Goldfields Track – Leanganook Track

Castlemaine to Bendigo 

I don’t believe the GFT will ever make it on to Victoria’s most iconic bushwalk list, but for anyone thinking about a multi-day walk for the cooler months then I suggest you have a look at it.

I selected the Leanganook section (Castlemaine to Bendigo) as it had (IMHO) the best transport and camping options. I will post a summary of my trip later, but for now I have summarised what I believe to be the Pro’s & Con’s of this section below;

Penny Weight Flat Cemetery



Pro’s

Great multi day winter / early spring walk.

Easy access using public transport, in particular on a train route that runs more than once or twice a week. This easy access to public transport allows for the use of one car and removes the need to do a car shuffle at the start and end of a walk

Interesting look at some local history.

The big climb (about 350m over 8 km) is over and done within one day.

It’s in Victoria (so no long road trip)

A very well produced guide book and a well marked track, thus easing the pressure on navigation

Garfield Water Wheel

Con’s

Lack of reliable water

There is some walking on roads; most of these roads are either 4wd tracks or MVO tracks thus resulting in little or no traffic being seen.

The aqueduct is your constant companion for about 20 km. The aqueduct does have a couple of tunnels and some very interesting construction features which do add interest.

Orange Road

Short Day Walk

It was really good to get out today.

The trip had to be short to fit in with the social calendar at home, so good old Mt Glenrowan was the destination.

Now this is a fairly easy trip so no detailed walk notes this time.

From just past the gate off Taminick Gap I took the foot pad that travels through the bush and meets up with Casuarina track, after which I followed another old vehicle track before joining Ridge track for the balance of the trip.

Since spotting the She Oak in flower I had done a little more leg work on the internet, this link provides a photo of both the Male and Female flower. I did keep an eye out for the male flower and spotted this one, although not at it best it does show the general form of the flower.

Also spotted this Mexican hat tree.

Just couldn't walk past

I don't remember seeing the She Oak in flower before

I am no tree expert but I think this link covers the variety in the photo



Grand Plans



Over the Christmas holidays I decided that I would do a three day hike, so after studying the social calendar I had the three day weekend picked. Next came pouring over the guide books and maps to decide where to go. Good old Tyrone Thomas came to my rescue with a nice three day loop in the Bogong High Plains. So I put the wheels in motion, things were looking great until…
I discovered that a local sporting event that we help out at was on the same weekend. This spelt the end of the three day'r. However the eyes quickly lit up when I realised the event would finish early enough on the Sunday to allow me to walk out to Mt McLeod camp area at Del’s plain.

Leaf

This is a walk that I have done before, but that did not deter me, in fact it made the planning easy as I was familiar with the walk. Looking at the quality of photo in some of the blogs I read, I have been inspired to lift my game when it comes to photo's, so the shorter walk would allow me to have a play with the camera.

I ate lunch at the car and departed around one, At the turn off from Reservoir road I meet a family of six who were also heading to Mt McLeod, however I had a head start on them and did not see them again until they arrived in camp. I will spare the reader the detail of the walk to the camping area, it has been covered in my previous post and also by Greg over at Hiking Fiasco.

View East

Once at Del’s Plain I set up the Golite SL2, with my new single inner net from Terra Rosa Gear. I was happy enough with the concept of using the single inner in the SL2 after my Warby Range trip, that I thought I would have new one made. This inner is sized on the SL2 two person inner, and simply cut in half to give me a nest on one side and open space on the other side of the SL2.

SL2 and TRG inner

Once camp was set up I headed up the summit of Mt McLeod, last time I had made this trip before sun up, but this time I decide I would have a sleep in instead. In hindsight this may have not been the best plan as the fuel reduction burns had nicely filled up the valleys with a smoky haste and restricted the visibility. Towards the end of my time on the summit I could hear the voices of the children from the camping area signalling that the family had arrived.

Evening Display

I returned in time to see the last of the tents going up and settled back to cook dinner (home dried special fried rice), take photos of the changing cloud formations, and listen to the constant buzz as Mum, Dad, and the four boys ate their dinner and chatted insistently.

Moon in Chop Sticks

The next morning, the clouds were down low enough to be drifting through the Plain, making things a little damp and chilly; however I was in no hurry and took the time to enjoy my breakfast and a coffee.

As the weather cleared a little I slowly spread out my gear which was a little damp from condensation inside the tent. I am happy that with some tweaking of how the TRG inner fits inside the SL2 it should allow me a tighter pitch on the SL2 outer and prevent the droplets landing on my sleeping bag.

Summit Flower

The family of 6 headed off to the summit leaving me in the peace and quiet to pack the remainder of my gear and head home. The trip out is much the same as the trip in except the hills go the other way. Thankfully this means more downhill than uphill walking.

