Goulburn River High Country Rail Trail

An Australian cycling/camping trip using public transport and combining the Goulburn River High Country Rail Trail with a return via the Acheron Way and the Warburton Rail Trail, 375 km approximately, 7 days. It starts and finishes at Melbourne railway stations.

Day 1

Southern Cross station to Tallarook station by Vline train,  duration 1h10m, they will be able to take bikes off peak, see the luggage policy

Tallarook to Yea (38km)

Yea Caravan Park had adequate space for campers on the grassed area, even in peak season. Visit the Yea Wetlands. The Yea Flora Fossil Site is home to the fossils of ancient vascular land plants shown to be the oldest of their kind in the world. This finding by pioneering Australian scientist Isabel Cookson overturned long held scientific understandings of how and when plants evolved. Visitors can learn about the fossils and their importance to Australia's geological history at the Yea Wetlands Interpretive Walk.

Day 2

Yea to Cathkin (21km)

The 200m Cheviot railway tunnel was built in 1889. The Giddy Goat in Yarck is recommended for morning coffee.

Cathkin to Bonnie Doon (40km) or Maindample (45km)

Bonnie Doon books out early in the holiday season. Its also a busy boating and water skiing centre. We camped on the side of the trail 3km past Bonnie Doon. Maindample has toilets in a park, camping there is probably OK but we didn't ask.

Day 3 

Bonnie Doon to Mansfield (22km) 

(Mansfield back to to Merton - option 35km)
Visit the Mansfield Mullum Wetlands at the end of the the trail. The film The Man from Snowy River, was made around Mansfield, it was based on a poem by Banjo Paterson with the same name. We got a start on the next day by returning to Merton and camping at the Merton Racetrack. The toilets are clean and not locked but there is no shower. The locals are OK with the camping and very welcoming. The Merton Amateur Turf Club holds one race a year on New Years Day, it was founded in 1865.

Day 4

Mansfield to Cathkin (66km)  (or Merton to Cathkin)

Cathkin to Alexandra (13km)

Alexandra has 2 caravan parks, the Alexandra Tourist Park or the sleepy Showgrounds campground. Book for the Showgrounds at the Tourist Information Centre or ask the manager at the first caravan on the right. Visit the Alexandra Timber Tramway Museum open every second Sunday, you are welcome to look around when its closed.

Day 5

This day diverts from the Maroondah Highway twice to avoid traffic, adding an extra 24 km.

Alexandra to Thornton (12km)

Thornton has a caravan park and motel, an alternate stopover.

Thornton to Taggerty (12km)

Taggerty to Buxton (12km)

Buxton to Marysville (12km)

90% of Marysville was destroyed in the Black Saturday 2009 bushfires. Alternatively you can continue to the Acheron Way which has many opportunities for free camping just off the road. 

Day 6

Marysville to Narbethong (10km  and 140m climb)

Narbethong to Warburton via the Acheron Way (35km and 500m climb)

At Acheron Gap, you cross the Great Dividing Range, the third longest land-based range in the world. The range stretches more than 3,500 kilometres from  the northeastern tip of Queensland, running the entire length of the eastern coastline through New South Wales, then into Victoria. The forest contains approximately 40 different mammal species, including the endangered Leadbeater's Possum and 120 species of birds. The bird species include the Sooty Owl, Powerful Owl, Barking Owl, Pink Robin, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Australian King-Parrot, Grey Goshawk and Crimson Rosella.

Day 7

Warburton to Lilydale on the Warburton Rail Trail. (40km)
The Upper Yarra Museum is at Yarra Junction, partway along the trail. Lilydale station connects to the Metlink suburban rail network. 

Support

Mark Spencer of Rail Trail Bike Tours can provide mobile bike repairs, spare parts and transfers 0417 594 998

Notes

The larger towns are Yea, Mansfield and Alexandra with a range of shops including supermarkets. There is a bike shop in Yea and a sports store in Alexandra. The western sections of the Goulburn trail are topped with granitic sand, the eastern sections with black gravel. The western sections could become a little sticky in wet weather. The Taggerty-Buxton section of the Maroondah Highway has a bitumen shoulder, effectively a bike lane. The Buxton - Narbethong section of Maroondah Highway has a gravel shoulder, should you chose to ride it. The Alexandra - Taggerty shoulder is unknown, should you chose to ride it. The Goulburn trail has toilets every 2 hours or thereabouts, the water tanks are labeled 'reclaimed water, do not drink', but its just rainwater. Vline say on their website that, 'V/Line conductors will determine whether there is enough space for you to take bikes on these trains' but I have been told elsewhere that you are OK with 4 bikes on a train. The Metlink suburban network carries bikes free but you are requested to use the rear of the last carriage.

