Archive for December, 2013

Bobs Ridge


30 Dec

Posted in Bushwalking, SOTA | No Comments »

On Boxing Day we went for a walk so that Andrew could work another SOTA summit. We started at Dead Horse Gap and followed the walking track towards the Cascades Hut. The distance was unknown and Andrew thought it was going to be a relatively easy and relatively short walk, but it proved quite steep, particularly for the last ~1 km, and again I had to wear Toby on my back. The walk ended up being 5.3 km each way with an elevation of ~250 metres from our starting point.

At the top we found a spot on the ridge where Andrew could set up his antenna, and the kids had fun climbing on the rocks around. The whole time we were there we could hear thunder rumbling and I kept an eye on some very dark clouds in the distance. Both kids managed to rip their shorts in exactly the same spot by sliding on their bums down the rocks.

We walked back to the car (Toby got another ride on my back most of the way downhill) with the storm clouds getting ever closer and the rumble of thunder our constant companion. It really was a lovely walk, but we were happy to see the car before the rain started. Toby was very excited to be back and ran full pelt at the gate across the track. He and Nathan had been running under the bottom beam before we started the walk, so Toby thought he could run under it again. Unfortunately for him, though, the bar was closer to the ground at the other end of the gate. He hit his forehead really hard which produced a big egg on his head…not a good end to an otherwise lovely day.

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Walking beside the Thredbo River

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It’s fun to play in water

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Having lunch at the top

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Andrew playing radios

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Playing on the rocks where they ripped their pants

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Approaching storm

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Christmas in the Mountains


30 Dec

Posted in Camping, Christmas, Food | No Comments »

We had a lovely, relaxing Christmas. The day was warm and we did very little. The kids opened their presents after lunch and the little microscope Andrew got them was a real hit. They found a few things to look at including muddy water, pebbles and grass seeds. The microscope has a dissecting/confocal option as well as light microscopy. It also came with some prepared slides to look at, like salt crystals, mouth smear and pollen. In the afternoon we also used up 3 over ripe bananas and made a banana cake from scratch and had roast beef for dinner with roasted vegetables. Both kids enjoyed the Bon Bon crackers and wearing the paper crowns and toys that came out of them.

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Mount Kosciuszko Summit


25 Dec

Posted in Bushwalking, NSW, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Yesterday we decided to try for the top of Mount Kosciuszko from the top of the Thredbo chairlift. We hadn’t been further than the lookout, just 2 km from the chairlift, for several years. We knew that Nathan would manage the 13 km return walk but we weren’t sure that Toby would. He often stands infront of me with his arms up saying “carry me” and this walk wasn’t any different. Even though it has been at least two years since Toby has been in the mei tai (with the exception of a few weeks ago when he was sick and he tolerated 10 minutes on my back) we took it along with us.

We arrived at the Thredbo top station at 9:45 am and started walking the track. It took us about 45 minutes to walk the 2 km to the first lookout where we had a ‘rest’. The boys didn’t really rest though, they just climbed the rocks. After a drink and a snack we kept walking. It got harder and harder with Nathan complaining and Toby telling me he had sore feet and wanting to be carried. Toby wanted to stop and look at all the little streams of water that we went past, and because he was looking he was the first to see tiny native fish in some of the creeks.

Rawson Pass has changed a lot since I was there last. It used to be a flat area that had gravel off over it and a row of portaloos. Now there is a toilet block, paved footpaths and some signs to read. It is quite a beautiful spot now. Toby was tired and went onto my back at Rawson Pass and then we set off for the final 1.4 km uphill trek to the top of Mount Kosciuszko. Andrew took off ahead of the kids and me so that he could get to the top and set up his radio and antenna for SOTA (summits of the air).

Toby was upset that I wouldn’t let him down when we got to a patch of snow on the side of the track, and I told him that he could walk down on the way back and play in the snow then. We finally got to the top, had the obligatory photo at the stone marker, and sat down for some lunch. We watched Andrew make his first contacts, the boys climbed the rocks (again, instead of resting) and at 1:15 we set off down the mountain, leaving Andrew to finish working on his radio contacts and pack up.

It took us over an hour to get back to Rawson Pass. The boys wanted to walk on the rocks beside the walking track instead of on the walking track, and then they played on both of the patches of snow. At Rawson Pass Toby went back on my back for a while, and it was not far from the Kosciuszko lookout that Andrew caught up with us after leaving the top of the mountain at 2:15 pm. We made it back to the chairlift at 3:45 pm, so we had plenty of time to spare before the chairlift stopped at 4:30 pm ( we had been a bit worried about making it back in time).