Tea Pot Tree

I was back at the car park in time for a late lunch and even took the time to boil the billy for a cuppa before hopping in the car for the trip home.

A day on Mt Buffalo

It has been awhile since I have been out for a walked, so when the opportunity arrived to get out, and with someone else organizing the day I jumped at the chance.

This walk would take us via Mt Dunn, passed Og, Gog & Magog then onto Eagle Point and then return to the cars at the start of the Long Plain track
The Long Plain track starts opposite Lake Catani, this lovely track offers an easy start giving the legs a chance to warm up before the accent onto the saddle below Mt Dunn. Then following the snaking track up Mt Dunn to were the new ladders have been installed to access the top of the granite boulders that make up the summit.

Scaly Button

This was a great place to enjoy morning tea in the sunny shine, although the wind did make it a little cool.

Reservoir

From here we returned down the hill to the saddle and continued west towards the Reservoir, with such a pleasant day the reservoir was picture perfect, (if only I could take the perfect picture).

Another go at the Reservoir

Continuing on we travelled past the rocky outcrops of Og, Gog & Magog, before heading towards Eagle Point. I have never walked in this section of park before and I was very impressed with its natural beauty. Eventually we arrived at Eagle point, climbed some more very new ladders and made ourselves comfortable for lunch. The weather continued sunny and breeze which made for a very comfortable stop. I just wish I had thought to put on sun screen….

Flowers at Eagle Point

After Lunch we back tracked a short way before turning off to the Rocky Creek track. This time we would meet it about a Kilometre south of earlier. We only followed the 4wd track for a short distance before branching off and heading towards the Giants Causeway. There was a very nice clearing at the point where the track splits with the right fork heading towards the Cathedral and the left which heads down to the Long Plain track and the cars. This clearing provided a very pleasant spot to relax in the alpine grass before head off towards home.

This was a great walk and I enjoyed heading out to Eagle Point and wish I had not ignored this corner of the park for so long.

Warby Ranges North to South Overnight & Day 2

The Camp

Each time I had stopped during the day there had always been a few mozzies to greet me, and the camp site was no exception, in fact far too many to count. Although they did seemed to stay close to the ground which meant long trousers kept them at bay and the odd one that reached higher could easily be swatted away. This was fine whilst I was sitting around camp cooking and eating dinner but when I retired to bed all of me was close to the ground, (I would love to know what these blighters live on when they can’t get bushwalker). This trip I used the GoLite Shangri-La2 and the Serenity net tent from Six Moon Designs. This set up meant that I had plenty of space inside to spread out my gear, and the mesh did keep the mozzies out, I did however push my pillow above my head to help lift the netting higher and thus more clearance from those hungry mozzies. The weather was great for being out, with the predicted thunderstorms, whilst audible, came nowhere near me and there was only a few strong gust of wind as the change came through, so all in all I had a good nights sleep.

Morning Light

I rose early so I could enjoy the early sunny shine and following breakfast I packed up and headed off. The walk to the car park at Salisbury falls is quite short at only 7Km however the views on this section are well worth the shorter walk. I continued the last few hundred metres along Loggers lane until it finishes at Taylor track, here I swung south following the MVO across the creek that feeds the Brien Gorge Falls until I meet the Friends Walking track, taking a left turn I travelled along this well used track to the turn off to Kwat Kwat lookout.
This lookout has great views across the plains and whilst I had not travel far from camp it was still nice to stop and have a look. Retracing my steps to the Friend’s track I continued on my journey southward until the start of the Alpine view track is met. This track as its name suggest provides some spectacular views both of the nearby Wangaratta and of the Alps. Eventually it drops down and meets up the track to Salisbury falls. From here it was only a short 2 Km walk down to the car park, although the falls do offer photo opportunities (until the camera went flat) and its own views of the distance Mountains to the south.


So there you have it, not the longest two day walk but it did provide a night out, a walk through sections of the park I had not seen and a chance to give some different hiking gear a run.
A note about water, I have always found when I walk in the Warby's that I tend to drink more water than normal, so I would recommend to others to not under estimate how much water you may need on a trip like this. Also on water, given the camp site is not tooo far from the road it would be possible to do a water drop near the camp site (maybe at the intersection of Loggers and Taylor’s) before starting the walk.

Warby Ranges North to South Day 1

The Warby Range section of the Warby Ovens National Park is approximately 23 Km long but it has two features that make an end to end hike awkward. Firstly there is 1Km section of private land which breaks the park in two and the southern boundary finishes against private which would mean back tracking the last 4.5 Km. I therefore investigated walking as far as I could with out the need to enter private land. Studying the map I felt the Sunrise walking track would provide a suitable exit point.


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.