Bill and I headed out to Ororral Valley on Saturday to do the Granite Tors bushwalk. It was a good hour each way, fairly steep climb on the way up with a few little flatter bits in between to rest and recover, and then coming down you needed to take your time to avoid slipping. There was magnificent views up and down the Ororral Valley in both directions, lots of granite rocks and a now unsued observatory that was built in the 1970's. According to the walking astronomy encyclopedia that I had with me- the story is that after the Apollo 11 moon landing, the astronauts left mirrors behind on the moon.Various sites around the world fired laser beams at the mirrors, which took approximately 1.1 seconds to get there and 1.1 seconds to return, during this space of time the earth had moved 600 meters, they used these measurements to determine how far it was from the earth to the moon.The tracking station at Ororral Valley was one of these sites.
Lovely view up and down the Ororral Valley at the top of the walk.
Some of the many granite boulders along the way
About half way up I need to rest so a good spot to take a photo!
Bill having a rest on one of the granite outcrops
All the way up without catching a glimpse and then all of a sudden you spot the observatory
Great look out spot
Another shot of the observatory
Down on the flat again in the valley you could wander around the grounds of the old tracking station, lots of signs giving a bit of the history of the site.
Lots of kangaroos feeding, and so many of them had joeys in their pouches, they wouldn't let you get too close.
View of the track on the way down- a great walk and good training for our New Zealand trip
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