Hello Just got some new potatoes on to steam so while I am waiting, I’ll finish up the walk in.
So glad we got some clear skies – we did get a fabulous view back across to Cradle Mt Area.
Soon we started coming across lots of tarns and waterways
Eventually I called a time out, so we could shed the packs and have some fruit, a drink and a sit down
One last stretch before the camp site!
To my delight… lots of pincushion plants!
Crystal clear water
We reached Wild Dog Creek campsite and set up our tent. Well… Jeff set up our tent! I contributed by blowing up the mattresses.
These platforms are a really good thing. Set areas to camp on mean less people trampling about in the bush squashing stuff. Plus they are better to sit on and getting out of your tent is less messy – esp if its been raining.
Hello! We are back – actually been back a couple of days!! The weather unfortunately turned on us, so even though we did some fabulous walking, we opted out of the mountains. No real point in making all the effort to see a 360 degree view of mist!
So – here’s me, pack, hat and gaiters ready for the haul up to Wild Dog Creek where we planned to camp.
It was a day of pretty steady ‘up’ Probably not the best time to realise that one is about 2 months overdue for her B12 jab. Hmmmm
Her Nurse Husband called and booked her in as soon as we got back (He knows something of my procrastinating ways)
So anyway… I stopped a lot. (Admiring the views and taking photos)(and panting)
It was the end of a long weekend so we met a number of people coming back down. It was fairly busy up there apparently.
Sorry – lots of photos of Jeff’s bottom. 🙂
So much to look at – once you raise your eyes from your feet so you don’t fall over rocks that is!
The cool overcast morning was shaping up into a pretty nice afternoon.
Stream crossings
Trappers Hut.
You can actually do a circuit but we weren’t sure the first time out exactly what the area was like and the layout of things. I think I’d be tempted to do the circuit next time rather than up and back.
Still heading up up up! And if you stand about too long, trees eat you.
The trees start to change as we get higher and more big rocks to walk up and over.
I am going to finish up here tonight… my internet connection is like molasses today. I annoyingly spent ages chatting to the online ‘help’ only to end up with helper #3 saying they would ‘monitor’ the situation for 24 hours. In my experience it means they will do bugger all so I’ll have to call back tomorrow and agonise with them while they try to blame my system first. (yes I’ve turned it on and off several times, no I haven’t changed any cables, no we don’t have any new devices added to our system and NO – you can’t SMS me because we don’t have a mobile phone and no, I am not running over to a neighbour to borrow one)(Can you see I am emotionally scarred from previous encounters?? haha)
Hope you are all having a lovely week and I’ll hopefully get some more photos uploaded so I can continue the story soon. (Its just at this rate I’ll make it to bed at 4am and I don’t have that much patience!)
Hi there! About to have a shower and hit the hay! Bags mostly packed. Will have to make some sandwiches in the morning before heading off. We are not 100% sure of our hiking plans. There seem to be a few options in this area – so will all be a bit of an adventure.
Pip, putting things together has a look of deep suspicion on that little Siamese Face!! 🙁 (Vet visits, bags and me vacuuming) haha
Soap above/below. My friend sent me some essential oils to try. This one is lemongrass and so far smells amazing. Essential oils don’t always hold their fragrance in the soap making process. I haven’t been buying them because its a very costly experiment. So I feel lucky to have been given some to play with!
Here are some pretty rough snaps of Jeffs necklaces. Lots of petrified wood and agate used. I am sure his Mum would like to see them – Judy… I’ll work on getting nicer photos sometime!
In a jumble but a pretty jumble!
As usual I had a great day out at Sharons with one of her soap making workshops. Only three people ended up coming but everyone opted to do two batches, plus we had two batches ordered by her cousin, so we madly did 8 batches of soap that day… THEN… I came home to make a half batch to experiment with piping on some cake like frosting… hmmmm
Slightly hilarious… I’ve used an op-shop silicone loaf mould which is beautifully wonky. The fragrance was chai tea. The piped colours are… interesting??
Honestly I must have been delirious! I thought the red would come out pink but it ended up orange.
However… it was good to finally try this and I’ll do it again with more thought to the colours. I’ll just market it as ‘Ugly Chunky Chai Tea Soap’
It was actually fun to do so I am keen to try again!
Have a great week everyone and hopefully I’ll stroll back at the end of it all with some new stories!
