It’s on again.

Land Rover invite you to register to see if you’re good enough to represent Australia against a total of 36 men and women from 18 countries in the world’s ultimate adventure.

This is the third Land Rover G4 Challenge, and it’s planned to take place over three weeks, in Asia, in 2009.

You will run up mountains, cycle down valleys, kayak rivers, swing from bridges, and of course drive for thousands of miles against the clock, and your rivals.

And you’ll be helping to raise funds for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society. As part of the International Federation partnership, Land Rover will also donate a vehicle to the National Red Cross, or the Red Crescent Society, associated with the winning team at the Challenge Finals.

This is arguably the toughest challenge in the world. Land Rover wouldn’t have it any other way.

Are you up to the challenge? Click here.

2008 Promo Video

Hmmm…as tempting as it sounds (and looks), i imagine i would get out-classed by some 24 year old extreme outdoor adventure junkie….though i’m sure that I could still give him a run for his money ;)

Anyway…the deadline for entries into the Australian National Selections is 5pm EST on July the 15th, 2008.

2006 Land Rover G4 Challenge video (i think)

Its got a huge assortment of stuff including: the Hiking Victoria message board (forum), a huge list of walks, links to maps and other resources, a list of lookouts, a blog and photos.

Well done Bob…a great and useful resource for anyone interetsed in hiking :)

After a fair bit of searching on the web, the closest club that meets my needs that i have been able to find is the Victorian Mountain Tramping Club which has been around since 1948 and was involved in the setting up of the police search and rescue squad back in 1955. They have weekly meetings in East Melbourne every Thursday night so i thought i should pop down and check them out face-to-face.

There were only four people at the meeting last night as a lot of  members were away doing walks, but i got a good feel for the group and their activities and they certainly do fit my requirements . I’ll keep an eye out over the next month for their new walk schedule and try and lock a few in, as you need to do four walks in the space of  six months to become a full member.

I’m absolutely buggered…the walk back was really hot and i ran out of water with about 2km to go which wasn’t exactly a smart thing to do with this heat. I was going to fill up my 2.1 litre water bladder that sits in the back of the pack near the base of the Mt Feathertop ascent, but thought that i had enough left over which was a silly mistake. You would think i would have learnt by now that you always fill up on water whenever you get the opportunity.

Other than the heat and the lack of water near the end, the walk back was pretty good. I had to stop a few times and recoup, but it just meant i got to check out some amazing views :)

When i finally arrived back at Diamantina Hut and DSCVRY, i threw down a couple of cups of water, drenched myself with about 500ml of water to cool down and changed out of my walking clothes into a clean shirt, some shorts and replaced the walking boots with my Teva sandals.

I’ve packed DSCVRY and now I’m heading up to The General at Mt Hotham for some dinner and a well deserved ale…or two :)

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After reaching the spur at the end of the steep walk down from Mt Feathertop, i decided to dump the pack next to a snow gum and walk up the hill to the top of Little Mt Feathertop at 1,785m.

The views back to Mt Feathertop from the top of it slightly smaller neighbour are spectacular…I would recommend the quick walk up to the top of Little Mt Feathertop to anyone doing the main walk..and don’t forget your camera :)

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Around four hours of walking through some spectacular terrain and here i finally sit, on the top of Victoria’s second highest mountain, Mt Feathertop at 1,922m.

The walk on the Razorback track crosses over so many highpoints and traverses rocky terrain, snow gum forest, alpine grass and some really steep sections. I took it pretty easy walking in and stopped quite often to take photos. I also crossed paths a few time with an  “older” group of around six walkers heading in the same direction along with a number of people heading back to Diamantina Hut who had spent New Years eve camped out at the Federation Hut site, including a Park Ranger.

I took the “longer” way in at the start and crossed over Bon Accord before falling into the rhythm of going down hillsides, then around hillsides, then up hillsides before starting the process all over again. It started to warm up about an hour into the walk and I packed my North Face Blackhawk windwall and reverted to a trusty Polypro thermal. It’s a little bit warmer with the polypro on in the sun, but as you can round a corner and run headfirst into a strong cool breeze at any moment up in the alpine region, i find that i don’t mind a bit of extra warmth especially as the polypro material wicks the sweat away pretty quickly. I remember visiting the Swiss Alps in 1992 and climbing /walking around the Great St Bernard Pass and up to around 3,000m on the Matterhorn and my trusty polypros of the time worked like a dream.