Accommodation 

Yea Family Caravan Park Ph 03 5797 2972

Alexandra Tourist Park Ph 03 5772 1222 www.alexandratouristpark.com

Alexandra Showgrounds caravan park, William Street, 5772 1222
Breakaway Twin River Camping Ground, Alexandra, 5772 1735  

High Country Holiday Park Ph 03 5775 2705 Mansfield

Mansfield Holiday Park Ph 03 5775 1383

Bonnie Doon Caravan Park Ph 03 5778 7254

Marysville Caravan Park, 1130 Buxton-Marysville Road Marysville VIC 3779 (03)5963 3247

Warburton Caravan Park, 30 Woods Point Road, Warburton, Victoria 3799 Ph: 03 5966 2277
Thornton Caravan Park, 5773 2305
Brookes Reserve, Alexandra www.parkweb.vic.gov.au
Big4 Taggety Holiday Park, 5774 7263

Photo credits

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CheviotRailwayTunnel.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Beeches_Rainforest_Walk_01_Pengo.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Goulburn_River_High_Country_Rail_Trail_bridge_at_Bonnie_Doon.jpg

Hackable places

I recently got my Raspberry Pi, a cheap single board Linux computer designed for education and hacking. I already have OLPC laptops and Arduinos as hackable places, but it looked like fun. Now I have it I can assess it as a learning tool in home and school contexts.

You can buy from Element 14/Farnell or RS Components  for A$38 but after freight it was A$56 (A$1 is approximately US$1). It arrived from Element 14 in 2 days. Home/school will probably have some of the accessories at hand, but if not the full cost is:

 Rasperry Pi with tax and freight           A$56
 Power supply 5V micro USB              A$20
 Memory card 4GB                             A$15
 AV cable                                            A$2
 USB keyboard                                    A$14
 USB mouse                                         A$5
 Television                                            ?
 Total                                                   A$112+

Compare that with another Linux computer designed for educational hacking, the OLPC laptop at $188 or more realistically $200+ with freight. Consider an old unused PC or laptop as a hacking platform.

Writing the OS, Raspian (Debian) Wheezy, to the memory card was easy, once I really read the instructions. I used the Linux method to setup the card using dd an OLPC XO laptop, I did have to use another computer to unzip the 1.9GB OS when it failed on the XO.

Not having a hi definition TV I used composite video (the yellow plug). I was disappointed with the screen resolution. Its presumably quite good on a hi def tv.

Rasperry Pi GUI, LXDE displayed on a composite TV

Next step was to run the Raspberry Pi remotely from an OLPC laptop using ssh.

Get the IP address of the raspberry Pi

  hostname -I


That's the last time you will need the Rasperry Pi keyboard or TV unless its IP address changes. On the OLPC XO laptop in Terminal enter:

ssh -X ipaddress -l logon 

for example

ssh -X 10.1.1.5 -l Pi

That brings up the Raspberry PI command line interface on the XO. You can run xwindow programs, they display using the XO's window manager.

The Rasperry Pi File Manager displaying on an XO

You cannot start the Pi's desktop with the usual startx, but you can run almost everything using the XO desktop eg

pcmanfx  the file manager
midori      web browser
leafpad     text editor
idle          python IDE
lxtask      the task manager


Though startx does not start the Pi desktop but startlxde gives some success. In Sugar, the desktop is always hidden but the bottom menu bar is available. Using OLPC build 3 13.1.0 in Gnome, the Pi's desktop is visible, possibly due to a bug where the XO's Gnome desktop is not displayed.

The Pi's desktop, LXDE displaying on an XO running Gnome, (build 3, 13.1.0)

So why use the Pi at home or school? School is unlikely to have a class set of TV's or space for them. Home is unlikely to have the USB keyboard, power supply and cables. But both school and home are likely to have older underpowered PC's or laptops (which can be reimaged to Linux if desired) and used as hacking platforms. Those with OLPC laptops have a computer, purpose designed for hacking.

The Pi does provide an additional hacking platform, having multiple platforms is a good thing, not all tasks 'click' or work for all learners.

The Pi can be used as an I/O board like the Arduino. Unfortunately its I/O pins are not protected and can be damaged by 0V (27mA) or voltage >3.3V. Compare with the Arduino I/O which can source up to 20mA to ground and be connected to 5V.

