I was up and out early to get to Mt Buller before it got too hot, it was forecast high 30's in most places but would be cooler up the mountain. A nice summit walk took me up the peak next to a fire look out post where I sat for quite a while admiring the view and also enjoying not being bothered by flies. Flies. The tourist information should warn about the flies, I wish I had taken my fly net I used on the farm it would have made the walk almost infinitely more enjoyable. So I sat at the top for a bit, then the man in the look out tower came and said I was looking the wrong way and there were 2 wedge tailed eagles flying over massive and graceful. I was pleased about that, seeing something in the wild means you can properly say you spotted it. I had a look inside the fire tower and he explained how they use old school methods of working out where fires are. There are a network of towers and when a fire is spotted the near by towers take a bearing on the fire and plot it with a peice of string attached to a nut on the map, the other towers do the same and they radio through their bearings so these can be plotted on the map and where the lines meet is the location of the fire. Its very simple and requires no fancy technology.
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| Fire lookout tower, Mt Buller |
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| Inside lookout |
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| How fires are location from bearing from fire lookout towers |
The walk unofficially continued along a ridge to some cairn stones, I walked as far as I go and then went back past the fire tower down to the main track. This part of the walk back down to the start is very picturesque and probably seems lovely in the photos, except the flies were maddening and it was getting hot - I ran down the rest of the way to get it over with and I thought - oh for the South Downs!
I really just wanted to get off the mountain asap after that, driving down the thermometer keep rising, to 98 degrees which is about 37 Celsius. Anything over 33 all seems to feel the same to me, thank goodness for air con. In Mansfield, the nearest town to Joys, I bought a cold juice and a cider, I drank all the juice and went back to the farm.
Joy was interested in my day and the walk, I had a relax for a while in the cool. Joy said she needed to check on the sheep and water hole levels and did I want to come, so off we went in the pick up with the 2 dogs in the back and inspected various fields for water and located the sheep which were all resting under the shade of trees. Some of them got up and had a bit of piss or a poo like sheep do when they're a bit scared, its all about getting rid of unnecessary weight if they have to run. Back at the farm house there was another group of sheep near the farm buildings, the Rams were in this group and their massive balls hung like udders, this group was a mix of breeds with some lambs but can you spot the odd one out?
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