Out and about

With Christmas over…

Well, OK, technically in Australia it’s still Christmas. You see, Boxing Day fell on a Saturday this year, and since we can’t just lose a public holiday, it gets moved to Monday. Which is today.

Well, with Christmas almost over, it was time to do something else than sit at home, eat good food and play all the new games we got this year. It was time to go for a hike.

As the weather promised to be pleasant (blue skies and 22 degrees today), we spent the morning at home, only heading out after lunch to go to our favourite hiking ground in the area: the Dandenong mountains. And with the recent rainfalls and almost no wind, the fire rating was green as well. (Yes, we did check before we went.)

When we arrived at the Olinda Falls picnic ground, we were, unsurprisingly, not the only ones there. The area is in the middle of the forrest and slightly off the most beaten paths, making it ideal for the extended family gathering that was happening around the inevitable hot plates. But we managed to find a parking spot, put on our hiking boots, and off we went.

We always find it amazing as how much our kids love to do this kind of walk. While they never really feel like it when we leave home (insert nagging tone of voice here), they lighten up after the first five steps. And from then on its all fun and laughter – at least during the down hill sections.

Unfortunately, what goes down must also come up again – at least when you’re hiking. And the Dandenongs have some pretty steep mountainsides to conquer. But with a bit of cajoling we managed to drag everyone across the more difficult bits.

In the end we walked for about 75 minutes, covering 5.6 km horizontal and quite a few meters vertical. Check the route here.

After the last few days on our lazy behinds, it was good to be out and about again.