carcoar
The magnificent seven triumphed once more





















Stewart or CIA agent?




DAY 2

Today we were joined by Pete, Judy and Mike
Mike changed his mind about coming by bike
We walked Fell Timber Road, destination Neville
John knew, of course, it was not on the level
Views of the valley- in the distance the mount
Nature’s blessings, too many to count

At the end of the dirt road, there at the junction
Sat on some logs to enjoy our luncheon
A check of the map with Neville in sight,
Kentucky Road, and John turns to the right
When it comes to maps I thought John was “au fait”
But were we going to Neville via the U.S of A.

Aida and Di joined us once more
Little did we know what we were in for
A fish and chip dinner –served wrapped in paper
Our group in good form, and Di in for a caper
Sat next to Stewart, whom I’m sure, she holds dear,
Pushed a chip up his nose and another in his ear!

Di brought two toys worth a mention on blogg
A nice little pig and a not so nice dog
Miss Piggy sang sweetly and couldn’t be cuter
This is more than can be said of the grinning dog, Rooter
That brought to an end a really fun night
I was still laughing as I turned out the light.

Day 3

Saturday morning down came the rain
Walk to Carcoar! We must be insane.
Because of commitments our group now fewer
Then two turned back, we know who they were!
But then Alvaro arrived ready to brave it
So onward and upward with Carcoar our target

The old school house, now, no more than a shack
Provided shelter for our morning snack
Splashing through puddles, past rain soaked trees We plodded uphill, only some with ease
To our right Mount Macquarie, standing high
Below Lake Rowlands, our water supply

Snatches of sunshine as the climb went higher
And before too long all were dryer
Over the hill top and into the breeze
Lunch to warm up before we freeze
Then spurred on by the knowledge that Carcoar was near
Soon arrived at the Royal and relaxed with a beer.


Day 4

We departed Carcoar right on nine
Walked up to the station, then along the line
The wind blew strongly, but it didn’t rain
We headed south through the tunnel once again.

The Errowanbang turn off is not very far
One hour by rail, five minutes by car
The Gap Road was long and mostly uphill
Which didn’t surprise us, we all know the drill

Forest Reefs came in sight by mid afternoon
And for some, that wasn’t too soon.
Tired and windblown – almost too tired to talk
Ready for home after our four day walk.

Up! John or (The Grand Old Duke of Walk)

Sing to the tune of the Grand Old Duke of York

Our leader is our friend
His group is roughly ten
He walks us up to the top of the hill
and he walks us down again

Chorus
When we are up we are up
When we are down we are down
He's clever when he plans the walks..
'Cause there's much more up than down

We reach the highest point
Quite often every day
We catch our breath, admire the view
And continue on our way

Chorus

At night we party on
We celebrate the day
We keep uncorking bottles
'Til the "ups" all go away

Chorus

So if you're feeling down
And life is low indeed
Just walk with us and you will have
More 'ups' than you could need

Chorus

Belgian Torte Recipe (and Cardamom Ice Cream)

Classic emergency entertaining recipe! Especially handy for those that live out of town - most of these ingredients will be in your pantry or fridge! If not - substitute! I can also imagine this done with tinned raspberries or cherries and associated jams and served with sour cream slightly sweetened with sugar mmmm mmmm!

For those in a real rush to cut down cooking time you could do individual tortes in a muffin tin! ( don't forget to line with paper the jam sticks badly)

For the Torte

Oven 150 C
Grease 8 inch loose bottomed cake tin and line sides with baking paper

Ingredients
75g finely chopped dried apricots
3 tbls brandy
225g butter
75g sugar (caster or light brown)
2 tbls Vegetable oil
1/4 tsp Vanilla ess
1 Large egg beaten
450g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
225g apricot jam

