| Leader | Mentor | Understudy | Tail Ender | |
| Standards | Peter | Dave R | Sally | Shirley |
| Alternates | Ali | Norma | Brent | Michele |
Distance 16.3km; elevation gain 539m; time walking 4hr
After we had collected everyone from Yaldhurst our coach with driver Alan carried 43 trampers steadily through to Castle Hill Village. Fortunately, there were no road works or other issues this week and the blue sky enhanced all the farm and mountain views during the road trip. Vice-president Judy gave us the day’s information and thanked Audrey for her last week’s provision of masses of “blood red” peaches – the new name illustrating a sign of the times!
At around 10:15am we set off along the village road and were immediately welcomed by a beautifully loud chorus above us from the resident korimako/bellbird population. The tuneful accompaniment remained with us whenever we walked through any patches of beech forest. In fact for the whole day whenever we were in bush we could listen to birds singing happily (well, we assume happily) to each other. The work that goes into trapping in this area is obviously paying off very well. In the bush sections of track, there were also many patches of the rather magical looking white spotted red toadstools – probably Amanita muscaria.
The Alternates group had won the numbers stakes but caught up with the 17 Standards during their morning tea stop at the Lightning Tree. This minority group enjoyed their brisk hike along the terraced area, down to a noisy but easily negotiable Long Creek crossing, through more bush and open areas, over Waterfall Creek on a sturdy bridge before climbing the zig-zag track to Picnic Rock Lookout. All had to stand aside to let a solo MTB cyclist pass by on the way up. The group detoured off the formed MTB track to climb to the Hogs Back Ridge and enjoyed a glorious lunchtime view over the Craigieburn Basin area. During the lunch break, we trampers watched about a dozen cyclists emerge from the Cockayne Alley MTB track area, ride up the road to join “our” Hogs Back Track and pass by below us on their way back to Castle Hill Village. Good timing, we thought.
Meanwhile, most of the Alternates enjoyed their lunch at Table Rock Lookout though a small group had stopped earlier in comfort before the zig-zag section. We believe there could be a pair of walking poles still resting elegantly there – waiting to be found!
During the tramp back to the village everyone enjoyed the “other direction” views which included snow-free, bare hills with patches of pink scree typical of that area. The Standards caught up with the Alternates at the Lightning Tree again and all had reached the bus by 3:15pm.
So it was blue sky and sunshine all day, no wind at all and a comfortable temperature for tramping. What a stunning day out that was.
Text by Janne
