Mitchell river National Park

FRIDAY

My Hike Started On Friday, the 3^rd April 2009 , at Mitchell river National Park, We started in quite wet and miserable conditions, at around 6:50, not too far from the den of Nargun. We planned to arrive at our camping spot, Billy Goat's bend at around 9:00,this time was post - poned (just a little) to 11:49pm. About 20 min before our arrival, Gareth slipped, and landed on his wrist, but it didn't seem too bad, and we thought it was sprained. After a lot of small rests and small walking parts we eventually got there, set up our tents, had some dinner and fell to sleep. The track was steeper than I thought, and went up and down hill more frequently than estimated. the whole patrol was whining that we'd gotten lost, Andrew was complaining the most ( too many Horror shows). We hadn't even got lost, and I had a lot of difficulty explaining that

SATURDAY

Not long after (only about 6 ½ hours later) we all had to wake up, Me and Gareth got a bit of wood to light the fire, to get warm and to dry some of gear that had gotten wet from the previous night. Everyone stood around the fire, and didn't want to get the rest of their tents packed up but we miraculously got everything packed up to leave at around 10:00 ( around 2 hours later than planned)The first part was fine, and we were making up a fair bit of time, Ramon was starting to struggle in the first half hour, so we had to slow down the pace. At around 12:00 we stopped at an unexpected intersection, it was a track, we weren't expecting to have gone so far in the time that we' gone for. Half an hour later we arrived at our lunch destination, the end of the 4X4 track. Mum was waiting there, and wile she caught up on the news we had from the hike, the others ate their lunch. Because it was Lilly's birthday Mum brought a cake, for everyone to enjoy. Nearly an hour ( 13:23) we started walking again. The track was the same as the rest of the hike was, it had a lot of up and a lot of down parts. We got to the top of Mitchell river National park ( augus vale) camping area at around 16:30, also earlier than expected. Ramon almost collapsed to the ground about 2 K before the end, and we pretty much dragged him to the Finnish. After we set up our tents we went to the river and tried to get down a rope that we found on a tree, we were unsuccessful. Everyone fell to sleep quite fast.

SUNDAY1

Ramon couldn't go further so he stayed with mum while the rest went Further , so at 8:45 we left to go back down the Mitchell river, this time we went on 4X4 tracks, and while Lilly insisted that they were roads, Mum still couldn't get down it so we met her at the Mitchell RD and augus Vale TK crossing. While Mum was talking to Ramon in the car we snuck up to the car and scared her Ramon was just about to go and meet us half way down the road, but we were earlier than expected 10:40 we walked down the road for 1.5kmand met mum again at the crossing, now we had to walk on a bigger road. After walking on the big road road for 50 min, mum met us again at another intersection We all finished the rest of the cake, because it was mum's birthday. We finally finished the 2^nd birthday for the weekend, at 12:10. the rest of the track was quite flat and we finished early at the sealed road. Mum and Gareth's mum was supposed to be picking us up at the sealed road intersection at 1:00, but they didn't see us as they passed, and kept on driving. About 20

min later they came back, and explained that they hadn't expected us to come so far.

Overall it was a fun hike, an I cant wait to hike again. Andrew should come hiking more often, as he did a very good job. Gareth's wrist that was supposed to be sprained turned out to be broken.

I'd rate this Hike 8/10 bit difficult terrain, nice scenery and cleared track. I recommend anyone thinking about going to give it a go!!

Amount walked:

1^st Day: 7 km

2^nd Day: 12.2km

3^rd day: 14 km

Unusual birthday candles

By Max

Tyers Regional Park Hike

 Friday 20^th February

5:51pm Tom, Angus, Max, Kyle, Lilly, Aaron Marriott and myself started hiking from the Wirilda pumping station heading back the way we came in, but turned off onto the Pipeline access track.

6:09pm Had a break at the Pipeline Access Road and Blairs Road intersection.  We looked at the great view of Tyers Gorge which the river lays in.

6:21pm We passed the first gate along the Pipeline Access Track where we saw a car parked but we saw no one along the track.