Travel

You can follow my travels with my friends at
http://sthamerica2012.blogspot.com.au/

Galton Box

The Galton box, is a device invented by Sir Francis Galton to demonstrate the central limit theorem, in particular that the normal distribution is approximate to the binomial distribution. The machine consists of a vertical board with interleaved rows of pins. Balls are dropped from the top, and bounce left and right as they hit the pins.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean_machine

Galton Box in Game Maker, source and executable

Galton Box in Turtle Blocks Source

Challenges:

• At the moment the balls have an equal chance of going left and right. What happens if you change it? Why?
• Change the number of rows. What happens? Why?
• What is the relationship between this and a similar experiment in coin tossing Turtle art , Game Maker ?

Walking - Petrohue Chile

maps.google.com

Petrohue is a small settlement in the Vicente Pérez Rosales Nacional Park in the Chilean Los Lagos (lakes) region. I found little documentation in English and few maps online on walking in the area so this blog post is an attempt to address it.

It is located on the southern flank of Volcan Osorno (Mt. Osorno) and on the western shore of Lago (Lake) Todos los Santos. It is the ferry terminus of Ruta (Route) 225 to Bariloche in Argentina.

Accommodation
Petrohue Lodge provides hotel accommodation. They can also arrange guided treks and boat trips. There are cabins which can be booked through the Lodge. There is camping looking onto the beach, follow the road through to the left.

maps.google.com

There is no surface water except on the highest slopes so carry adequate water.

Ash plain walk, 1 to 4 hrs
Follow the track behind the Lodge, past the church, veer right at the phone towers and climb over the levee to enter the ash plain.

maps.google.com

Note where you entered the ash plain, nearly the left end of the levee, you can use the phone towers as a guide when you return. Walk around till you get bored, 1-4 hours, and return the way you came. Alternatively the Sendero (Trail) Paso Desolacion passes very close to the eastern edge of the ash plain in places. Though its tempting to walk to the road on the southern boundary, there is a cliff in places.

Sendero (Trail) Paso Desolacion, 24 km return
Follow the road round to just before the camping ground. The start is well signposted.
The trail follows the east edge of the ash plain, at this point it is well marked. It crosses two large washouts, then the climb begins. Shortly into the climb, the trail becomes poorly marked and braided but the parallel trails seem to join again. The trail runs through the saddle between Osorno and Picada peaks. There is a derelict hut just past the saddle. The track turns back into a 4WD track and I was told there was a Conaf (parks service) refugio somewhere down the other side.

Map, Sendero Solitario, bottom, Sendero Desolacion, top right

A good map is here

derelict hut at Picada saddle

Sendero Solitario, Petrohue Falls and Petrohue, aprox 20km
Get dropped off on the road to the Osorno ski resort at the start of Sendero Solitario.


The start of the track is well marked.

Map, Sendero Solitario, Sendero Desolacion in pink

The start of the trail is an excellent dense forest of Northophagus and bamboo, later it passes through ash plain. It is well marked and takes 1.5 to 2 hours. It hits Ruta 225 a couple of km west of Salto del Petrohue (Petrohue falls).

Dense forest

Walk east along the road to the falls. The entry fee of a few dollars is worthwhile. There is quite a network of trails, allow one hour. There is also a good interpretive nature trail, turn right across the bridge, but the signage is only in Spanish. The jet boat tour didn't look worth taking.

Salto del Petrohue (Petrohue falls)

The kiosk sells coffee, empanadas etc. , buy lunch here. Then walk a few kilometers east along the road to Petrohue. The road runs parallel to the river so you can get free views of the rapids as you walk back.

Los Pumas, 300 metres
A couple of kilometers down the road from Osorno ski resort. Passes through high grade forest, then turns left up a washout. At the top turn right. I think it takes you to a lookout on a cinder cone but it was foggy and raining so I am not sure.

Its likely that the Los Pumas walk goes to Cerro Colorado or nearby

Northophagus and bamboo forest, Los Pumas

Approved tour operators in the park (click to zoom)

from brochure "Park Nacional Vicente Pérez Rosales" Gobierno de Chile

XO laptop in Antarctica

The laptop was on holidays. Its most southerly point was 68°12’S 69°28’W
This photo was taken at Orne Harbour 64˚37’S 62˚32’W

Wedo plugin for Turtle Art

Download here a plugin for TurtleBlocks V131 (tested on OS880 Sugar 0.94) . It is a rework of a project by I.T. Daniher which has been dormant since March 2011. Here and here.

Download the file and unzip it, copy wedo-plugin to the plugins directory of Turtle Blocks (/home/olpc/Activities/TurtleArt.activity/plugins).


Known problems:
Turtle Blocks will not start unless a Wedo is connected
The distance sensor gives bad values if the motor is running