The beautiful backwoods

Come along and try the TrailRider All Terrain Wheelchair in one of Victoria’s unique
parks and natural environments, the Dandenong Ranges National Park.

Where: Grants Picnic Ground, 70 Monbulk Road, Kallista

When: Thursday 18th October 2018, 10am – 2pm

You are invited to trial a TrailRider All Terrain Wheelchair to explore selected walking trails in the beautiful
Sherbrooke forest.  Due to their unique design, these chairs enable visitors with mobility limitations to access
park trails. Parks Victoria’s trained volunteer Sherpas will be available on the day to assist you with the use of
the chair on your walk.

Please register for this day on Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/parks-victoria-17890905780

For more information

(03) 8427 3541 or volunteersherpa@parks.vic.gov.au

Posting by talking

I have finally come to the end of what is probably a 20 year long quest  which is defined the modern way  to write by talking and that is how I am writing this post.  That is probably all I need to say but,  as ever, I am open to questions.

The key breakthrough was probably the Chromebook which is why I've selected that for the picture in this post

Swincar - something new, cool, expensive that might just do it

Maybe this device, the Swincar, ticks enough of the boxes, mentioned in an earlier post, about getting stuck manoeuvring amongst rocks and logs.  This video shows the Swincar making its way over some pretty horrendous terrain. The price box is definitely ticked - around GBP 13,000 Like Swincar on Facebook

Why we like sherpas

First thank you to the Anonymous person who left a comment and drew my attention to the chair in this video. For sure the pilot is more independent in one of . these but, and it's quite a big but, you will notice when you watch the video that some care has been taken with what kind of terrain they go racing over. The one wheel on the TrailRider simply cannot get stuck amongst the rocks in the kind of situation where one wheel fights with the other. Sherpas rock!

An Inclusive web site

Ever since I started this blog (2012) it has annoyed me to see how hard it is to visit an arbitrary website and quickly find the disabled stuff. Now, my job at the Inclusive Towns Project, extends that to the more general question of Inclusive Communication in general.

The picture in this post is the internationally accepted symbol for Inclusive Communication. It will now appear, accompanied by the direction Press here on every blog I manage. Try it! Soon it will do other things like reading the post aloud or choosing the text size.

Mount Beckworth

The end of the road

Mount Beckworth is one of the three sentinel peaks that look out across a triangular region of Central West Victoria (the others are Mounts Franklin and Tarrengower) It is a place that I have not visited for years but I was given an extraordinary surprise with yesterday.

My wife Ros, sherpa monarchs Joanne and Rodney and sister Jude took me on a Magical Mystery Tour that involved the second deployment of my very own TrailRider. The ascent, sensibly terminated when we were faced by the rubble shown, involved enormous generosity of sprit and effort from a sherpa team of 256 years combined age.

And this is where we were
Click to see the route map

Some younger blood would have summited but, to even younger blood, we owe the nickname of this peak that is noted for the single, enormous tree on top that can be singled out from far away. The little boys used to call it nipple hill. Check out the distant pics in Google maps. 

The area is a Parks Victoria Scenic Reserve and despite, perhaps unclear signs, about driving we came upon a family in their four wheel drive. Damaging the precious land. Get a life, become a Sherpa.

The irony is that you, and your kids, will live longer.

Grampians Walking Track Support Group

Hard at work - click pic to read more

Imagine my surprise at discovering these guys! In 2009, hot with Ros' photos from Canada, I reached out to the Head Ranger at the Grampians - the, appropriately named, Graham Parkes. (I used to think eponymous was the word to use here - when someone simply has the right name for their job - but reading around it things are not that clear)

By the time we went to visit Graham had moved on and we met David Roberts, as 
Wild Places tells, but he must have kept me in his email address book because yesterday I got an email from him telling me tales of the Grampians Walking Track Support Group  which I never knew existed.

The important message is that, at 10.00 am, Saturday 21st April, 2018 they will begin work/thinking about Golton Gorge.