6:27pm We had a break to catch our breath after we reached the top of a large hill. By now most people had opened up their “scroggin” and had started eating.

6:42pm We had a short break to allow people to catch up. Tom’s leg had started to cause him some difficulties with hiking.

7:16pm We had a 10min break to find way at the second Pipeline Access Road and Blairs Road intersection. There was a track that wasn’t marked on my map which had a small slipway on the side of it. This tracked confused us but we found out it joins onto the Pipeline Access Track again.

8:20pm We arrived at Connon Park where we were camping the night. We saw that 1^st Morwell Scouts were having a camp there over the weekend.

8:50pm We started having tea and many people were feeling rather tired. Everyone just wanted to have tea and go to bed.

9:40pm Everyone was in their tents with lights out ready for a big day of hiking ahead.

Saturday 21^st February      

6:30am We were all awake. We started having breakfast and packed up.

8:07am We left the camp after a delayed start. Most of us had left our washing up for the morning because it was dark Friday night.

8:13am We passed the walking track back to the pumping station and continued along the track.

8:41am We reached the old limestone quarry where we looked around.  We were fascinated by a concrete structure.

8:47am We reached a walking track to the ford which was marked by a metal pole.

8:56am We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink.

9:13am We had a break so Tom could rest his leg which had started to hurt.

9:22am We stopped to strap Tom’s foot up whole while most people snacked.

9:50am We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink.

10:24am            We reached a ford where we met Colin and filled up our water supplies. Some patrol members looked around the river while we rested.

11:00am            We started walking again on the walking track to Moondarra Reservoir. The start to the track was hard to find but it was marked by an arrow on a big tree stump.

11:11    am        We had a rest at the top of a hill where Tom’s leg was hurting again.

12:23pm            We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink.

1:09pm We reached a point in the track where we where heading in the wrong direction. This was about 2km from where we thought the proper track was and we turned around to find the track again.

1:44pm We found the track again and started walking along the real track. The track started to go through some small hills which caused the track to go up and down a bit.

2:14pm We had a break get a bit of energy back. The track was very overgrown and the track was also uphill a bit.

2:48pm We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink.

3:49pm We finished the walking along the walking track. We all had scratches on our legs from sticks and blackberry bushes.

4:08pm We reached Moondarra Reservoir and had lunch. Tom pulled out because his foot was causing too much pain to continue walking. Tom went home with Colin.  At the Reservoir there was a big spillway which was a fascinating sight as well as the view of Tyers Gorge. 

4:41pm We started walking along the Pipeline access track back to Connon Park to set up camp. The sun had come out now and it had warmed up a bit.

5:49pm We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink just before a big hill which lead up to a main intersection.

6:06pm Came to a main intersection where Colin was waiting. He had only just got there because the track we walked 

along was for maintenance vehicles only so he had to go right round.  

6:43pm We arrived at Connon Park and started setting up. The camp looked slightly different because some branches had fallen down. Those of us who had towels used the showers that were there. We didn’t really look around the camp much because we were all tired.

9:43pm Everyone was in their tents with lights out.

Sunday 22^nd February

 6:15am Everyone was awake and we started having breakfast and packing up so we could leave as fast as possible.

8:30am Angus was sick so waited outside Connon Park for Sylvia to come and pick him up because he was unable to hike.

9:07am When Sylvia arrived Angus was picked up and the remaining patrol members started hiking to the walking track.

9:30am We started walking on the walking track to the pumping station. We could see the track was very narrow and that we had to cross the river. The temperature of the water was okay. It was warm but it was a bit cloudy.

10:00am            We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink. This was our only rest for the day aside from when we tighten our straps.

11:10am            We arrived at the pumping station and waited to be picked up where we ate the remainder of our food. I think that the hike was rather good but the track was very overgrown at points that you couldn’t even see the track. The hike is for experience hikers because of the distance and the terrain but it has great views along the way. The only thing bad was that the map wasn’t very accurate but the hike was still great.   

