Rachel's Glorious Squire's Hike

On Friday 12th March, D'Aguilar National Park welcomed Rachel - former Girl Guide from Victoria - and her sponsor, Matt - occasional environmental vandal and estimator. For Rachel's Squire's Hike, around 17.5 kilometres was covered by foot over two days to see Greene's Falls and Northbrook Mountain, near the township of Mount Glorious.

I had never attempted an overnight hike in the past, so it was already going to challenge me before I even started. With the help of Matt, a log of my Squire's Hike was kept.



Friday 5th March

13:00 - Slightly panicked about my Squire's Hike just one week away, I drove to the Walkabout Creek Visitor Centre where I met a friendly lady. She called other staff to get tips for me, allowed me to use her phone to book the campsite and sold me an invaluable topographical map that included where I wanted to hike and more.

13:30 - Relieved and excited.

Wednesday 10th March

15:45 - Went to Coles with my sister to buy food for my Squire's Hike. I had to keep in mind that Matt doesn't like shellfish (that's okay, my budget wasn't endless) and he couldn't drink tea or coffee due to Lent (that's okay, I wouldn't be drinking them either). Win-win.

Thursday 11th March

17:30 - Before I left for Rovers, I placed the chicken, bacon and a bottle of water in the freezer, and searched for most of the things I needed to place in my backpack. I also mixed together dried fruit and unsalted nuts (my theory being salt makes you thirsty = carrying more water) into two snack bags each, and removing vegetables from cans and putting them in snap-lock bags to reduce weight and rubbish.

Friday 12th March

8:00 - As I packed my backpack, I realised I should probably add a waterproof jacket, you never know what the weather will do. I looked everywhere and couldn't find it. Not having one to borrow, I added an extra polar fleece top and a black rubbish bag (!) to my backpack. I thought I'd be more miserable hiking wet than wearing a black rubbish bag in the presence of Matt, and potentially other hikers.

10:25 - Finally left to pick up Matt from his house, after finding out NAB Ashgrove doesn't have a coin counter and Matt had to sit there counting and bagging lots of coins from the Crew reunion a week earlier! Nearly at his house, I realised I left the tent behind...so I had to quickly, within the speed limit, return to my house to get it. We had allowed a generous amount of time, so the delay was no issue.

11:00 - Waved goodbye to Matt's house

11:45 - Arrived at the Greene's Falls carpark where we would start the first part of my Squire's Hike without our backpacks. We grabbed our cameras and a map, Matt did a great job at estimating the camera angle for the timed group shot (although, where's Emile when you need him!), and then we started the hike. On the way, we met three park rangers who told us that a large tree had fallen over in the Rainforest Circuit and they couldn't continue past the tree and along the path. We took a mental note to prove those park rangers wrong on the way back! Later, we found another tree that had fallen across a creek. Naturally we walked out onto it, and then heard, as Matt called them, yahooligans, three young guys making a lot of noise. Matt thinks they went quiet when they saw his 'serious' hat.

12:20 - Reached the platform at the top of Greene's Falls, then walked to the bottom of the falls, where we scrambled across rocks sitting in the water's path for the opportunity to take better photos.

12:45 - Departed Greene's Falls.

13:10 - Found the tree the park rangers said had fallen down in the Rainforest Circuit. Matt stood up on it with minimal effort, but as I tried to sit on it and swing my legs over, I slid down the trunk a metre! Then we checked out where the base of the trunk had snapped. It's amazing how a tree that wide could just break away from the base and not slide down the hill very far at all!

13:35 - Arrived back at my car. Actual walk took 15 minutes longer, probably due to checking out the tree that blocked the path. Had a brief lunch then headed to the start of Lawton Road.

14:15 - Began the second part of the hike - backpacks, tent and all this time - in search of the designated campsite.

15:30 - Drinks break number one on the mother of long hills. Had a good chat about Europe.

15:35 - Drinks break number two.

15:40 - Drinks break number three.

16:00 - Reached the top of the hill and the intersection with England Creek Road. Marked '29' (71769 77894) on the GPS as there was a full water tank.

16:20 - Came across another intersection, this time with an unknown road, and marked '30' (70979 78201) on the GPS. We then realised that we had passed the designated campsite, so we turned around.

16:35 - Found the discreet unmarked Northbrook Mountain campsite. It didn't look that nice, so we decided to camp by the water tank.

16:40 - Finally arrived at our chosen campsite, smiling. As soon as I put my backpack and tent down, I suddenly had all this extra energy! I started pulling out 50-100cm tall weeds so we could have a flat clear area to have a fire and a small path from the fire to the tent. I placed the tent over some weeds so it could act as extra cushioning. As the weeds weren't being pushed down too easily, I rolled across the flat tent like a 10-year-old child! And yes, it was mildly amusing! As I put up the tent to prove that I could pitch and strike a tent, Matt collected firewood. Then it was time to build and light the fire. For the record, I didn't have any newspaper or fire starters, just matches. The first match was placed near the centre and died quickly. As I was striking the second match, it broke. Undeterred and not wanting to waste the match, I lit it anyway. The flame quickly reached my fingers and I dropped it. To my amazement, it landed in just the right spot and the fire began!

