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It seems like I write about this walk every weekend. There isn’t much of it left for us to do, so there’ll be something else to read about in a few weeks …

This week, apart from spending a few hours enjoying the scenery and the sea air, the point of walking was to determine whether or not we’re fit enough to walk up Mt Bogong in a couple of weeks. The original plan was to walk from Anglesea to Airey’s Inlet and back, which is a 20km return trip. But the place where we wanted to start the walk looked boring – it was a fire trail through heathland – and a closer inspection of the map showed the trail to continue like that for at least 5km. So we decided against it, drove to the other side of Anglesea and walked to Point Addis along the cliffs instead.

We’ve done this section before but I don’t think I blogged it so here are some photos.

Near the start

Disobeying the park rangers to get closer to the clifftop for a self-timer photo

The self-timer photo

An industrious ant earning his dinner

Deserted beach near Point Addis

Jayne reckons this looks like something carrying something else

More photos in our Picasa gallery.

Re the fitness experiment: this walk took around 3 hours including a stop for coffee and a rest at Point Addis. Not sure how far it is but I’d say we covered around 9-10km. The walk up Bogong is about 7km (one way), but it’s all uphill. No flat sections at all. I suggested that our effort to get up it and back would be roughly the same as walking this walk three times … so I don’t think we’re fit enough to make it at present.

We could try, but when do you make the decision that you either are or aren’t going to make it? If we only get halfway it’ll seem like a waste of time, but if we get 3/4 of the way we’d be really tempted to try to make it. I don’t think we should start a tough, potentially dangerous walk like that unless we’re properly prepared (i.e. fit), so we’ll probably walk Feathertop via Razorback instead. That’s 22km return but mostly flat and although we’ve done it once before (in 2001) it was an amazing walk so we have no qualms about doing it again. But that’s another blog post for another day.

Headed out for a quick wake session on the bay this morning with Iao and Jed. I was a bit tentative – it was my first time back on the board since I tore my ab muscles – but Iao and Jed were sliding around enjoying themselves. Jayne never goes in the bay (sharks, jellyfish, seaweed, plankton) but was content to drive me when I was riding and then lap up the sun for the rest of the time.

We had a minor incident with the boat (which we still haven’t named properly – Tasty / Muchacha / Tight Squeeze / Povvo Pack). After we’d finished riding we decided to zoom out towards Clifton Springs to see if the water was flatter over there, so I opened up the throttle and we whizzed along flat out at around 5,000rpm (55km/h) for 10 minutes or so. Then, for no apparent reason, the revs suddenly dropped, the motor cut out and I couldn’t start it again. Wouldn’t turn over. Apart from the obvious disappointment that the motor was buggered I was slightly gutted that we’d have to row the thing back to the boat ramp, given that we’d travelled roughly 5km.

Then a couple of minutes later she started, so I carefully stuck it in forward and crept along at 1,000rpm for 30 seconds … no problem … then tried it a bit quicker … no problem … then up to 3,000rpm … no problem … back to idle … no problem … back to 3,000rpm … no problem. She was as smooth as silk again.

No idea what happened, but my guess is that the old Chrysler got a bit hot and said “I’ve had enough of this”. It’s 30 years old, after all.

Anyway, doesn’t seem to be any harm done. She started fine when I flushed it out when we got home. Any ideas Matt?

On Sunday work started on the second part of the balcony – the bit next to the kitchen. Jayne and Christine started by hacking our beautiful camelias, roses and ferns right back to nothingness … but they’ll grow back in a year or so … and then work started on the decking boards and supporting beams. As we suspected, some parts of the beams were cactus. To be honest it’s surprising that something hasn’t broken yet.

There’s still plenty of work to do but these photos (and more on the jayneandmarty Picasa page) make for a good progress report.

Crappy surf conditions this morning so instead of our routine Saturday morning drive to 13th Beach we decided to walk the Jan Juc to Bells section of the Surf Coast Walk. We’ve done it before but it was good, so we decided to do it again.

The wind was really strong today (Jayne’s hanging on to her hat in the second pic) and it was a little bit overcast – but that’s just what you want on a clifftop walk.

Last weekend Jayne bought a decking oil putter-onnerer, some oil, and went to work. Five minutes later she was done. Sure beats doing it with a paintbrush like we did at our old house.

Our friends John and Bec had their baby on Monday morning. Isaac John was born 8lb 3oz and healthy. We went to see them at the hospital for a few hours on Wednesday evening. Here are a couple of photos…..

He’s a cute little thing, isn’t he!

We had more visitors last week: Jayne’s Auntie Heather and Uncle Colin from Wynyard in Tassie arrived on Tuesday at the end of a 7,500km driving trip up the east coast. Jayne and I couldn’t spend much time with them during the week, and they went for a day trip to Bendigo, Ballarat and Daylesford on the Saturday, but we enjoyed spending time with them in the evenings and on Sunday.

We decided to do a bit more of the Surf Coast Walk on Sunday morning – the Bells Beach to Point Addis section. I thought it would be a great morning to do it, as there was a bit of a sea breeze blowing, the swell was up and the cliffs would be spectacular.

We set off just after 11am from the Southside car park, which is where Jayne and I walked to from Bells a few weeks ago. The path tracked inland a bit at first and was surprisingly narrow and poorly-maintained, compared to the other sections that we’ve walked, but we kept going, expecting to round a bend and see an amazing bay or clifftop at any moment.

Strangely, clifftops and bays and well-maintained tracks were not forthcoming. The track wound its way inland through a big ironbark forest, away from the cliffs (and the seabreeze) and down (and up) some steep gullies. After about 45 minutes we passed a couple of mountain bikers who told us that another 20 mins walk would see us at the top of the Point Addis Road. I knew that was at least 2km from the steps down to the beach, and as we had no water, no food and it was bloody hot we decided to turn back! We probably could have made it and then walked the return along the beach but we didn’t want to push our luck without water.

It was still a beautiful walk, and Jayne and I will have another crack at it one day to finish it, but it surprised us by being so different from the other sections we’ve walked. It was bushwalking as opposed to cliff/beach walking.

A few pics ….. some from my cameraphone and some from Colin’s flashy camera.

It was great to spend some time with them at the end of their driving trip!