Off into the sunset …

I arose just a little too late to get the best of the mist effects on the lake, but it was very beautiful with the reflections in the still water and ethereal wisps of fog.

Of course, the mill-pond calm did not remain so for very long since both my brother and I are veteran rock […]

With mountain climbing now crossed off the list, it was time to have lunch and move camp … once the grasshopper had been encouraged to hop off the tent.

There is no formal track down Jaffa Vale; it’s just a case of going downhill until you hit the open sedgeland around Lake Ball, and then making your […]

I’ll admit that my brother’s suggestion that we climb Solomon’s Throne had filled me with a little trepidation, even though the existence of a route is clearly indicated on the map. I mean, there were several factors to justify my trepidation: (a) it involves an uphill, (b) there are scree slopes, (c) I don’t have a […]

The long summer days meant that we could do some more exploring in the evening after dinner, and we decided to go in search of some sunset effects. We thought that we’d go up to the Jaffa Gate saddle, but there was plenty of time and light so we continued further up the Mt Jerusalem track […]

It was still only mid-afternoon when we returned to Jaffa Vale, and although the “boys” (my brother and his son) were happy to take it easy I decided to wander partway down Jaffa Vale towards Lake Ball. As I explored the area, checking out the start of our route for day three, I startled a wallaby […]

After lunch we decided to walk up Mt Jerusalem, which is about 2km and 200 vertical metres from Dixon’s Kingdom. Its north-western face is known as the East Wall, since it sort of marks the eastern end of the actual Walls of Jerusalem area.

The clouds and moon were having an interesting interaction on the way up, […]

It was a relief to make it through the night without an attack of cramp, and a joy to wake to sunlight and morning mist clearing from the peaks.

We had breakfast, dried the tent (a lot of internal condensation, unfortunately), packed up, shouldered packs, and headed up to Herod’s Gate. I took quite a few photos […]