Still Navigationally Challenged

OK, so neither my map reading or direction following skills have improved since last Monday's 'mishap'.

Today TJ and I headed out to the Brisbane Ranges National Park to undertake a moderate 10km circuit from Anakie Gorge to the Stony Creek Picnic Area return.

The first problem was that we didn't have the Tom Tom GPS in the car and I hadn't printed a map of directions and the Brisbane Ranges are not in our UBD - off the map! So I more or less had to guess our way there because the directions to the start of the hike were from Melbourne, going via the Western Freeway and we went via Werribee and Ballan Road. Given that it's a National Park, I thought it would've been well sign posted.

So it took us about an hour to find the starting point (and only about 45 mins to get home).

We started walking with just our light camelbaks and a bit of food. Very different to last Monday's effort with about 35kg of gear between us.

We completely missed the sharp left turn uphill and continued on the same path. I should probably say 'I' as it was me with the map and guide. I'm sure TJ would resent the 'we' connotation.

We soon realised what we'd done but we decided to continue on the same path and follow the directions in reverse order - something I swore I'd never do again. Fortunately this time it turned out OK. Instead of one long steep ascent, we got two shorter steep ascents and an awful descent down a very rocky and steep non-path. It was hard to know where to go and the ground was slipping under our feet with every step. We were glad to get back on the track at the bottom.

Some nice views from the summit and it was good to see this area regenerating after the 2006 bushfires. 2 wallabies, 0 koalas and 0 snakes.

According to my Garmin:

11.09km
549 Calories burnt
680m ascent
707 descent
2:44