New blog from July 2020

 

New blog

I have started a new blog. Not quite sure why. So check it out juliathorn2.blogspot.com

Desert Discovery Walk, Little Desert National Park, Victoria

Salt Lake

I stumbled upon this hike by accident when searching for new hiking possibilities and it proved to be a great find. It is quite amazing that there should be an area of scrubby desert like this only four hours' drive from Melbourne; it is totally another world even from the country town of Dimboola only ten kilometres away. And even more odd that the desert national park is flanked by a reasonable sized river, the Wimmera. What I’m saying is that there's no impression of travelling through an arid region on the approach to the park, yet the entire hike is on sand and you have to hope there is water in the tanks.

The night before starting my hike I camped near the river at a designated campsite. There were lots of kangaroos hopping around. It rained in the night so I had to pack away a wet tent. I parked my car at the trailhead and set out along the river bank. It was really pretty with the early morning yellowish glow and some nice red gums. 

Wimmera River

Soon I moved off the 4WD road onto a walking track, very sandy although luckily for me the rain had damped the sand down and made the going easier. The main problem with the walking tracks here is that they are used by trail bikes and get really roughed up; I saw tyre marks along my entire hike but never saw any bikes. The trail went through an area of lowland scrub with lots of grass trees and banksias and dotted with mallee. Part way through the morning I had a few drops of rain but there was no rain on the forecast so it promptly stopped. I kept going right until I got to my first campsite, called Yellowgums, which was a big sandy clearing among the yellow gums with a couple of benches, a water tank and a pit toilet. I’d done 20 km and it was only 2pm but I decided I liked the luxury of a few facilities. I felt confident I was going to be alone there. As soon as it got to late afternoon the air turned cold and it was dark before 6pm.

The second day I continued on towards Kiata campsite. An early highlight was Salt Lake, a smallish round lake fringed by trees and a narrow strip of white sand. I detoured off the trail to walk at the lake's edge and it was really slippery so the white stuff may have been salt rather than sand. The trail climbed gradually to a trig point - I stopped here for a snack and nearly missed the viewing area because it was tucked into the bush behind where I stopped, but there was a great expansive view of the park and looking towards isolated Mount Arapiles in the distance, plus a few small lakes and a lot of wind turbines.

Beyond here the trail went into a tunnel of broom trees. At ground level were lots of tiny white flowering bushes. I came to a junction and went the wrong way at first, which was a blessing in disguise because I saw a mallee fowl standing on the path, the wrong path, ahead of me. They are notoriously shy and it quickly walked away. Kiata campsite was very large and in a grassy forest. There were several groups of car campers and the most toilet blocks I’ve ever seen at a campsite. I got here rather early too after hiking 22 kms.

On my third day the vegetation was much more varied as I moved between groves of broom trees and tall heath melaleuca to open heathland with banksias to what could almost be called forest. Today’s highlight was seeing one emu and then a pair of emus running across the trail. I also frequently heard the thump of startled kangaroos jumping up and running through the bush. I passed a few small dams, all with yucky brown water, and came to the Mallee campsite where I had intended to stay. It was quite pretty, next to one such dam, but it was only 12.30 so I had lunch and decided to continue and camp out randomly that night. 

The last section of the trail was really pretty. It undulated a fair bit so I had a lot of vistas over large areas of the park and there were even a few low hills to go up and over. The morning had been cool and overcast but in the afternoon the sun came out properly and the sky became fully blue. I wouldn’t quite say it was hot but there was a warmish tinge to the air. I could see a line of trees on the horizon for ages which I reckoned must be on the bank of the Wimmera River, my destination. This final section was 13 kms and I soon realised I would have no problem completing the hike before dark, so I ignored a couple of nice camping possibilities in light forest and walked back to my car. This made the day 32 kms and the full hike was 74 kms.

Mallee

I had a bit of a saga that night. It was Saturday and both sections of the campsite by the river where I had camped before my hike had a group of noisy campers. I found a secluded spot in one half of the camping area and put up my tent, ate dinner and went to bed. I lay in bed listening to the noisy campers first just playing loud music and yelling, and then racing their utes along the dirt road, and I became increasingly alarmed that they may crash into my car which I had not been able to park very far from the road. So at 9.30pm I packed up my tent and drove to the other half of the campsite, about a kilometre away, and set everything up again; it was still noisy even here but no car races, although I could still hear the racing happening in the area where I had been when I woke up in the night. That night was absolutely freezing; the next morning at 8am it was minus two degrees as I drove away from Dimboola, an atmospheric mist over the river and there was a thick frost.

