I thought I’d publish a quick entry now, instead of racing to finish another I’m writing, which seems to be taking ages. I guess the walk I’m writing up could be labelled ‘King Fiasco’, as it’s full of dramas. Falls, injuries and indestructible pant demolition are just some of the dodgy ‘highlights’ of that walk.
Anyway, I headed out the other day to do a day hike in the Brisbane Ranges, starting from the historic Steiglitz Court House. I was a little pressed for time, but I thought if I could make it by early afternoon I’d have a chance to get it done. Guess what? Directional fiasco crept in and of course I didn’t get to walk.
It all started as I was casually driving towards Geelong on the Princes Freeway with a turn off I’d already planned out in my head. The trouble is a lot earlier than the spot I was going to turn, a huge sign appeared saying, ‘Brisbane Ranges National Park, Next Exit’.
I did a bit of thinking and thought to myself, “Well, maybe I’m going the long way? There’s a sign here that means it might be more direct and erected by people who know what they’re doing.”
So, I turned off and entered a world of narrow roads and absolutely no signage to direct me to the park. The kicker to the drive being a failure in regards to time, was the triple whammy of what’s in the photo below.
Yep, somehow I entered the world of eternal roadworks where I spent ages either stopped or cruising along at 40 km/h. I lost plenty of time and should have taken the road I was originally going to take, as my obedience to the ‘Brisbane Ranges’ sign cost me a walk. Oh well, there’s not much else to do in this neck of the woods than check out something a little historical.
Remember what’s going on in the photo above? Surely it’s obvious? It’s Crawford Montizano of course, who’s renowned for some magnificently awful dialogue such as, “He is the Nightrider, cruising at the speed of fright!”
This scene from the opening sequence of ‘Mad Max’ is a highlight of my teenage years. It was my first ‘R’ rating movie I saw as I went into the city one day and I guess I’ve watched it a million times since. It’s definitely an influential movie and I still don’t get bored with the corny, ridiculous dialogue. What other movie will include such daft lines such as, “You’re blaspheming again. I don’t have to work with a blasphemer” slipped into the middle of a car chase sequence?
Mm… The intersection up ahead looks familiar.
What’s worse when I write this is I can remember all of the dialogue and know a lot of the places where it was filmed. In fact, in the opening sequence of Mad Max, the Nightrider is heading towards a spot I’d been to before and just happened to pass again on this day of the failed hike.
Oh no! Collision course!
Close call, but they miss (of course).
Let’s see how that intersection looks today.
That my friends is it. A bit of work on the main road, but the road that feeds into it looks the same as it did back in 1979 when the movie was made.
Yeah I know, it’s not exactly a location from ‘Citizen Kane’, but this will have to do. You know what’s worse? I know a lot of other places where Mad Max was filmed and I might include the odd entry now and again just for my own entertainment. Let’s continue on a little bit.
Nightrider meltdown
I love the look of horror on the Nightrider’s face when he realises it’s Mel Gibson chasing him down. “Oh no, that crazed racist is behind me and I’ve got a box of Teiglach on the back seat!”
Hang on. That’s not Mel Gibson driving. What’s in the back seat? A camera?
You know what Nightrider? I would have driven into that road block at high speed as well, rather than having Mel Gibson’s mitts all over me.
Ahhh… Mel Gibson, bless him. I think his finest moment was in the South Park episode "The Passion of the Jew".
Hey Karla, Yes, Mel has taken a plummet hasn't he?! He used to be a heart throb which I think started in the movie 'Tim'? I remember people swooning over him, but now the word 'queasy' comes to mind when I hear his name mentioned 🙂
woohoooo! Well done on your awesome award – very cool and I hope Ben was slightly impressed 🙂 Its a bummer about the walk but at least you had a nice drive (at 40kms an hour). I live in constant astonishment at the time taken to complete Victorian roadworks. On a hiking note, I managed to walk/climb/push the boys to the top of Mt Holden in Sunbury last weekend. Its an old inactive volcano with seriously good views right down to the city and beyond. Some really interesting lava formations up there. Weather wasn't that great so we were almost blown off the top but it was worth it for the view.
Hey Eloise, I'm not sure how that award came about?! It's all good entertainment though 🙂 Well done getting out for a walk, I haven't even been to Mt Holden so you're one up on me! Oh yeah, I picked a crap week to be on holidays with the Melbourne weather. I went for a walk today and got soaked…
Wow, the word verification on your comments thing today is "mongo". Is it trying to tell me something?
Just wanted to say "congrats" for the nifty hiking boot in your sidebar, and thanks again for all your support – and your frequent commenting.
Enjoyed the MM shots – haven't watched in 20 years or so. It's too accurate a depiction of Australian drivers…
Hi Greg, Mad Max one of those movies that will always stick in my mind.
Still to this day anyone who is called Johnny, my first thought is of Johnny the boy, who got himself in trouble with a Scrubber.
Plus great stills, very impressed!
Hey Goat! I once had a word verification that was 'retard'. WTF?!I actually hate having it on, but I was starting to get bombarded with comment spam. Lots of it in huge slabs of text of Russian. I was getting rid of it manually, but it was becoming a chore so I've gone for the word verification. Do you get spam like that on WordPress?
