3/28/2016

So here in Oz we get a 4 day weekend for Easter. How relaxing! Damien and I spent it doing the Viking circuit-the toughest hike in Victoria. As I mentioned in the previous blog we left after work on Thursday and stopped for pizza in the middle of our 5 hour drive up into the mountains. This is where we hiked:

Or more precisely, here:

The first night we arrived after 10pm so we set up the tent right next to the car and enjoyed a night of car camping(aka extra pillows and blankets) before starting the walk. 

Viking-razorCircuit Day 1:

We had a slow start with toasted hot cross buns and packing the bags. I carried: 1 tent, 1 stove, 2 pots, 3Lwater, clothes, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, food for 2 people for 3 days. Damien carried: 15L water, sleeping bag, sleeping mat. It might sound silly but we didn't know where we were going to find water and didn't want to be thirsty. We started the walk easy enough, 3km in we dropped a bag at the junction with chips, 2L water and chocolate. Shortly after the junction our path turned from "doable" to "very difficult to locate" after bush bashing on the side of a hill we made it down to a 4wheel drive track called Zeka spur track, though with the number of 4wheel drives we saw it could have been a highway. It was a long steep downhill and with the heavy packs we slid and struggled down for hours. 

At the bottom was a beautiful river, the Wonnangatta. I wanted to set up camp but we had lunch and kept going.

The last hour was a struggle uphill. We had a 800m climb over 2miles so we split it up between the first two days. We made in 500m up and thought we would find a camp site. We didn't but we made one on a bit of a slope. For dinner we had broccoli cheddar couscous and Haloumi. Then it was straight to bed at 9pm. 

Viking-Razor Circuit Day 2: 

Since we had made it half way up the hill day1, we had to climb the rest in the morning, after porridge and hot chocolate. There was a group of 7 who passed us on the uphill. We hung on to the back and made to the top with them. 

That was South Viking, then we journeyed on to other unnamed peak which I called little Viking, and then up to the Viking on sparsely defined tracks. It was a long slog but we made it.

By then it was 1pm. If up was bad down was worse. We had a very steep down through a chute and some rocks.

We continued down to Viking saddle where we had lunch at 3pm. From there we walked up to the Razor. Past South Razor the track disappeared again and we cut across some rocks. We did find the track again and continued toward Mt. Despair and camped at the base. It was a long slow day of walking and somehow we only made it 7miles. 

Again rice for dinner and asleep by 8:30pm.

Day 3 Viking-Razor Circuit: 

On the third day we finally got an early start. It was also mainly on well defined track which was AMAZING. We made it to the top of Mt. despair, then we dipped into Catherine Saddle. At Catherine saddle we met an interesting guy who goes to the top of mountains to talk to other people on the top of mountains with a radio/fishing pole. I didn't really understand but it sounded cool. Half way up to the next mountain Damien decided to take a semi-defined shortcut. Again it was bushbashing for about 1km. We finally came back out on to the track and continued to a car park/campsite with water from our friend with the fishing rod/radio. We still had plenty but took another 2L just in case. From there we went up Mt. Speculation where we had the best view so far. 

From there we went down into horrible gap and up onto Mt. Buggery.

Then we went into the terrible hollow and onto the crosscut saw.

We made it to Macalister springs camp ground around 6pm. There was a beautiful toilet.

It was busy so we headed back to the car. We walked 2km together then Damien grabbed our drop bag. He was being slow so I stole the chips and walked ahead. He was actually being really slow so I beat him back to the car. I decided to go back and help so I took my flashlight(it was getting dark) and my phone. After a km when I hadn't seen him I started to get nervous. I made it all the way back to the bag drop and didn't see him. By that point it was pretty dark and foggy so I ran the 3km back to the car. When I was almost back, much to my relief I got a text from Damien. He was at the car somehow we managed to miss each other on a single track! Crazy! By that point I was overwhelmed and exhausted. We start driving back toward home and made it about 500m before giving up due to the fog and sleeping in the car. 

That's the Viking-Razor in 3 days! (My car is tired too)

3/24/2016

I was going to blog last night, I even started but I was very busy and once I finished I moved straight to bed. 

