Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Tuggeranong Hill–Family Adventure

Having failed at my first attempt at Tuggeranong Hill I decided to give it another go. This time the entire family came for the adventure.

When I made my first attempt I was so out of breath I thought I was never going to get home again.

This is the place where I turned back last time and some of the path onward and up ward

20130215-Tuggeranong Hill-173451.jpg20130215-Tuggeranong Hill-173504.jpg20130215-Tuggeranong Hill-173922.jpg

 

The summit is wonderful hopefully this photo synth will give a great idea of why this is such a worthwhile trip.

20130215-Tuggeranong Hill-180537.jpg20130215-Tuggeranong Hill-180700.jpg

20130215-Tuggeranong Hill-180134.jpg

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Booroomba Rocks–Namadgi National Park

After my first attempt at Booroomba Rocks, I made a few changes which included premedicating Ventolin, new shoes built for hiking. So it wasn’t total softness and I’ll hopefully do much better as I keep moving.

20130210-Booroomba Rocks-104317.jpg

Look for this sign on Apollo Road, then its just a quick drive along a dirt road to the car park.


20130216-Booroomba Rocks-162916.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-162832.jpg


Notice the signs, seems they disagree but not a big issue I did it in 43 Minutes and my GPS says it is 1.95km round trip.


On my previous trip I was focused on the journey, partly because I didn’t get to the destination but failure and inspiration caused the quick turnaround for a second attempt.


This time I was all about accomplishment and the view, hope this inspires a visit from you too. From what I understand the experience can be different each time you go, another reason to love Canberra, our seasons make the things we love four times better.


20130216-Booroomba Rocks-151056.jpg


Resting half way up sometime this year I’m going to power past and do it in one go


20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154134.jpg


At the top notice the sweat and red face.

20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154227.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154337.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154528.jpg

High up on a peak with some beautiful view

20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154653.jpg

My son Alex making a video…

Speaking of which this is a quick video that shows the last bit over the rock and briefly show the oh my what a view moment most people experience…




Reaching the top


20130210-Booroomba Rocks-092022.jpg20130210-Booroomba Rocks-094353.jpg20130210-Booroomba Rocks-094421.jpg20130210-Booroomba Rocks-094846.jpg20130210-Booroomba Rocks-100502.jpg20130210-Booroomba Rocks-101110.jpg
20130210-Booroomba Rocks-101152.jpg20130210-Booroomba Rocks-101223.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154200.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154203.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154207.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154211.jpg
20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154215.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154222.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154225.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154227.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154230.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154254.jpg
20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154306.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154310.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154332.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154337.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154436.jpg20130216-Booroomba Rocks-154439.jpg

Monday, February 11, 2013

Booroomba Rocks attempt one

Today I took my son Alex on a walk along the Booroomba Rocks trail, inspired by Tara from IN THE TARATORY. It’s not a very long drive from our place but I don’t like the hot so we set out about 8:45 in hope of getting it done before we went to the movies this afternoon.

So quick trip over Tharwa Bridge then down Naas Road and then off on to Apollo Road toward Honeysuckle Creek

20130210-Booroomba Rocks-104317.jpg

This sign is one to pay attention too, be aware it is a dirt road and in many places you might struggle to get two cars past each other especially when one of them is my Navara.

20130210-Booroomba Rocks-092022.jpg

When you get to the car park look for the sign that points to Booroomba Rocks Walking Trail it says 30 Minutes which is different to the sign on the trail.

The importance of this sign is that it says 2.5 kms RETURN, so when your heart is breaking out of your chest cavity and your legs are feeling the burn and you wonder if you should push on to what I am told is a very worthwhile destination, remember it is return and if your iPhone app says you have travelled 1.8 klms which must be wrong (and if you zoom the trail there is a lot of lateral co-ordinate jumping off cliffs) then you might be near the top.

image

There is a seat a bit over half way up which Tara reported as particularly uncomfortable but for me it was the best thing ever I guess our need for it was very different.

 

20130210-Booroomba Rocks-101152.jpg20130210-Booroomba Rocks-101223.jpg20130210-Booroomba Rocks-101110.jpg

 

Overall the walk is steep and I need to practice by maybe doing more stairs walks at work. I did not make it to the top but also did not feel like a previous walker and it would be nicer if they didn’t need to make the tree carry that message for ever

BTW the fit person in the Photos is my son Alex, my new trainer by the looks

Just so you know my goal is only to walk further than today which happened to be

20130210-Booroomba Rocks-100502.jpg

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Tuggeranong Hill Trig attempt one

Today I took my son Alex on a walk up Tuggeranong Hill, inspired by Tara from IN THE TARATORY and Alison from Chifley

I had thought about doing it on the weekend but other things got in the way. So not wanting to disappoint supportive strangers I came home from work today gathered up the boy and off we set.

The initial climb up the access road in Conder to the trail which rings the Nature Reserve was a rather telling indication of the hard work to come, I am around 144Kgs so moving in an upward direction was always going to be challenging but I’ll get there.

Anyway here are the stats, the target is the Canberra Nature Park label

image

20130205-Tuggeranong Hill-181254.jpg

The view from where I turned back

20130205-Tuggeranong Hill-183102.jpg

Alex on the trail just above our neighbourhood