 

  Gareth

The 'AAA Batteries' Won!!

 

 Friday 7th November, we departed for Scouthike 2008. We left the Sauppe’s on our venture to Mt Tallarook State Forest to participate in Scouthike.

Right from the start; when packing the trailer the weather wasn’t very good at all, raining steadily. On the way up the weather didn’t change much, although some parts along the highway it wasn’t raining and we were all hoping our destination wouldn’t be raining.

We stopped for McDonalds for a quick dinner then, after taking the trailer off the 4WD to reverse out of the car park and hitching it back on again were back on the road.

We didn’t arrive at Scouthike at about 9:30. After missing the turn off and turning down another road to turn around. Anyway, we went to headquarters to check in and get our  sleeping point. As we were trying to turn around we didn’t have any success, so another Scout leader offered to do it. After turning around, he stalled the car. This amused us all.

We got to sleep point 1, our first sleep point. By this time the rain hadn’t lightened by any means, and it was time to set up our tents. I don’t think any of us were looking forward to going out into the pouring rain to set the tents up, although we couldn’t stay and not do it. So, we unloaded the trailer and began the dreaded process. After we set the tents up we decided it wasn’t worth waiting around outside and to stay in our tents for the benefit of staying as dry as possible.

The next morning we awoke at 5:00, but didn’t leave our lovely warm beds until 5:30 to start packing. Just cruising along at our own pace we had everything packed by 6:30. It wasn’t until 6:50 that we went to sign out, and we found out information pack wasn’t at the camp.

The information pack, we were told firstly wasn’t at camp but was located at HQ, so the man in charge of the camp sent a message up to HQ to have it arrive. So he told us to go for a walk to maintain our heat. It wasn’t until about 25 minutes later that he told us it wasn’t at HQ, but was in fact either at or on its way back to Melbourne. With the pouring rain, we had been told to register Saturday morning. But by Saturday morning our information had been left on a bus, and sent back to Melbourne. We then decided, with approval, to use an envelope as our passport, and with an informative note written if we had any problems with it. So, now we were right to go, we had a make-do passport and our map had been marked out, ready? Not yet. Just as were about to leave an announcement was sent over the radios that one of the activities had been relocated, and we were told to wait another 5 minutes for the new set of co-ordinates. We were standing by the table, by that time annoyed that we had lost so much time with disorganisation, and the man hadn’t returned after longer than 5 minutes so we went and searched for him. When we found him, he was surprised that we were still around, as he thought we’d already left.

So we got going at about 7:50, with over 50 minutes of lost time, and got to our first activity soon after.

We then got quite a few activities done and we were averaging just over one activity per hour. Having no rests, except for at the activities we continued to excel onwards, until of course, time for lunch had arrived. We had a rest then, for the matter of getting our lunch, and we hadn’t taken more then 10 minutes until we were back on the track.

We continued to do as we had – hiking and completing the challenges.
 

We did one activity, ‘Q’, which was run by Venturers. This activity had absolutely nothing, what so ever to do with Scouts apart from fun. The first part was playing ‘Simon Says’ where we out-mastered Simon. Then while we were waiting for the next activity we did a roll-like-thing. We had to all get onto our hands and knees and hold the person in fronts’ feet, then we rocked to either side, and on the third we rolled over. This was good, apart from the rocks that we landed on. The next part was to fire ten tennis balls at targets, which we passed quite easily. The next part however was to make a human pyramid, 3 of us on the bottom, with Max and Angus kneeling and eventually standing on our backs. We later found out that we weren’t supposed to do all the activities, but it paid off because we got full marks – 110.

By this time of the day we had one activity left on the agenda for the day. We took the wrong track. But this worked out beneficial for us, because that meant we got two activities done instead of the one that we had planned. This gave us a total of 15 activities for the day and about 22kms hike distance.

We got back to Sleep Point 3, which is where Sylvia was staying, at about 6:30, gaining the 100 bonus points for checking in before 7:00. We then set up our tents, had dinner eventually and got everything into order. Because of Angus’s birthday on the 7th (the day earlier) Sylvia had make a chocolate cake for us, which we all greatly appreciated. It wasn’t until about 9:30 that we were in our tents, and while in our tents we were talking to this apparent Zimbabwean person in Max’s and Angus’s tent.

