28th March 2004
Work and social committments have seen us staying at home for the last few weeks so it was a real treat to be able to get back to Craigieburn today.
I had planned, on a previous trip, to walk to Lyndon Saddle but a bad attack of gout prevented me getting very far. Today we finally did the walk.
We arrived at Craigieburn around midday. There was a light dusting of snow and a definite chill in the air.
We headed off on the path and were soon in a forest of tall beech trees. Apart from some birdsong the forest is very quiet. At some stage we should record some birdsong and put it up here.Once you climb above the stream its actually very quiet on this path.
Along the way we saw numerous orange and purple toadstools. Marisa took this picture of a clump of the orange ones.
About halfway along the track someone has thoughtfully provided a bench. I hadn't done much walking since Aoraki Mount Cook so I found myself more than a little out of breath by the time we reached the bench.
Beyond the bench the path becomes quite narrow with a very steep drop if one was to accidently step of the path.
At the narrowest this path is about a foot wide and it was here that we encountered three mad Kiwis riding mountain bikes down the hill at speed. We clung to the mountain on the high side while they passed us. After they passed I wondered how in hell they got their bikes up there in the first place. Of course I wouldn't be suprised to learn that they were dropped in by helicopter. They do this with skiers.
The walk was supposed to take an hour but took us closer to three. When we reached the saddle we realised that we were only about 15 minutes from the top. We decided to go for it and pressed on. Marisa took this picture of me (actually below the top but with a more open vista) and I took one of her. As you can see behind me the hills are all bare. Behind Marisa the hills have a dusting of snow.
We rested at the top and Marisa took some more photos. It was particularly cold at the top and we had a clear view of wet weather rolling in. We decided to head back to the car. It only took thirty minutes to get back down.
The thermos flasks were at the car and we had a well deserved coffee and some beef jerky (weird I know but we're on a high protein diet).
I have to say there is nothing like a coffee in the outdoors on a cold day, especially the way Marisa makes it, boiling hot with condensed milk and really sweet.
We were all exhausted and it was time to head home. As we drove past Cave Stream we noticed these two wonderful mobile homes. You'll notice one has a chimney and since there was smoke coming from it we can only assume that there was a fire buring inside. If anyone knows anything about these vans drop us a line on the feedback page. I would love to know anything about them.
--Brook
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