I had a very good and very busy Wednesday. 9 hours of work, cooking and packing. In Australia we have a 4 day weekend for Easter so Damien and I are hiking the Viking circuit in the Victorian Alps. We are doing a 63km hike over the next 3 days and then coming home Monday. We left straight after work today so I had to pack before leaving. I also had to freeze our remaining 3kg of figs as they will not last the weekend. The roads were crazy today with pre-holiday traffic but we got out of town by 6pm and headed to Tralagon for a pre-hiking meal of all you can eat pizza. It was a bit disappointing. 

By the time we got to camp it was dark so we set up in the light of the car. 

I'm looking forward to sharing some incredible mountain pictures with you on Monday:) 

3/22/2016

Hey two days in a row! It has been a good week so far. I have had 2 good days at work and I'm using up the fresh fruit. I made fig risotto. It was great. Tonight I made zucchini pasta with cauliflower sauce and many many tomatoes. So I'm enjoying cooking but our stocks don't seem to be decreasing by much. Tonight we went orienteering. Damien did a bit better than me but I was very happy with my 21 checkpoints in 1 hour. Otherwise I am working hard to finish my MBA work before going camping this weekend. 

3/21/2016

I did slightly better than last blog but not really. I have been a bit unmotivated recently for everything. I am working on my permanent residency visa which is quite draining. I have also been struggling a bit with allergies which has put me into a fog too. Now before you freak out, I am not doing permanent residency so that I can run away with my hot Australian and live here for ever. I am doing it so that I can come home and then have the option of coming back to live/work in Australia later if I want to or if a certain sister does her post-doc in Melbourne. 

Otherwise I have had a few adventures:

I have worked more on the puzzle. It is slow going but I am making it.

We went to a friend's house for an epic game of 500. They asked that I make wings and I did 4 flavour worth!

7 of us just went to Adelaide for the fringe festival and WOMADelaide, a music festival. It was great fun. We saw 7 shows at the fringe and then spent 1 day at the musical festival.

Today, we went to the market and got 35lbs of tomatoes and 20lbs of figs. 

Those picture were what was left over after I made pasta sauce, fig ice cream and a fig salad. 

I was enjoying making the pasta sauce. I am no where close to as good as Grammie but it was still pretty tasty and a wonderful consistency. 

I have also started the last class of my MBA which means that I am on the computer just before bed. Let's see if I can do 2 days of blogging in a row :)

1/24/2016

This weekend is a Cann Valley week. It is also the Australia Day long weekend so Damien and I went up to Cann River after I finished work on Thursday. On our way we stopped at Little Prince for our regular favourite meal.

After dinner we continued along stopping in Bairnsdale for groceries, fuel and to do a super long slide. It was great fun!

My schedule was light on Friday so we were out by 2pm. We are using the long weekend to see the 12 tallest mountains in Australia. That may seem like a deal but they are quite close together and connected by a ridge. So after work we headed up to Jindabyne for the night. It is 2 hours north of Cann River. We stopped at a platypus reserve in Bombala but couldn't see any. We did find a rosella (though the picture didn't come out).

After the reserve Damien drove and I slept. He woke me up on occasion to point things out. I opened an eye and went back to sleep. We got into Jindabyne the town at the bottom of the mountain just as the parks office was closing. We were able to get a pass and a map to enter the mountain area. 

We checked out the shops and checked into our 6 bed suite before going for a run in the park (at the bottom of the mountains). 

We ran 9km's past a waterfall and we saw an amazing rock formation and heaps of kangaroos. When we were playing on the rocks Damo slipped and broke his watch :(

After the run, we raced back for a dinner of pizza and pasta.

Saturday morning we were up early to park and start our walk. On the way out of town we grabbed breakfast before heading up to Charlotte Pass where we left the car and started the hike. 

We started easy on the track to Blue Lake. It was spectacular and we stopped for lunch.