I’d also loaded up new Mammut Flight 35 litre pack to see how it would handle the trip as a bit of a road test for a longer (and higher) walk I intend to do soon. The other major new piece of equipment i was wearing was my Frillneck Urban Turban which worked really well at keeping the sun of but probably kept me a bit to warm. I won’t go into to much detail about equipment as i’ll get around to doing an equipment review after the expedition.

After doing the last long and steep climb from the ridge up to the top of Mt Feathertop, and taking in the joy of having reached the peak, I took a bundle a photos of all the glorious mountains you can see from up here which include major peaks such as; Mt Bogong and the Bogong Massif, Mt Fainter, Mt Fainter South, The Niggerhead, Mt McKay, Mt Cope, Mt Loch, Mt Hotham, Mt Saint Bernard (not the one in Switzerland), the Blue Rag Trip point and Mt Buffalo. You can also see right over onto the Dargo and Howitt High Plains areas as well.

While i was sitting down and having some lunch the next thing you really notice is the insect life going absolutely crazy up here…there were so many varieties (and since i’m not really an insect expert) it’s to hard to name them all.

1221 hrs – While the breeze up here is quite nice, it’s also very hot as the sun is beating down so i might start heading down the track.

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After just over 50 minutes of walking through an amazing assortment of flowering alpine plants, including Billy Buttons (Craspedia aurantica), Snow Daisy (Brachycome nivalis), Grass triggerplant (Stylidium graminifolium) and many others, and after bending under all of the branches from the Snow Gums (Eucalyptus pauciflora), I finally reached the top of Mt Cope at 1,837m, stood on top of the cairn and took photos in all directions.

The views are amazing and take in Mt Hotham, Mt Feathertop, Mt McKay, the Niggerhead, Mt Bogong and the whole Bogong Massif and many others. Some clouds are starting to roll in over the eastern side of the Bogong High Plains and they are looking pretty dark and nasty so i might start heading back to the car.

Note: The Mt Cope Track is actually part of the 665km long Australian Alps Walking Track.

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As promised, on Sunday i strapped on my new Sea to Summit Quagmire Goretex gaiters for the first time while i was sitting on the top of Mt Donna Buang (1,250 m) just before i headed down the steep track on my way to add the 1,224 meter summit of Mt Boobyalla (in the Yarra Ranges National Park) to my bagged summits list…and i’m glad i did.

The first part of the track leading down from the Mt Donna Buang summit is pretty steep but its also pretty clear of stuff that might get in your way. The second part of the track follows a dirt road for a hundred meters before heading right and back onto a well formed walking trail. Once you get past a few old fallen and rotting trees and start to head up hill again the young ferns really start to take over the walking track which thins out to between 20 and 30 cms wide.

When you pass the turn-off to Cement Creek / Acheron Gap and start heading for the top of Mt Boobyalla, the track becomes even tighter (10-15cms wide) and I don’t actually reach the summit (checking GPS co-ords later to be sure) as i turned around when the track became a bit to thick for my liking and i couldn’t actually see my feet due to all the over growth.

On the way back to my starting point i thought to myself that the gaiters were performing quite well; my legs were pretty dry (it had rained all day the day before and a little bit that morning so everything was very wet), my legs hadn’t broken out into a sweat and were quite cosy considering it was around 9 degrees on the mountain top and the straps, velcro and boot clips had all stayed together nicely.

It wasn’t until i got back to the summit of Mt Donna Buang and sat down  to enjoy the atmosphere, when i realised just how glad i was that had bought the gaiters. I looked down at my legs and noticed about 50 or 60 tiny little leeches crawling around on each gaiter. I took the gaiters off, removed the little leeches, and didn’t find even one leech on my pants or on my legs…nice :)

 So…the Sea to Summit Quagmire Goretex gaiters get the big ExpeditionOz tick of approval and will without a doubt be part of my gear kit when i try to bag the summit of Mt Boobyalla in the near future.