The Filter Track runs from the Scenic Drive for just under a kilometre down to the service road a little west of the Filter Station, or vv.
I’m not recommending this track if you’re in a hurry. After a gentle enough start, it descends very steeply, and one is frequently lowering oneself to the next step below by hanging on to tree roots at eye level. However, I’m 68, 180cm, and 140 kg (blushes) at present, and I can tell you it’s manageable both ways, if you take your time and go carefully. ARC time 45 minutes. Fatman time, 68 minutes each way. In wet weather or after recent rain, I wouldn’t bother.
A full report and photos at http://wudhi.com/mrwalker/filter/filter%2001.htm.
Constructing the Fathmandu Trail was a challenge I put to myself after a week or so grizzling and grumping about the Hillary Trail and it’s utter disregard of the needs of the elderly and/or stout.
As it is at present laid out, the Hillary Trail is not a viable option for the elderly and stout in the same way that, for example, the Heaphy or the St James Walkway, or even the Milford, can be seen as realistic multi-day tramping goals for a wide range of people.
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Cooks who for various reasons prefer to avoid soy and canola oils have moved into such products as rice bran oil, grapeseed oil, olive oil, and peanut oil – and even coconut oil in some cases.
The recent practice in the USA of diverting peanut crops into the production of ethanol has meant that food grade peanuts have been scarcer and more expensive. Likewise peanut oil. Olive oil, grapeseed oil and rice bran oil are also somewhat more expensive than the bog standard canola and soy that provide the bulk of supermarket cooking oils.
Recent disturbing experience at a number of Asian food suppliers and supermarkets suggests we need to pay a little more attention when we buy these food oils. What you will likely find is a container clearly labelled “Grapeseed Oil” or “Peanut Oil”, or “Olive Oil”, etc, and when you look at the (very) fine print list of ingredients on the back you will find, for example, “Grapeseed Oil, Vegetable Oil”. In other words we are not getting pure grapeseed oil at all, or olive oil or peanut oil, but a blend that has been adulterated with God knows what. There is no indication in the large print that we are dealing with a blend.
Given that we are for whatever reason deliberately avoiding these generic “vegetable oils” when we elect to pay a little more for our olive or grapeseed or peanut oil etc, it is no good news to find that up to half of the more expensive product may consist of the very oils we are trying to avoid. (Convention rules that ingredients are listed in descending order.)
The message, as always, remains: Check the fine print panel on your groceries! You can still get the pure product, but you will need to pay attention.
Alice asked me to let people know that she has posted a new addition to her blog. You can read it at http://wudhi.com/schnauzer%2007.htm.
For those who enjoyed her earlier work, Alice has resumed blogging.
Check out http://wudhi.com/schnauzer%2006.htm
Just back from a week staying with Bonny at Norfolk Island. For a look at some of the walking tracks, check out http://wudhi.com/mrwalker/norfolk%20island/norfolk%20island%2001.htm for the first instalment.
One of my favourite breads, the Barbecue Bread, employs yoghurt and milk but no water at all.
A couple of days or so back, I experimented with my Dutch Oven Bread by substituting kefir for the water in the recipe. I had to add a little extra to get the dough looking and feeling about right, and I set it to rise in the usual way. It took about half as long again as the regular water-based version to rise properly, and I baked it at the regulation 210C.
The resulting loaf was a little more dense and a little softer in texture, with an excellent flavour. The most significant change however was that three days after being baked, it was still “fresh” and palatable, where the water based version is beginning to dry a little by the end of the second day.
It’s a little more expensive to make than the usual recipe, but I’ll certainly come back to this when I’m baking for a trip away in the van.
The Duchess of Portland has arrived for her annual visit.
If you’re in Wanganui and looking for a bit of a stretch, this will do nicely. Especially if you have a dog, as many of the other local attractions like Bushy Park are closed to dogs. This is a circuit of just over 2 hours fatman time, including photos. Peter, Alice and I started at the southern side of the Dublin St bridge, crossed the bridge and walked west as far as the City bridge, crossed again, and headed back down to the van on the south bank.
In Sepember 2007, Mayor Michael Laws officially opened the walkway project, and it is ongoing
Who exactly are we sharing it with?
We park the van and hitch Alice to a lead, something she is not all that keen on with so much to explore that is new. Would we like to go tramping on a lead. Not really. (more…)