Great North Walk reprise

I was so pleased to be able to resume my hike of the Great North Walk, Sydney to Newcastle, only two months after I had to abandon it. I had an easy drive up to Sydney with the result that I started walking north from Cowan towards Brooklyn a day earlier than I had planned. This was going to mess up my logistics for the next few days but it was so lovely and sunny that I didn’t want to waste a moment of hiking time.

I parked at Cowan station, the place where I had to sit in soaking wet clothes for an hour waiting for the train the last time I was here, and took the track down towards Jerusalem Bay. The bay (photo above) looked pretty in the sunshine - perfect weather on a long weekend in Sydney is unusual in my experience. The trail continued around the bay and then climbed to a ridge where I suddenly saw Brisbane Water and the Brooklyn rail bridge; I let out an involuntary Wow! only to see I had yelled right at a couple sitting on a rock admiring the same view. The views of the water and the various wooded islands lasted until a very steep downhill into Brooklyn. I got the train back to Cowan then drove to Brooklyn to stay the night. 14 kms

The next day I had a dilemma over what to do as my carefully thought out itinerary would not work for several reasons if I drove straight away to Patonga and did the next section of the hike (there is a disjoin in the route between Brooklyn and Patonga where one is intended to use a ferry but the ferry no longer operates), so I decided to drive to Teralba and hike the very last section into Newcastle as this was a flexible section of the route.

I parked by the station in Teralba and started out along Lake Macquarie on a paved bike/walking path. It was again a sunny day and the path was busy, then Warners Bay was frantic with people enjoying weekend breakfast at cafes for the first time in 10 weeks. The route went through sporadic sections of bush and followed a few creeks and was altogether quite pleasant for an urban walk. The best bush was in Glenrock SRA, which was again very busy, and when I emerged from there, having gone slightly wrong and walking an extra loop, I was at the beach. I tend to forget how nice the beaches are in Newcastle, big golden long swathes of sand and I had a great few hours walking on the sand and rock hopping along rock platforms. There was an elevated walkway all along the beaches into the city centre with some big hills, a white obelisk and then a descent to the route finish. 

Only one problem: I could not work out where the finish line was. I had read that the walk was supposed to finish at the Newcastle railway station within a few hundred metres of where I was but there was no such place shown on my gps map. I asked some people where the station was and they pointed to my left saying it was a long way down there so I thought I had better go that way; after a couple of kilometres I thought this couldn’t be right so I turned back towards the way I’d come. I asked someone else if I was going to right way for the station and he told me it was the opposite way (the way I’d been going originally) but that I could not possibly walk there and should take the light rail. So I continued walking the way two lots of people had believed led to the station and after a while a map in the street confirmed I was going the right way. After walking through some roadworks and taking a hot dusty diversion I made it to the station, 4 kilometres further than I had planned on walking. Even then I had to walk another few blocks to reach the replacement bus as the trains were not running. By the time I got back to Teralba and drove to my motel in Kariong (almost 2 hours) I was exhausted. 29 kms

On Sunday I drove to Patonga to park my car and start the 6 pack-carrying days of my hike. The trail rose above Patonga to several lookouts with views over Brisbane Water and then went into the bush. I was passed by some runners doing a race, which surprised me. Several times the path would come out onto flat granite tops with great views over the bush. There was lots of birdsong. I descended to Kariong Falls which were bigger than I expected but unfortunately crowded so I continued on to the next, much smaller, falls to have a coffee break. A family out hiking in the opposite direction stopped for a chat. 

