I met my mate Pete and some friends of his from Adelaide in Bright, near the Victorian 'Alps'. They had rented some cabins by the Ovens River. On the Saturday, we drove up to Dinner Plain, where they happened to be holding dogsled races.

Some images from the National Gallery of Victoria, where Chris and I went to see the Dali exhibition, the Melbourne Museum, where Zev and I went to see the Pompeii exhibition, and around.

A nice track about 8km long takes you from the Namadji National Park Visitors' Centre up about 800m to the fire tower atop 1380m Mt Tennant, with panoramic views to the Brindabellas and all around.

An FBI walk

A short morning walk zigzagging up the north side of Mt Ainslie.

In light of the predicted 32 degree temperatures, only five turned out for this FBI walk. The intention was to approach the series of rock outcrops on a ridge above the Orroral Valley from the east. On the ascent we passed through bush that had not been affected by the 2003 bushfire, but once we reached the ridge, the regrowth was quite thick. After bashing through the scrub for a little way, John decided it was not wrth proceeding, so we started making our way back to the road, mostly through more thick scrub. By the time we got back to the carpark, we had managed to cover just over 4km in just under 4 hours, including a lunch stop.

The opening of Parliament for 2009 on 3 February attracted protests against Australian government complicity in the massacre of Gaza, cynical approach to greenhouse gas emission targets, and draconian 'Intervention' against Indigenous people.

My first walk with the FBI (Family Bushwalkers) in quite some time. 300m up a steep firetrail for panoramic vistas, then back along the Devil's Gap firetrail, which I don't recall trying before. We all decided to pike on bashing through the scrub another 175m to the top of The Pyramid.