Hello! So – catching up on news… the weather turned pretty blah here. The rain has been fabulous but the cold not so fabulous. We opted out of our hike the other day as it was a long drive to potentially climb a mountain and not see anything!! Save it for another time.
So I made a lot of soap instead! Of course!
I got to the part of my list that said ‘pickle beetroot’ and did that. So picked the first of this seasons beetroot and I reckon they look pretty fab! Taste good too!
I have yet to photograph the other new soaps but this one… think ‘big soap slab’ haha Its an old latex baking… tin/tray/?? Anyway, its a bit floppy around the edges but it was fun creating the big swirls of colour, then working out how to cut it!! Ended up with big chunky bits which actually I quite like. So I might even give that another go!
Oh I am still so very much loving the new potatoes.
Raiding the lettuce patch… Poor thing. Some of the big lettuce that has gone to seed has fallen over in the wind and rain that we’ve had lately. (Actually so has the dill)
My parents are due to visit early February (yay!!) and I have worded my Dad up to help me put in a watering system for this area! He said as long as I did all the bending 😀 It will be great as with the wind, the usual sprinkler is hard to get in the right spot to water everything efficiently.
Shirley rang requesting eggs and parsley. So I took a bit extra 🙂 Love having food to share and in the back of my mind I can dream that if I make it into my 80’s that someone might sometimes drop in some fresh garden food for me!! haha – it could happen!!
Market night at Two Oaks! Ellen (the owner) had us all set up inside tonight as the weather was still pretty questionable! So comfortable we were! Jeff had his necklaces
And our lovely friend Maureen had her jams, aprons and other gorgeous hand sewn articles
Of course I had my soap… 🙂 It was a quieter night than usual but we all sold stuff and had such a great afternoon relaxing, talking, buying off the other tables etc.
I am popping back out to Sharons tomorrow – she has a workshop happening. Not too many people but it will be fun to join in anyway! Meet some new people and catch up with Sharon.
We have another hiking adventure planned for next week. Its a 4 day thing – Walls of Jerusalem. So its carry all in like the Overland and apparently there is a lot of ‘up’ involved. (sigh) I’ll pack on Sunday. We drugged Pip up to take him to the vet for his steroid injection. Beau is kindly looking after the place and animals for us but he doesn’t need his hand chewed off daily and to be spat at trying to give Pip a pill. So Pip is good for a week. We’ve worked out that after that Academy Award Winning Performance at the vets that one time where he went into hissy-spitty-alley-cat mode and had to dismantle the box to get to him… drugs are a good option. By the time he gets to the vet I’ve got him as mellow as can be. Much better for everyone involved 🙂 Siamese!! (He is currently curled up under my windcheater making little snoring sounds haha)
Hope everyone has a splendid weekend planned!! Cheers
Hello! I left these soaps in the mould a day longer than usual… I have had mixed success getting them out smoothly. Today most came out almost perfectly! Winning!
I got the pesto made. In fact, I did two batches! The kitchen smelled fabulous while the garlic was baking!
Other tasks on my list included picking raspberries and snow peas.
Got to get an early night – we have a bit of a drive planned and a new hike in mind. First I have to remember to go out and turn off the water! Corn will be soggy by now!
Monday and I had a list. I even got though a good amount of items on said list! I started off with a drive over to Rubys to see her granddaughter in law and my friend Marsha. Since she is from WA there aren’t too many opportunities to catch up!
Back home I made up 10 litres of laundry liquid as we had run out. Doesn’t take too long – and now we are set for the next 6 months!
The raspberries in the fridge needed to be made into jam. I am trying not to just throw things in the freezer to ‘come back to it later’ I also need to pick them and the snow peas, but will move that job over to tomorrow.
Egg washing day.
I picked basil but didn’t quite get to the pesto stage. Also on tomorrow list!
I unmoulded soaps from yesterday and cut the loaf mould too. I figured that getting some Valentines Day themed soaps might be smart. The little chocolate moulds I borrowed from Sharon are perfect for this! The fragrance is Belgium Chocolate – sooooo nice!
I can’t remember the fragrance name on this one. Nifty patterns though. I bought a whole lot of new fragrances from a different company to try out and the names aren’t sticking in my head a lot…
This one I made with my cousin the other day… Kakadu Plum. Liked it.
Japanese Honeysuckle. Its nice now that its calmed down a bit – but not the fragrance I was after. I’ll have to politely ask the Queensland Soap people if they will share where they got theirs from.