Then we hiked up and up and up and up to Mt. Twynam the third highest peak in Australia. (Mountain #1)

Then we headed onto the next one. It was off the track so we dropped our packs and walked up. This unnamed peak was 2146m (mountain #2) 

On the way back we couldn't find our packs so we went up and down and back and forth for 20 minutes until they appeared. Then after a bit more off roading we reconnected with the trail. On the way up to the next peak we found a fantastic lookout for club lake where we had a nice rest. 

Then we headed along the track to Mt. Carruthers (mountain #3) 

After going down we climbed the ridge back up to Mt. Northcote (mountain #4)

From the top we thought that we saw another peak higher than us that wasn't on the list so we decided to climb that too.

So we went all the way down and all the way back up to Mt. Muellers (mountain #5) which we could clearly see was the 13th highest from the peak.

From there we found a path that led up to Mt. Townsend (mountain #6). It is the second highest peak in Australia. Funny story: Australians used to think that it was the highest mountain due to a surveying error. When the error was recognised instead of changing the record for tallest mountain they just switched the names of the mountains. So the mountain that we climbed was the original Mt. Kosciuszko.

We set up camp just below the peak of Mt. Townsend just behind the ridge line overlooking Albina Lake.

The next morning we started out strong. We got straight up and went up to Mt. Alice Rawson (mountain #7).

After going back to camp for breakfast, we packed up and headed to the next two peaks. We dropped our packs again and headed up Mt. Abbot (mountain #8).

And Mt. Byatts Camp (mountain #9).

Which were right next to each other. After the peaks we grabbed our packs and began walking back toward the main track. We crossed a marsh, some streams, and climbed over some rocks before meeting up with a dirt path and then the main path. Once we made it back to the path it was still 200m elevation gain to the peak of Mt. Kosciuszko (the tallest mountain in Australia). As we walked up, there was an unnamed knoll on the side of Kosciuszko that ranked in at over 2150 meters so we climbed to the top and had a snack, but forgot to take a picture (mountain #10).

From there we joined the herd of people walking up to the peak of Mt. Kosciuszko. Damien commented that he liked the contrast of the extra people here. But I disagreed. The people were ruining my serenity. Anyway we made it to the top. Tallest mountain in Australia (mountain #11).

Shortly after the peak we left the path again to meet our next peak. Just above the highest toilet in Australia (not the tallest, the highest from sea level) at Rawson's Gap we headed up to the top of Etheridge peak (mountain #12).

Now if you have been paying attention I told you that we were planning on 12 peaks but we have also added 2 in that were in planned, Mt. Mueller and the extra knoll were unplanned so we still have 2 left. 

We took another pack drop and headed up to North Ram's Head. It would have been an easy-ish climb but we went to hard way. By the time we reached the top it was time for a much deserved lunch break. (mountain #13)

It was a bit of a slog to the last peak but we made it to Ram's Head Peak (mountain #14) and we were so excited!

After the peak the last 5 miles back began. Damien decided to drop down into the valley but I was not interested in more uphill so I stayed on the ridge. My path ended up being the better one and I beat him back to the packs by 10 minutes. From there we took a very slow 2km walk across marsh land to meet back up with the main trail. From there it was easy going counting down the last 4km to the car. 

I should also mention that it is the peak of wild flower season so our whole journey was covered in beautiful flowers. 

To celebrate the end of our hike we got some Mexican food which was fine...for Australia. Then we had much needed showers and went to sleep. Zzzzzz. 

2/26/2016

Right so I have once again been lazy on the blog. Sorry. 

Here are the main highlights so that we can get caught back up:

Work as usual

A bit of cooking

We went back to bounce 

I went to cann River for a very short trip.

For Valentine's Day Damo and I went to the welcome to night vale live show. It was great. 

For Valentine's I also got my sisters chocolate. It was my best investment of the year so far. Making my sisters happy is the best.

Also, i got a spirlize book and I have been using it like crazy. I am way beyond zucchini pasta and now do pasta/salad noodles out of everything. So far my favourite new one is spirilized cucumber with sesame. 

We went to white night the 12 hours of art in the city. This year was a bit of a let down compared to previous years but it was still very impressive 

I also got some birthday leggings that are a huge hit with everyone. 

Tonight Damo is playing a computer game and I am baking a cake... Just for around the house.