bushwalking

today my friend gabrielle and i did out first bush walk in a year..we walk every week together but these walks are only an hour long and they're not particularly rigorous..in the past we did bush walk regularly but over the last few years various health problems have curtailed the more strenuous stuff..fortunately we are both now feeling good at the same time so off we went today to the 'you yangs'..we decided not to take on anything too strenuous or two far away so as to ease ourselves back into the saddle..

for anyone who doesn't know the 'you yangs' they are a series of granite ridges on the flat plain between melbourne and geelong (a city 75 kms south west of melbourne) about 65 km south west of melbourne..the name is derived from aboriginal and means 'big hill on the plain'..apparently there's evidence in the you yangs of past aboriginal presence in the form of rock wells which were created in the granite to collect rain water..

we did two shortish walks today..the first walk of 2 hours was a circuit walk (our favourite type of walk) around flinders peak (named after the explorer matthew flinders who climbed the peak in 1802) which is the highest point in the area..the walk started out as an uphill climb with various boulder obstacles along the way that we had to negotiate and then it became more tame..the second walk was an energetic 1 hour walk up to flinders peak and back..

we felt so fired up after our walk today that we want to go bush walking again next week..but we're heading east next week..maybe to the dandenongs..   

gabrielle

me

as you can see from the trees it was very windy

scrambling down a rocky outcrop

i'm almost looking forward to the inevitable muscle soreness tomorrow..it will be a reminder of a wonderful day with a great friend..x