It was a great day, perfect weather for a long walk, and as always I adored the views from the top of Australia.

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No running

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Walking with Daddy

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At the lookout….resting….

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Another lookout, near Rawson Pass

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We made it!

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We ALL made it!

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Highest boy in Australia

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Andrew playing on the radio

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Heading down the mountain

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Walking on the rocks beside the track

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Little native fish

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Chairlift back to Thredbo

Bullocks Hut track


23 Dec

Posted in Camping, Nathan, Toby the preschooler | No Comments »

We’ve been on the bullocks hut track a couple of times, but yesterday we made it the whole way to the hut. It’s amazing how slow we can be when the kids are on bikes. Toby doesn’t like pedaling uphill and makes me push him, there were a couple of crashes on the loose gravel, it was hot and we had to stop every few minutes for rests and drinks, Toby was constantly “a bit hungry”, and generally it was a frustrating experience for Andrew and me. Still, it was a nice walk.

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Toby’s 4th Birthday


21 Dec

Posted in Birthday, Camping, Nathan, Toby the preschooler | 1 Comment »

Today my baby turned 4 years old. It was a hot day and we wanted to go for a swim later in the day, so we decided to start making the birthday cake when breakfast was finished. It was an easy job to mix the ingredients and put them into the cake pan, but for some reason I put the foil on top of the wire rack in the Weber instead of underneath it, and the bottom of the cake burned. So we cut the bottom of the cake off and iced the cake.

We had been told yesterday afternoon that the cake had to be a volcano cake. I was kind of hoping that the cake would rise in the centre when it cooked, but it was pretty flat when I took it out of the Weber. So we made a volcano-like mound in the middle of the cake with marshmellows and put brown icing all over it (because volcanos have to be brown). The cocoa to make the icing brown was provided by a fellow camper. Then I made some royal icing with icing sugar and egg white, and coloured it red, orange and green. The red and orange were to be the lava flowing down the side of the volcano, and the green to write Toby’s name on the cake.

Well, the final thing looked a bit of a mess, but the kids were ecstatic with the volcano cake. Because the day was so warm we decided to have the cake straight after lunch, and gave Toby his presents as well. Afterwards we went to the Thredbo pool and Nathan spent more than an hour going down the water slide while Toby spent nearly the same amount of time refusing to go down (after going twice with me at the start and he went under water so refused any more rides down the slide). Andrew finally talked Toby into going down with him and he held Toby out of the water at the end, and after that you couldn’t stop Toby….as long as he went down with Daddy.

Back at the tent site we had a fire to cook our dinner over, as requested by Toby, and marshmellows afterwards. Toby doesn’t like the marshmellows toasted, but he takes the opportunity of a fire to eat them uncooked.

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Nathan writing a sign for the back of the camper advising people it’s Toby’s birthday today

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Oohhh, a watch!

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Nathan drying dishes

Willis Campground


18 Dec

Posted in Camping, Travel, Vic | 5 Comments »

Monday we packed the camper and headed off on our camping holiday. We decided to take a route to our regular camping spot in the Snowy Mountains that we hadn’t taken before. We headed east, stopping in Traralgon for some lunch and so Andrew could buy a Lego kit that he couldn’t get anywhere else. After going through Bairnsdale we took the road north to Buchan and continued north to a campground on the Snowy River about 20 km past Suggan Buggan. The road was quite twisty a lot of the way, but around Suggan Buggan the road was rough as well as twisty, and Nathan succumbed to car sickness and we had some vomiting on a couple of occasions.

We finally made the campground quite late in the day and found a spot that we liked. It was a little removed from most of the other campsites and we were a bit further away from the river (Snowy River), but it was nice and quiet. We had a picnic table and a fire pit that we used for cooking dinner last night.

Nathan found a beetle that fascinated him and we took a photo of it. We identified it as a Honeybrown Beetle (Ecnolagria grandis). Then Toby also became fascinated with beetles and he found one that we couldn’t identify. He called it Buggy, and played with the poor thing for ages. He even took it to bed and put it under his pillow. Toby was very disappointed that we couldn’t take Buggy home. More bugs were found, but the first two were the best.

We stayed two nights at Willis. Our whole day was quite a hot one and we tried to have a picnic at the river but it was too hot as there was no shade by the water. We had to retire to the camper and went for a swim around 4:30 when the clouds had come over and the temperature was a lot lower. We all had a lot of fun in the water. The current was quite strong but it made for fun rides on the boogie board.

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Our first stop, Traralgon.

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Honeybrown Beetle

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Buggy

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View from the campsite

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Kids playing in the water

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Packed up and ready to leave this morning.

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