This is a bit indistinct but a lovely soft subtle green. I love the fragrance too – Ajou Pear and lemon zest (I think)(I can’t get up to check these things because Pip is sleeping on my lap haha)
I can’t show you a couple of others as over the past few months, uploading photos has been a right royal pain in the a. AND I am too lazy to get back online to the help people to sort it out. I am sure one day it will annoy me into action! 🙂
And finally – some Dragons Blood – complete with dinosaurs!! Makes perfect sense.
Lucky I have a market coming up at the end of the week. I am starting to struggle for space so I am hoping I can offload a good amount!
Well, thats all from me tonight! Have a great week Cheers!
Hello! How was your weekend? I had a great time at Sharon’s yesterday with her latest soap workshop. Lots of good food and lots of really cool looking (and smelling) soaps made.
Today, since I had been supervising others making soaps over the past couple of days, I did three batches of my own. Still yet to photograph all the latest ones of mine.
I was aiming at Sloth Day but somehow… wasn’t all that slothful. I got in and gave various plants haircuts. Like the rocket – was all going to seed and swamping the sunflowers.
Grow little sunflowers grow!!
That new tomato patch also got attended to… the plants are so vigorous! I’ve taken out lots of the big leaves and plenty of smaller laterals…. the ones I could find anyway.
I was finding plenty of small tomatoes starting under all that greenery
Tentacular also got a good trim. It was starting to get tricky getting in the hothouse door!
I’ve enjoyed having the zucchini frittas on the plate the last few nights. Must make another batch!
The cape gooseberry plants are really looking good! I can’t wait until they fruit!
Still haven’t googled about how to make chamomile tea. I have so many other things on my To Do cooking list right now so it has dropped down the rungs of priority.
Check it out! A Russian Black tomato is colouring up! Yay
Pesto is on the list tomorrow. I think I am just going to have to yank out those extra tomatoes. 🙁
Hebe’s are looking pretty
And just one of the Lions Ear bushes has burst out in gorgeous orange! Love this flower, so unusual! Hope your new week starts well! Cheers!
Hi! I seem to have gotten rather busy this week. I didn’t even get to make soap while Jeff was away. Anyway, got a phone message from Random Lady that said Jeff was walking out on Thursday not Friday – should be in at 1pm.
So, got up and did the 4 hour drive down to Lake St Clair – in the cold, fog and rain!!! Our summer is so weird right now. Jeff didn’t walk out until 4ish. I took a brief walk to warm up because I was silly enough not to bring clothes for all seasons.
As you can see – the track was super easy and clear so I wasn’t worried that I was wandering about in my crocs haha This last part of the track is definitely for the tourists not the hard core hikers
Finally my very tired and footsore husband appeared. Turns out he didn’t skip Kia Ora hut (which would have evened things out a bit.) His last night was at Burt Nichols hut which gave him a 27km hike out!!! He tried to get the ferry but it was full. What an effort! I am not allowed to talk about any activities that have the word ‘track’ in them. Maybe I’ll bring up my ideas tomorrow haha
We had a really nice drive back – no rush. Lots of talking and catching up on news and tales of adventure. Jeff had a really good time – even met a few people. Camped some of the time, used the huts here and there. Weather apart from the last day, warm to hot and no rain.
Moving on to Me…
Thought I might amuse you with my Morning With Lottie.
Sharon asked if she could drop Lottie off Tuesday morning while she went to Yoga. No worries. She’s a fun kid – full of energy. She didn’t want to really pick the snow peas with me but got all inventive about making me a gourmet salad. (Clearly been watching her Mum make fabulous tasting plates and other foods)
Had to provide the proper bowls and chopsticks, no less!
And what cullinary delight was I subjected to?
Snow peas, basil leaves, parts of the fennel bush for that surprising hint of aniseed…raspberries, cherry plums (thoughtfully de-pipped) purple carrot and parsley. It was an adventure with every mouthful.
My stomach may never be the same again!
Tomorrow I am heading up to Sharons to help her with a soap workshop. I have already warned her about how much lemon meringue pie I am going to scoff to make up for this!! Kids!
Anyway, speaking of workshops… I need to get to bed! Hope you’ve all had a splendid week!
Well… today I didn’t run about too much. My legs are – displeased with me haha. It did give me time to sit and sort yesterdays photos!
