Buckley Falls, Geelong
Well, my publishers, Woodslane Press, have kindly sent me through a very impressive Garmin exTrex GPS to use on all the new walks, as we ‘go digital’ and get ready for e-books, apps and all things digital. So I headed back out to Steiglitz with my trusty assistants: my son and our dog, Indie, to re-walk the path I had just done, as I needed to check a bit of it where the track was indistinct – and it was a beautiful day, so gave us a great excuse to get out. On the plus side, the GPS was ridiculously easy to use (even for me) so allowed for lots of enjoyment of the rock-hopping through the Sutherland Creek gorge along Deadman’s Loop and the continuing display of monarch butterflies. On the negative side, I am not sure I like the idea of being tracked by 4 different satellites to within 4 metres – felt a bit creepy! Isn’t the point of getting out in the bush being about getting away from it all?! Well, the Luddite in me will have to embrace the technology so that the walk waypoints are as accurate as possible for you, and available to you in a variety of formats – but yes, I still use old fashioned paper maps to cross-check at the same time! On the way back, we took a quick peek at Buckley Falls on the outskirts of Geelong, which I am also writing up for the Geelong book – after all the recent rain, it was looking spectacular, as you can see! And a bonus for dog-owners – both walks are OK for dogs on leads.
Welcome to the future 🙂 If you’re using a Garmin I’ve only recently come across the ‘Garmin Connect’ website. It’s a great spot to download all of your GPS stuff and it’s kept there for future use. You can pick out one of your old walks and put it back on the GPS later if you want etc etc. Have fun with it!
Thanks Greg! I have just managed to upload into Google Earth and had seen the Garmin Connect reference in the manual, so will have a crack at it next!
Well, you’re one ahead of me. I haven’t used Google Earth much at all! You’ll be impressed with Garmin Connect though (maybe?!) I put a link to Garmin Connect on all my walks now at the end of the post. Amazing how much info is in there when you start looking 🙂