I actually like your format better of how the blog is displayed. Mine feels a bit restricted and 'dated'. I notice Blogger have come up with a new range of interfaces which look pretty good, so my page may change as soon as they fix the glitches…
Yeah, the boot is quite funny isn't it?! It's kind of massive which I'll have to get used to, as I usually like the minimalist page. No adverts out my way 🙂
I like your new 'short' pages as I can sympathise how long a proper entry can take. Lately I've been picking the photos I'm going to use and loading them overnight as they take decades to upload! Then the checking of grammar etc. I re-read some stuff a few weeks later and find all sorts of grammar crimes!
I might also try the shorter entry, but I'll have to make sure I don't ramble into a long one! I reckon your shorter entry on the magpies would have taken a while just with photos uploading?
Yeah, the Mad Max thing was just chance as I was passing that intersection. I know quite a few of the places, so if I'm nearby I'll take a few photos. Good for a bit of a laugh.
Oh yeah, I hate driving and I wish I could live without a car like you. What's even dumber is that nearly all the day walks I do aren't accessible to public transport. I have to drive to walk which sounds a little absurd…
Hey Wazza, Mad Max gives me endless enjoyment just for the totally absurd dialogue! I had a lot of fun taking screen shots and I've got a few more when I get pictures of the locations. I'll throw in the odd entry if I feel bored 🙂
I always wonder. Where's Bubba Zanetti now?!
WordPress provides a thing called Akismet that filters blog comments automatically – yesterday I had a look in there for the first time. There were 50-odd comments with dubious English, telling me they "love your weblog" or find me "very informative" or whatever.
Yes, I like the look of my blog these days – it cost me a bit for an upgrade to one of the WP "premium" themes, but I think it was worth it. I do wish I had some IT skills to tool around with it a bit and customise things, but actually as you say it keeps me busy enough as it is. Also, on my dodgy internet plan, I try to do most of my uploading before 8:00am as that's off-peak! Lucky I tend to get up early…
Shorter entries are working out for me – trouble is, every day as I walk I think of another dozen ideas… Today I did almost 30km – that's a lot of grand schemes!
I actually like the WordPress 'look' a lot, but when I started I just used Blogger without knowing too much about blogging at all. Once started it's too late to swap now! Blogger's new templates are quite similar to WordPress in look, but I'm not switching just yet as one can't add widgets just yet. Where would I put the big footprint?!
It even sounds like your spam system is a little better as well. There seems to be no filter on Blogger other than me! It has comment moderation and word verification which is about it as far as I can see!
30 kms? You're a bloody machine! No wonder you ate up those long distance hikes overseas! I'd like to see your plans for upcoming walks. Have you thought of stuff like the Heysen or Bibbulmun Tracks here? The only trouble is having enough time off I guess. I've been meaning to do the Larapinta for about 10 years now. Maybe next winter!
I know it's easy to be a smartypants when you live in the area and have walked and visited the Brisbane Ranges for most of your life but I think your first mistake was the route you took. I think that every Brisbane Ranges walk in Glenn Tempest's book begins with the words 'Follow the Western Freeway to Bacchus Marsh …" Going via Geelong Road was your mistake (in my humble opinion). Of course, I now live in Bacchus Marsh so it's easy for me to get there but even when I lived in Yarraville I always drove via Bacchus Marsh to access the Park. Still, I guess if you'd done that we'd have all been deprived of a very entertaining blog entry.
If you are walking the Brisbane Ranges Meridian Maps have brought out a very good map of the Park showing all the tracks and, importantly, the altered route of the 3-day Burchell Trail. Well worth the approx eight bucks it costs at Information Victoria's shop in Little Collins Street.
As always, love your work and look forward to reading about your continuing adventures.
Hi Jando! Yes, you're right on the money in that Bacchus Marsh is the better way. I'm not far from the freeway to Geelong, so it was a spur of the moment thing to take that road. Wrong! Well, I would have found it, but I took that marked 'Brisbane Ranges' exit and then all signs vanished. I was juggling a map with the roadworks and in the end it all became too time consuming. Oh well, I did get to do a walk up at Steiglitz a day later, but I haven't written it up yet. Probably in the next couple of days.
I did get the map you're talking about and it's a good one. Don't make the mistake I made by going to that Information Victoria shop in Little Collins Street though. I went there a few weeks ago and it was gone! After some stuffing around I found out it's moved to Level 20/80 Collins Street! Total map finding fiasco in the city for sure. Apparently it moved in August to the other side of the city.
Thanks for dropping in and by the way, I was trying to get a copy of 'Jack's Track Notes' which you mentioned before, but apparently it's out of print. I checked with the Info Victoria shop when I found out they had moved! They suggested hunting around second hand shops. I haven't had a good look online yet, but it might be trickier to get than I thought…
Greg, thanks for the info on the Information Victoria move. I knew they were going to move (something I expressed my annoyance about on my last visit) but I hadn't realised that it had happened. Bloody government departments (says he who works for one).
Pity about Jack's Track Notes. It may never come back into print given Jack Myers' death a few years ago.
Jando, I know what you mean about government departments and I'm in one as well!
It's a pity the Info Vic shop moved as it was close to my work for me to slip into at lunchtime. Now it's at the other end of the city which is a bummer and I probably won't be dropping in there as often as I used to.
It is a bit annoying about Jack's Track Notes, but I'm going to put some work in next week online and on the phone and hopefully find a copy somewhere.
He does seem a wee complex and flawed. Just like the rest of us!