Sauce
425g tin apricot halves
2 tbls Brandy
1 tsp arrowroot

Garnish
Icing sugar

Soak dried apricots in brandy for at least an hour

To make the dough
Cream butter sugar till creamy add oil and vanilla essence then the beaten egg - sieve flour with baking powder and add to mixture - knead till smooth. ( should be like bread dough in consistency)
Divide dough in half and grate half into cake tin, mix jam and soaked apricots together and cover grated dough. Grate remaining dough over apricot filling.
Bake in oven for appx 1 1/2 hours till golden.
Removed from oven, loosen torte from sides with knife and leave in tin till cold and demould then - being careful not to break fragile sides - wrap in foil.
To make sauce - drain apricot halves retaining half juice and puree in blender - in a saucepan add puree and blend brandy with arrowroot then add to pan and bring to boil slowly, stirring all the time until it has thickened slightly. Leave to cool.
To serve
Place on serving plate and dredge the top fairly heavily with sieved icing sugar, serve with apricot sauce and whipped cream.

Apricots go with Cardamom!
so for the truly indulgent ...

Cardamom Ice Cream

Either make homemade icecream using your fave recipe or to cheat just buy good quality vanilla ice cream and mix through powdered cardamom! Mine was homemade with a standard vanilla ice cream recipe to which I added the cardamom pods and I also whisked the spare egg whites and added them to give it a bit of lightness.

4 egg yolks 2 cups of milk to make the creme anglaise/custard - add flavourings to milk boil and let them steep for a good 20 minutes then make the creme anglaise/custard ( strain flavouring goodies out before cooking custard on a double boiler ) then add mixture when cool to
a tub of double cream
4 egg whites whisked to soft peaks
freeze
serve slightly softened.

Enjoy!

I made this starting at lunch time without an ice cream maker and it was ready in time for dinner!

Winter Walk - August 27th 2009

Plan for August walk- Millthorpe to Carcoar on 27th.

Stay at Royal with famous roast for dinner.

Next day to Neville via Fell Timber Road staying at Neville Siding and fish and chips at pub or self catering?

Day Three: Walk to Carcoar via Mt Macquarie(1 in 5 here Aida)and either Royal or Stoke Inn? Final day back to Millthorpe for "Musical Evaluation" at Old Mill Cafe.

Should be wonderful if we get good weather. Hope all walkers in good shape.

Cheers John

It's not all about walking

Up and Up

Silhouettes

Rest Time

Feast

Dance Time

Ooooo

May Days Poem Continued

Tea Break

Our Fearless Leader

That evening David joined us, which was fine
As he came bringing nibbles and extra red wine.
A foot massage bath, what a wonderful treat
Just what was needed to soothe our sore feet.
A beer and a shower, the order was right
Sunset over the lake, a peaceful sight

Dinner came next, what a grand affair
Cooked as it was by chefs extraordinaire.
Sausages, salad, potatoes, then cake and cream
When Steph spied cream her eyes did gleam
With dinner all done, it didn’t take long
To clear the table and start a sing song.


Armed with a song sheet, Stewart playing guitar
Singing our version of “Stay by Me Di an NA”
Peggy Sue and Caroline we had to a try
Remembered songs from days gone by.
Having sung and danced and finished the red
Tired and happy we drifted to bed.


Next day the last, fun times together must come at an end
As back to homes our way we do wend
Some by car, the others on foot
Still checking for trees when needing a toot.
Some treasures were found, a horseshoe, a tap
But beginning to wonder if John lost the map

When straight ahead, Bathurst we sight
Our intrepid leader takes a sharp turn right
Another dirt road all up and down
Wondering if ever we will get to the town
Finally Bathurst and coffee at the Hub
Even better, home and a soak in the tub!

May Day Poem

May Day
The leaders step out, their thoughts to unravel,
The rest follow on, boots crunching on gravel.
Lunch on the hill, while sat on a rock
The vista from here would be hard to knock.
The hills from the valley rise up to the heaven
While on to O’Connell trudge the magnificent seven.