18:00 - Time to start dinner. The chicken was still frozen in places! We had to cook dinner in two batches as the frypan was not a family-sized one and wouldn't fit everything at once. The chicken sat in the frypan for a while, defrosting, and then the Chicken Tonight Curry and vegetables were added. After eating Dinner Part 1, we eagerly cooked Part 2. This time Matt had the good idea to add cashews to the mixture. After eating Part 2, I think we determined that I got most of the cashews despite Matt being most excited about the cashews. Better luck next time, Matt! By now it was well and truly dark, and the fire had to be maintained in preparation of dessert. I had planned my version of a s'more. S'more is a contraction of 'some more' and is a popular campfire treat in the United States of America, consisting of toasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of graham crackers. It's origin is unclear, although the first recorded version of the recipe was published in 'Tramping and Trailing with Girl Scouts' (1927). My version involved us toasting our marshmallows and slightly melting three squares of Cadbury chocolate and then sandwiching them between two teddy bear biscuits. We had two s'mores each and vowed to make these on all future Rover camps. Yum!

21:00 - Washed our dishes with the water tank water, put out the fire and moved everything to the tent. As the tent was being zipped up, the rain started. After a chat, we went to sleep.

Saturday 13th March

8:15 - I had been awake for a while, but finally got out of bed as Matt was dressed and had been wandering around. I had heard cyclists stop near the tent, talk and then continue on. Matt later told me that the cyclists had caught him with his pants down! For breakfast we had

bacon and egg muffins, which came in a packet that had an English flag on it - to remind us of our duty to the Queen of Australia - and little 20-cent packets of tomato sauce too. Matt enjoyed the bacon! No matter how wonderful his openfire-cooked porridge was on his Squire's Hike, I was pretty sure bacon and eggs was better! Our bags were packed and the tent came down.

9:35 - Departed the campsite. With Matt holding the GPS and me holding the map, we went off to hike to the top of Northbrook Mountain.

9:55 - Arrived at the top of Northbrook Mountain, at an altitude of 659 metres, marked '33' on the GPS (72641 77874). There were even permanent markers letting people know it is actually the top. Took several photos, including another well-estimated group shot, but as we continued along the rocky outcrop, the quality of the views were getting better until eventually there were almost no trees blocking the view out to the west, and then we marked '36' (72925 77722) on the GPS. Matt found a particular kind of plant that makes great lightweight walking sticks, so he tried to break the stem from the base of the plant like an environmental vandal, but in doing so, split the stem in half and had to throw it away!

11:15 - After scrambling over the rocky outcrop for ages and not gaining a lot of ground, the rocky outcrop ended and we started our descent to Lawton Road, and marked '37' (73319 77604) on the GPS.

11:35 - Lawton Road was in sight, so I was happy again, and marked '39' (73678 77738) on the GPS. But the smile was soon wiped off my face when I had to slide down a short steep section at the bottom of the hill and dirtied my light coloured pants in the process. Light colours always manage to get dirty! Now I had to walk up another long hill and by now, my legs, feet and lungs didn't like me anymore.

11:55 - Drinks break number four.

12:00 - Drinks break number five.

12:05 - Drinks break number six.

12:25 - Arrived back at the start of Lawton Road and packed my car. My smile was the biggest it had been the entire hike! Changed my muddy pants and shoes while I stood beside my car. Despite trying to be really quick, I had almost finished getting changed when a car drove by and the passenger was looking in my direction! So separately, Matt and I both got caught with our pants down over the course of the day haha!

12:30 - Enjoyed scones with jam and cream at Maiala Restaurant and Teahouse. Matt paid for it as I paid for everything else. He chose a strawberry and vanilla milkshake with malt. An interesting combination I must say.

13:30 - Arrived back at Matt's house where he flagged down his family's car behind us so he could get a lift up his steep driveway with his backpack!

13:45 - Finally reached home as it started raining again. I didn't have to use my polar fleece and black rubbish bag combination after all! Yay! I had a nice long shower and put my legs up for the rest of the afternoon, and attempted to write this post.

Final thoughts:

Plants I became familiar with:

• Lantana
• Orchid
• Staghorn
• Bunya Pine
• Another one I don't know the spelling of, but it makes great lightweight walking sticks

Insects that bothered us:

• Flies
• Mosquitoes
• Ants
• Leeches (just Matt, thankfully not me!)

Things I would change:

• Work out how to better carry the tent
• Learn how to use the GPS before I leave

Things I learnt:

• Basic use of a GPS
• Hiking 17.5 kilometres is not as far as I imagined
• Matt sticks his tongue out when he concentrates

Things I accomplished:

• Walking 17.5 kilometres on my first overnight hike
• Seeing parts of Queensland that I wouldn't have seen if I didn't join Rovers
• Not getting baptised by Matt

This will not be my last Squire's Hike, as next time I will be the sponsor. Hopefully I have learnt enough from my own hike in order to offer good guidance to someone else. I think further use of the GPS, and finding my waterproof jacket would be beneficial. With a bit of luck, the other Squires will see that the former Girl Guide could complete an overnight hike, and be encouraged to plan their own hike in the near future.



- Rachel -