Oakey Hill wander

Oakey Hill trig

It was Australia Day, and, having some idea of the huge amount of calories I was going to consume in the afternoon, I decided that it would be worth my while to try to burn off a few beforehand.  As one of walking God John Evans’ first recorded walks ever, Oakey Hill had stuck in my mind as an area I wanted to explore.

Oakey Hill is that hill you drive by just before (or after) Mt Taylor when you’re on the Tuggeranong Parkway, situated just on the edge of the suburb of Lyons. We parked at the entrance in Dennes Place and entered it from there.

The first thing we came across was horses! Oakey Hill has an equestrian trail on it, and the whippets were very curious about what these ‘big dogs’ were doing. There was an alternate route so we managed to avoid crossing paths.

It’s steady going on the track with only a very small ascent as you come around the side of Oakey Hill towards the Parkway and it’s easy

View from Oakey Hill towards Black Mountain

to do it quickly. Fortunately, the hill does live up to its name, as the trek towards the summit is a steep one. Before you reach it you encounter a proper road – indeed, you could probably just drive to the top of Oakey Hill if you were so inclined! – and then a 50m walk through a narrow dirt path to the trig.

What surprised me about Oakey Hill is that it’s actually got some really great views (not like Black Mountain!), particularly of Mt Taylor and Mt Tennent behind it, as well as views of the very recognisable Camels Hump up in the ranges of the Tidbinbilla Nature Park. Of course, it’s also got some great views of the Parkway and the surrounding suburbs, too!

It’s an easy walk back down but felt like a good use of 45 minutes (as opposed to the activities we had planned for the rest of the day!). If you’ve got visitors and you want to give them a view of Canberra without wearing them out for the rest of their stay, this track is a good one.

Dogs are allowed!

And finally, as a special treat to you, dear reader… I recently purchased a Heart Rate Monitor to get an accurate estimate of how embarrassingly slow I can be. But better yet, the HRM has a GPS, so it also records the track we took. You can also check out the elevation, the distance and my calories burned here.

Date: Thursday, 26 January

Worthwhile factor: Worthwhile, particularly because it’s one of the few nature parks where you can bring dogs

Want more? http://www.tams.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/13536/cnpmapoakey.pdf

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Conquering Camel’s Hump – the videos

I debated about putting these up, because frankly I really can’t take very good videos. But hey. You can see where we were and what we achieved on Camel’s Hump, and you can also see just HOW misty it was when we finally conquered it! Great experience – urge you all to get out there and do it!

Here’s the first attempt (note I was rather sick with a cold and had just had a minor panic attack due to the gale force conditions!):

And here’s the successful attempt:

Conquering Camel’s Hump

 

Camel's Hump - the pointy one

 

You may not have heard of Camel’s Hump, but it’s instantly recognisable when looking to the horizon as the pointy peak. Housemate and I had previously attempted to scale the ‘Hump’ part in mid-June but had had to stop just a little way up because of ferocious winds (combined with my occasional but always inconvenient vertigo).

Since then, I subconsciously found myself seeking out the peak from wherever I am in Canberra – from driving along a highway, to taking photos of it while atop other mountains. In short: Camel’s Hump was haunting me. We hadn’t actually completed it. We’d given up. I don’t give up. We had to go back.