I’ve always liked the capabilities of the OziExplorer software and the price point is pretty good…but the OziExplorer3D software is brilliant for trip planning.

I’ve thrown two screen shots of the Upper Yarra Valley around Warburton showing a section of the standard topo map and a 3D version of the same area.

If you are picking up a copy of OziExplorer i highly recommend that you grab OziExplorer3D as well :)

The first two come from TrackMyJourney, which provides a bundle of GPS related data on your phone as well as linking your location (and recent track) into an image that auto-update’s as well as a standalone still image. While this service doesn’t utilise any of the major online mapping services (Windows Live, Google Maps. etc) on your phone, it does provide a utility allowing you to import any maps you do own after converting them to the TMG format.

Unfortunately, for some reason TrackMyJourney occasionally seems to think that i am located at 0°0’0″N and 0°0’0″E

The next service, from GMap-Track, provides a very simple output showing your last reported location on a map (Windows Live, Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, etc) in your mobile, as well as the ability to embed a Google Map into a web page.

While both applications are good and easy to use, and GMap-Track is great from a web page embedding perspective, TrackMyJourney does provide a lot more info and options, but…it would be nice to see it include the option to utilise map images from Windows Live, Google Maps and others if you required them.

After completing around 105,000km in the six years since the tyre change, and covering terrain as diverse as beach sand, desert sand, rocks, rivers, seldom used mountain tracks, good (and bad) bitumen and everything in between, and not having had one flat tyre in that time as well, today was the day I finally bit the bullet and got four new Cooper Discoverer Sure Trac (S/T) 245/75R16 tyres installed onto DSCVRY again.

I have no doubt that the new tyres will be just as good and reliable as the old tyres and will without a doubt install Cooper Tyres on any other off-road vehicles I might happen to buy in the future…say for example a Series 1 Land Rover or an old Military Land Rover Defender ;)

I would also probably not hesitate to buy them from the same place I visited today, Stuckey Tyre Service in Brunswick (Victoria). I ordered the tyres early yesterday afternoon, they arrived at lunchtime today, i dropped DSCVRY with them at around 1.30pm and it was ready to pick up at around 4pm for the grand total (including fitting and balancing) of $1,149 or $287.25 a tyre :)

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.