As I had never been in the Sunrise track area I felt a reccie was needed, this confirmed the suitability of walking out this way but I came up against two stumbling blocks firstly the west side of the Sunrise track complex has some very clear do not enter signs placed there by Parks Victoria this is due to the Cinnamon fungus. Secondly and of no less of a risk was the car park at the start of the Sunrise track, this car park is used by people who obviously prefer to (or have to) do their horizontal folk dancing outside (this is based on the used dancing balloons on the ground). Whilst this in itself should not be too much of a problem the empty alcohol cans was enough to convince me I did not want to leave cars there overnight on a Saturday.
So it was back to good old Salisbury falls, the walk would be a bit shorter on day 2 but the close proximity to houses made the Salisbury Falls car park a lot safer.
So day 1, I started walking opposite the junction of Boweya Creek road and Boweya road, heading generally south I slowly worked my way up the ridge the runs up to Mt Killawarra after about a kilometre I swung more eastwards and then more northwards as I finally climbed up onto the top of the ridge some 500m or so south of the summit. The view from the summit surprised me I had not expected such a vista it certainly made a great starting point for the walk.
The view North
So after soaking in the views I turned to the south and followed the wheel tracks back to towards Ridge road. After about 1.5 Km’s I meet Ridge Road, which I followed south for around 2.5 Km’s until I reached what the map showed as the top of the ridge that ran south down thought the Warby’s. At this point I left the road and headed cross country with the map, compass, gps and the terrain as my guide.
Skippy
This section of about 3.5 Km’s was outstanding whilst offering no views it did off plenty of wild flowers and Kangaroos to look at. Continuing down the ridge line I eventually meet Devenish Wangaratta road, crossing this I continued cross country down the ridge line until I meet the private land boundary. Now I knew there was a MVO track on the boundary but I did not expect to see the sign right where I met it in what seemed like the middle of nowhere.
I planned to follow this fence line east until it joined the Devenish Wangaratta road, but towards the end it became to rough and the scrub became quite thick so I had to zig zag a fair bit to make it out to the bitumen. Once on the road it was only a few hundred meters until I meet Gerrett road and the northern end of Loggers Lane
Grass Trees
The first section of Loggers lane has a steady climb up to a ridge, this ridge had some of the best grass trees I have seen, with full skirts and plenty of height and in groups two or more, I can assure you the photo does not do them justice. I followed Loggers lane as it headed down and once again climbed back up toward the main north south ridge. Just as Loggers lane “flattens” out there is an open area amongst the trees with enough flat areas for a couple of tents and also about 50m south though this clearing is a rocky outcrop with a sprinkling of wattles in full bloom, this open area offers lovely views north eastwards across the plains towards NSW.
Bee
I had given a lot of thought to camp site selection when planing the walk, and whilst I was happy enough with the final choice I was not able to find a location close to a guarantied water source. So this meant I would have to carry two days water. The up side to this is the extra weight would allow me to test the AARN pack (MM55) as if I was out for more than one night. This is the first time I have used one of the bigger AARN packs, and I was quite pleased with the performance, the balance pockets did their job to balance the load and certainly I felt comfortable.
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