“A Standard Journey – 5 horses, 2 people, and 1 tent” – is available from Amazon A Standard Journey – via this link you can look at reviews and read an excerpt too.

I hope you like our photos of our trip.

There are three sections – you can jump to each section by just clicking on the titles below or simply scroll down:

Kangaroo Valley

The Trail

Farewell

Bicentennial National Trail Map

Charlie upon his arrival, sporting a thick hairy winter coat.

Spirit checking pockets for treats

 

Noel shows Spirit the pack-saddle, Spirit just wants a head rub!

 

Strapping the pack saddle on Spirit, meanwhile he snoozes!  

 

The panniers are on and Spirit doesn’t worry one bit.

 

Innocent face– Noel on board Spirit

 

Spirit and Stevie became great buddies – you can just see Ned’s hairy bottom in the background

 

Charlie’s head! And Ned – Spirit’s bottom in background. Charlie still looks a bit concerned here

 

Ned’s always seeing what we’re up to.

 

Charlie and Ned are best buddies, and still convinced Noel has treats

 

Kangaroo Valley

 

Stevie at the fence

 

Stevie

 

Charlie and Ned

 

Stevie

 

Spirit

 

Ned, Charlie and Noel

 

(l to r) – Charlie, Spirit, Ned, Stevie

 

Jet, Charlie, Ned – first time salt lick for all

Kangaroo Valley

Kangaroo Valley

 

Cedar and Jet

 

Skip – the farm dog

 

Clive and Noel

 

View from our cottage

 

Five gorgeous bottoms!

 

Homemade nosebags

 

Dom

 

(l to r) – Spirit, Dom (just see him), Stevie, Charlie, Ned

Great training ground at Kangaroo Valley – Noel on Stevie with Spirit and Dom x 2

 

 

Andrea on Cedar with Jet in the background, Noel behind me with is three, I would be on Charlie, leading Ned

 

Dom, Charlie and Ned

 

Dom

 

Andrea on Cedar, leading Jet

 

Charlie starting to muscle up

 

Skip and the new guy Ruie!

 

Andrea with Jet and Cedar

 

Ruie – a great way to waste time – playing!

 

Kangaroo Valley

 

Scene of “The Creek Episode”

 

Jackie on Ned, leading Charlie – check out their demeanour – see what I mean?

 

FIRST CAMP SITE – TARALGA

Dom posing for the camera – Jackie cuddling Charlie

My Charlie boy – he had me wrapped around his hooves!

Neddy always wondering what’s going on – love him!

Spirit, Stevie, Charlie, Ned and Dom – awaiting dinner

We’re off and racing – hope we can stick to the speed limit!

Crookwell – see what I mean about the packs!

Taking a moment to work with Dom

Any chance to roll, Dom was down

 

Noel looks great on Charlie, but he rarely rode him

 

Noel on Dom

The Tent Problem

Original tent – at Crookwell

The showground manager allowed us to camp in this shed after the tent flooded

The first few days wore them out! Spirit, Dom, Ned, Charlie, Stevie

Drying out the tent!

 

A tight team – (l to r) Ned, Dom, Stevie, Charlie (hidden) and Spirit)

Hi-tech comms in a paddock – small solar panel charging the phone

Noel ‘cooking’ dinner

Repairs to be done

Charlie having a perv at me showering

Dom (nearest) – evening

All the horses boots!

New cork screw

Evening at Hall Showground – night before the Pony Club came and made us feel unwelcome!

In the camping store with one of our pack-saddles fitting new gear

Stevie trying out the new gear – 2 back-packs, rug rolled up on top (blue) – grey dry-back with bedding on top x 2

 

 

Waiting for the police

Sixteen lanes of traffic stop for us!

 

Spirit

Looking at Canberra (l to r) Stevie, Spirit, Dom, Charlie, Ned

Noel and his three, Spirit and Dom making a grab for a quick munch

The horses ‘lost’ in the trees, this is where Stevie went missing!

Those narrow gates! Arhhhh! You can see Charlie’s distress and he hasn’t got packing gear to squeeze through with!

Tharwa – Lot of gear but we had a phone signal, time to let folks know we are okay

The boys were fed, watered and free in the paddock. Noel and I were getting ready to sort everything else out!

Brief bit of fun in the sand

More repairs

Caloola campsite with the brown snakes! And where I couldn’t stand feeling my own hands!

Okay, so I wouldn’t win any fashion contests – but it was just about survival and coping – we had to weigh every item and ensure the pack-saddles were completely balanced

Noel looking back over Spirit and Dom (with his head hidden) looking back to me and Charlie and Ned, about to cross the creek

Now they were brilliant in creeks – Charlie loved sticking his nose in

My view!

The team!

Our first hut! Luxury

Content and hungry boys

Making home for a night

Basic, but a blessing to have something to sit on

Packing up – when ‘that’ Kangaroo ‘played’ with us!

Very little to eat, Noel snoozes while Spirit and Dom search him for food

Trying to make sense of all our stuff

If we had time, we’d let them pick when we found good grass. We enjoyed the stretch too.(Jackie with Charlie and Ned nearby)

Weighing gear again – in my best clothes

I am as tired as I look!

Little Neddy

Noel and his team marching on

This was a good day… until…  ouch!

Hiding horse feed in the trees for when we arrived (we had been loaned a car!)

I hoped it would still be there when we arrived on horseback several days later

 

Oldfields Huts

Home sweet home!

Noel’s neatly made bed and my bed!

Oldfields Hut – just lovely

 

 

When the trail became narrow, we could let some of the boys go and they’d stay in line (mostly!)

Charli would become most indignant when I’d shift in the saddle to take photos

Time for a drink

Noel and his team – Dom’s getting ready to roll, we had to keep him moving!

Nole became adept at map reading en route

Still map reading – there are no road signs out here

At our second hut – Circuit Hut

 

Circuit Hut

Friendly wildlife

Charlie didn’t like the misty morning!

We were on the trail by 6 am – worrying about the heatwave and predicted fires!

We didn’t stop at this hut – just took a quick picture

As the mist cleared the countryside revealed its beauty

Our last camp

 

Farewell

Saying farewell to Charlie and the boys – I miss them everyday

Stevie

Noel’s thoughts on horses and the human/horse relationship completely changed

Our beautiful boys

 

Spirit

Cheeky Spirit – our cool dude

 

Our tack room

and just a couple more from the early days at Kangaroo Valley – a great training gound

In heaven – training with all five boys

 

 

Map reproduced with kind permission from the BNT organisation.