We got to Cradle a tad before 8am and found that everything had changed. A sexy new visitors centre has just been opened for one thing… Still a lot of construction going on but overall I really like it. Collecting your Overland Track pass is now a bit different. Due to a record amount of rescues last year, hikers are now taken into a dedicated room for a talk – on safety, expectations, risks etc etc. They’ve got a policeman on board representing the rescue side of things and a video. We saw neither the policeman or video as its not up and running just yet. But since we’ve done the track a few times the lady booking us in wasn’t so concerned. People get a bit blase about the hike. And sure… if the weather behaves, its all hunky dory. A lot of people really don’t realise the fast changes that can happen up there – and if you are unprepared, it will kill you.
My well prepared husband was in good spirits when we set out yesterday. Mind you, first thing in the morning up there yesterday, it was icy cold!!
We diverted off the usual track to go up the Horse Track. This way we avoided a lot of the tourists that were heading up. It was really peaceful for us.
The Horse Track is a fair slog though. It just steadily keeps going up. Marions Lookout way has more breaks with a short steeper section.
I had to stop and rest a bit. But since Jeff was carrying the heavy pack I didn’t get too far behind him!
Jeff fixing his flyaway hair and a goofy selfie from me
(Love the fisheye lens haha)
Finally got to the top of that long upwards stretch
As ever, the views are amazing and rewarding. It was turning out to be a spectacular day.
My usual obsession and delight with the pincushion plants
Cradle on the left, Barn Bluff on the right, Jeff in the middle!!
We got to Kitchen Hut, but didn’t feel like lunch, so we went up to the junction and had a hug and a smooch before Jeff continued on his adventure and I went off to tackle the Face Track. Its rather weird to be completely cut off from contact. We are used to it more than other people with our lack of mobile phone or devices but even so… until I go to collect him I have no idea how he is going or progressing.
🙁 I was a little envious too of course! But my path yesterday lay to the left.
I think this section of pathway, flanked by pincushion plants, overlooked by Cradle with that classic old wooden walkway rates as my favourite in the world of paths that I have traversed.
I caught up with a mum who was walking down this track with her two young girls. Dad and a friend were doing the summit of Cradle. I was a bit concerned as the Face Track is not for the faint hearted. There are warning signs about the level of difficulty but – not everyone reads them or takes them seriously. The girls looked to be about 8 and 10 max. I had a chat just sounding her out as I didn’t want to just presume they weren’t capable or informed. Turns out they had no idea to the challenges of that track. I gave the mum an idea of what to expect and an alternate route back as a better (read: safer) option. Apparently her husband was also under the impression that the Cradle Summit climb was only going to take him half an hour. Some learning curves were probably achieved yesterday! 🙂
Civic Duty Done, and I trundled along my way enjoying all the sights
Again – its hard to get a sense of the steepness of the track with the photos, but the views were magnificent (as usual)
I put the camera away for a while as getting myself down in one piece took priority over photography and when scrambling down some of the sections, I didn’t need my camera bouncing about and I needed all my limbs and in some cases… my bottom haha
By the time I got down to the little hut my legs were shot from ‘putting on the brakes’ for so long. So a sit down, a drink and a sandwich was in order. Wrapped in Bee Wrap of course!
The next section of the hike was a lot of up and down. Each time I went up I thought it was the last time!!
(Jeff is out there – somewhere!!)
Finally made it to the chain links where a very long descent is made somewhat safer with a sturdy set of chains and poles that has been embedded. You can see from the photo below looking back to where I came down on it. (red line)
The tricky part wasn’t quite over as the remaining track before getting to the more heavily used Dove Lake track is pretty much like walking on scree. Its not too stable underfoot as you go down.
Clearly I did get down in one piece – thoroughly enjoying my days walk. Treated myself to a fizzy drink, jumped in the car and returned home to a very pleased Pip – who probably thought we were both disappearing on him again!
Hello! I’ll be brief tonight as I am a tired little chicken right now!
We got up at 5am (NOT my forte) and got to Cradle in plenty of time for Jeff to collect his pass and get on the track. It was REALLY cold at the start – then warmed to a gorgeous day! Jeff was in pretty good spirits so I hope he has an excellent week out on the track.
I parted company with him a Kitchen Hut and walked back via the Face Track. I forget how hairy-scary that one can be!!
Anyway, will do a proper story after I’ve had a little rest 🙂 Hope your Sunday was/is great! Cheers!
