Picnic at Hanging Rock

Me and Anton did a nice train mission out the Woodend on Saturday morning.  Stopped for a few brews and lunch at the Holgate Brewery (would have been rude not to!)  We then decided we should walk it off / get in some Kilimanjaro training by walking out to Hanging Rock (8kms)  The first part of the walk was great as it was on a track meandering through trees.  However the track soon ended and we found ourselves with no choice but to walk along the highway.  Still, it was nice to be out in the fresh country air.  We saw 2 dead snakes and a dead wallaby but no living wildlife apart from a coloured parrot and some magpies.  Not to worry.  The walk took us about 1.5hrs.  Climbed up to the top of the rock when we arrived.  A nice steep but short climb.  A lot more people there than I thought there would be.  It started to rain when we were on our way back down, and we weren't able to fill up our water bottle anywhere do we decided to hitch back to Woodend rather than walk.  A bunch of guys in a ute picked us up as soon as I stuck my thumb out, so that was good luck.  That afternoon in Kyneton Anton proposed to me, so it looks like I'll be trekking up Kilimanjaro with my fiancee!  :)

We are off to NZ in less than a week for Christmas.  My sister lives in a semi-rural area on the top of a ridge overlooking Dunedin so there will be many opportunities to go on nice long walks down to rugged beaches etc.  Looking forward to it!

I have an RDO today so plan to call around a load of businesses to request donations of prizes for our raffle.  Wish me luck!

Helen