The breeze in the trees sounds like a sigh
A flurry of arms as Gordon drives by.
A sky pale blue, the clouds fluffy white
Poplars all yellow, what a beautiful sight.
Cows in the paddock, white, black and brown
Move slowly forward their heads always down.

After lunch we put on our pack
To proceed to O’Connell, to meet Gordon coming back!
The café was our next scheduled stop
For coffee and scones with thick cream on top.
O’Connell’s pub is a homely place
A good country pub with no frills or lace.

The atmosphere friendly, the food just great
Beef pie on mash piled high on the plate.
Stewart meanwhile went with friends to be fed
He could go no further without brown bread!
Cosy and warm all felt just fine
The mood enhanced by the local red wine.

Virginia, Gordon, Marni and John
Discussing our walk and the day just gone
Also Stephanie, Dawn and Pete
Comparing the state of their feet.
At the end of our day we went to our bed
Content with our lot and the way we were fed
Day three of our walk and the crew complete,
With Edwina, Diana, Aida and Pete
The name of our group must now be amended
A name comes to mind with no malice intended
With no one related, not even a cousin
The Magnificent Seven becomes The Dirty Dozen.

Virginia had problems adjusting her pack
To get the straps right, didn’t quite have the knack
The road undulating, a bit of a slog
One more should be mentioned and that’s Pete’s dog.
After a couple of hours we stopped for a rest
Dawn awaiting the sign that said crest!

A trig station perched high on a mound
A mark for surveyors easily found.
John pointed the spot to which we were bound
Why then did he take us the long way around?
With road signs directing, we knew we were near
Finally arriving, greeted by John and a beer.

Walking up the road to the dam

We looked for a DBP but could not see one.

The water was crystal clear and the poplar trees threw down a beautiful golden reflection into the river

Dawn Chifley Dam - Sunday

Breakfast - Toast (brown bread available) lavishly buttered with Butterfully which when we read the ingredients turned out to be not so butterful at all - with a choice of yummy homemade jam, delicious Courtyard Marmalade made by Virginia, Vegimite and Cazzie's Green Tomato Pickle (which is Virginia's choice of breakfast -apparantly it's great - just like Vegimite, savoury, salty). Oh yes and lashings of fresh fruit, coffee and tea - how civilized (and nearly Enid Blyton) for those who picked up the hard boiled eggs from the O'Connell Cafe breakfast the previous day.

Kanga on the Line

The last of the cream


Poplars

Tarana

Pete & Steph

The morning of the last day of the Great Walk from Yetholme to Bathurst.

The Cabin at Chifley Dam where overnight we survived a wild party next door and a howling dog. (not ours!!!!)

Dinner was Sausages and a fabulous salad with boiled potatoes accompanied by lots of wine and beer. Stuart sang the songs after dinner and played the guitar and we all joined in

Pete wrote fabulous poetry about the whole journey and gave us a reading -and Dawn sketched the scenery she had seen along the way!

Yetholme to Bathurst Walk 30 April - 3 May 2009

Day 1 Leave vehicles in Bathurst. Depart countrylink coach at 13.55 arrive Yetholme at 14.18 cost $5.90 Walk 16k to Tarana stay Tarana Hotel 63375841 $90 Cabin sleeps 5 Dinner available

Day 2 Walk Tarana to O'Connell 22k coffee stop at OConnell Cafe then overnight at O'connell Hotel 63375745 $60 double Dinner available.

Day 3 Walk O'Connell to Chifley Dam via The Lagoon 18k (Ha we measured it - 19.5k) Stay Pacific Cabin Ben Chifley Dam 6332 1444 Sleeps 16 $310 - Bring bed linen towels food and drinks

Day 4 Walk Chifley Dam to Bathurst via The Lagoon and Gormans Hill 21k ( and no doubt a 1 in 5 John!) Pick up vehicles after Coffee at The Hub 52 Keppel Street