After much talking and planning the first two water tanks of the Warren Bonython Memorial Water Tanks Project have been installed. The first was placed at Mainwater Well in the Gammon Ranges and the second at Yudnamutana mine site on Mt Freeling Station.

This report describes my eight day walk in the Sequoia National Park, California as well as how to get there as a solo traveller. The attraction of the park is that it is the home of the giant Sequoias trees which I have wanted to see for a long time, has a wide variety of walking trails that connect with long distance walking trails like the Pacific Crest Trail, John Muir Trail and the High Sierra Trail and is easily accessible from Los Angeles or San Francisco.

There is a familiar saying ‘if something can go wrong, eventually it will go wrong’. As Mark has said in his water tanks article in this edition I went with him last October to the Northern Flinders so that some final additions could be made to the two water tanks that he and other ABW members had installed there a bit earlier in the year.

I decided to put pen to paper to capture scenes and memories from some of the best bushwalks I have ever done in Australia. Without doubt, doing these sketches has given me an immense amount of pleasure, and I hope readers of this magazine enjoy them too, particularly those who know these places.

My wife and I recently had the good fortune to visit Japan and South Korea for a total of seven weeks and while in the latter country, I took the opportunity to go for a walk or two.

The recreational activity of bushwalking sees people walking into remote wilderness areas. This is done for exercise, the experience of ‘getting away from it all’ and other reasons.

The idea of trekking in the Sumatran jungle and visiting Lake Toba had been on my ‘bucket list’ for years. I had found very little information on the internet, it seemed few people trekked there for any more than three days. In the end I opted for a commercial trek with Expedition Jungle who offered a seven day trek across the Gunung Leuser National Park from Semadam in Aceh to Bukit Lawang in North Sumatra. Eight ABW club members joined up.

The following is the text of a letter to the Committee from Life Member, John Bartlett recommending Mark Proctor for Honorary Life Membership.

During May of 2016, eight walkers from ABW walked the Fraser Island Great Walk. The walkers were Alex Donald, Alex Potoczky, Bernie Koszegi, Nino Fioretti, Trevor May, Colin Kinnaird, Lorraine Thomas and me.

Spring nights are getting shorter and warmer, so you are more likely to want to stay up to view the delightful spring sky. You will still need to warm clothing when you walk away from the campfire to catch our spring gems, but they are worth it. This spring starts with all five bright planets lined up in the evening sky although Jupiter and Mercury are soon lost to view. There is lots of good planetary viewing for most of spring. For the early risers, there is a penumbral eclipse of the Moon mid-September.