The next morning we had decided earlier to wake at 5:30, as this was the time we started packing the previous day, and it all managed to work. Our packs were packed by about 6:30 so some of us decided to attempt to dry our uniforms by the fire which the generous leaders had started for us.

It was about 6:55 when we hoisted our daring packs onto our backs and went up to sign out, got our site checked and off we went, first to leave the camp. We were headed for ‘M’, it was about 1.5k’s, and we managed to walk this in under 25 minutes. Which was good for our timing, but once we arrived we had to wait over 40 minutes until we could begin the activity. The time passed and we could begin the activity, which was to carry a stretcher with three packs on it around a course – which took us less then a minute. A long 40 minute wait for a short one minute activity, but I guess it was worth the wait.

We did all the activities planned for the second day – 8. This gave us a whopping 23 out of 24 activities for the weekend.

We were walking back to the finish when we got into our shirt and scarves. In doing this we gained yet another 100 bonus points.

We arrived at the finish and checked in early. Then waited over two hours, just sitting there discussing areas on the hike where we could have improved and how we thought we went. We then, after the signal to do so, put our packs in the trailer and went to wait for final presentation. It was at this time that Max, being as cheeky as he was, asked Sylvia if she would shout McDonalds if we won, and eventually she gave in, with our support, and agreed.

I’d have to say we were all nervous, with 23 activities (96% of them) and the 300 bonus points we thought we had a reasonably good chance of maybe getting a Gold Award. We then listened to all the stories that rambled on before the scores were ready to be announced.

Only the Gold Awards were read out, starting at 7th. 10th Ivanhoe, 6th 1st Ivanhoe. 5th, 4th, 3rd and we still hadn’t been called out. By this stage we were nerve racked. Could we really have got into the top 2 positions? By the amounts of activities completed we were still better then what had already been announced.

Finally. “With 23 activities, 2215 points, 1..” This was it. “..150SM” That was our Patrol number. We had been awarded second, and we were shattered. Then they announced the winners, and the entire Patrol got to go up to accept their Gold Award and trophy-like award. Winning only by 87 points. After the presentation had finished we went back to wait by the 4WD for Sylvia.

It was kind of good that we were outside waiting for Sylvia that we looked at our score stuck on the outside of the envelope. We noticed one section, for handing in our money and names by a certain date had been left empty, where as it should have had ‘100’ in it. So, Caitlin, Gareth and myself went back to query this, and why we hadn’t been given the bonus points. Turns out they had mucked up with the work, and hadn’t given it to us, although they knew we had done it. The two men that we asked were disappointed with themselves because this was the second year in a row that they had mucked up and awarded the same patrol - 1st/8th Blackburn - the award.  We then asked the question: “Does this mean we won?” We already knew but we wanted to hear it from the officials. They answered slowly: “Yes”.

We waited about a second, to see if they had anything else to say before we turned and ran to the 4WD to share the good news with Max and Angus. Although they had kind of guessed by our attitude and enthusiasm running back to them, they were none-the-less glad to head that we had won.  It wasn’t long until Sylvia came to the car impressed that we had taken out 1st in a state-wide event with 61 patrols competing.

We began our slow journey home, none of us quiet but all agitated with the excitement of success. Even though nobody else had known we had won, deep down inside we knew that we had taken it out. That all our hard work had paid off.

We got to Pakenham McDonalds and Sylvia shouted us, after attempting to get herself out of it all, with an ice-cream cone, which we all enjoyed and appreciated once again.

A big congratulation to those who competed: Caitlin and Gareth, Max and Angus, and Scott Marriott.

The weekend was a huge success. Thank you to everybody who helped out in any way, shape or form, including Leanne for all the hard work she has contributed.

An even bigger thank you to Sylvia for her work, transport, cooking, and luggage assistance.

Scott nov 08