I came to the big suspension bridge over Pyles Creek (freshwater) where I had planned to camp but I couldn’t see any suitable spot for a tent so I went on for a couple of kms. It was going to get dark soon so I stopped when I reached Mooney Mooney Creek and camped on a grassy patch. After seeing all the mangroves along the creek I suspected that the water in this creek would be salty, as indeed it was, and I didn’t have much water left so I had to be frugal with cooking my noodles. It rained a little in the night. 24.6 kms

I walked under the two Mooney Mooney Creek bridges, the source of much traffic noise in the night, and  into denser bush. For a while I walked with a runner who was doing a chunk of the GNW and said she kept getting lost. I was surprised, but soon it was my turn to go the wrong way. I was labouring up a hill when I saw a sign that seemed ambiguous to me; if in doubt I keep going uphill but at the top of the hill I saw no further signs so I had to go half way back down and try the other option, which turned out to be the right one. It was a good thing I backtracked because this piece of track along Robinson Creek was delightful: rainforest, huge Gymea lilies and tiny waterfalls.

The track emerged at Somersby and I was curious if the store would be open. I did not expect it to be open as this was a public holiday, and indeed it was not; its already short opening hours were even shorter than I had read during my research. Coming out of Somersby I had to cross a creek that flowed over flat rocks right over the road and were mentioned in my route notes as being slippery. Too right they were slippery, covered in a green slime. I made it across the road very carefully then took off my pack and went back to get water from the creek, completely forgetting about the slippiness. I skidded and fell flat on my back, grazing my elbow and bruising my leg. 

From here the road and then trail made a huge descent into rainforest, then climbed out again and went down again, ending up on a flatter trail and following Ourimbah Creek. At the end of this trail was a bridge and a clearing for camping called Stringybark Point. I camped here, the only time on this hike that I camped at a designated campsite. I had creek water, flat ground and a wooden bench to sit on. It rained at night. 29.1 kms

The next morning was misty and felt damp but the walking in the cool forest was welcome. Lots of scribbly gums. The path undulated and I met a group on a two day walk going in my direction. They were keen to chat, which was nice. I stopped to make coffee by a tiny waterfall at an opening in the forest with good views, the only problem was that I had to sit under the dripping water to get the view. There was a section of road walking and I was surprised how slow I was but I got to the small town of Yarramalong and went in the store to buy lunch, then sat outside to eat my sandwich and cookie. I was concerned about how far I had to go because I realised I had miscalculated this section when doing my planning. 

As I left Yarramalong I saw two maintenance workers doing something to the GNW sign and they started talking to me. One guy asked about the track condition and said they had been clearing the part I was heading for. He also said I was going to reach a big diversion because of logging work in the forest and that would add 7 kms to my route. I must have looked very crestfallen because he then said Or you could ignore the sign and just walk through. After this I had 11 kms of road walking, passing small farms with lots of horses and I saw my first kangaroos of the hike.

When I came to the sign saying the trail was closed I opted to ignore it. Within the next half hour I met the only two other GNW thru hikers (one each direction) I was going to meet on my whole hike, all of us ignoring the trail closed signs. I told the guy who was walking southbound about my difficulty in finding the end of the trail in Newcastle and he said he had the same problem so he had decided on his own starting point.

I came to my planned camping spot, a rest area with a water tank and a shelter to provide the runoff, which is where I met the other thru hiker. He said it was going to start raining at 10 pm, and he didn’t mention when it would stop. The day's distance wasn’t yet quite enough so I went on and I was soon in the heart of the logging area, although there was nobody around. There were numerous clearings with huge logs stacked up and there was a lot of machinery at just one of these clearings. These clearings seemed to be the only place where I would find flat ground so I picked one to camp at where there was no machinery. By now it was 5pm and the rain had started, early. I put up the tent and sat on a log to cook and eat. I was pleased my stove worked ok in the rain but it was not so much fun eating in the rain. 30.1 kms

It rained all night so my tent got very wet but luckily did not leak. It hasn’t been tested all that much in constant rain. I had to pack it away wet and I did not have breakfast straight away, waiting until I got to a lovely little pool in the forest, well past the logging area. I saw a couple of lyrebirds and later on some wallabies. At least the morning wasn’t cold and putting on wet socks was not as unpleasant as it could have been. But it went on raining all day.

I came through the rainforest and eventually emerged in the Watagan Creek Valley, quite tiny and surrounded by high hilly forest. From here I had a very steep climb on a tricky trail up to Mt Warrawalong and then the wider dirt road seemed to climb on interminably. This was mildly frustrating for two reasons, firstly the difficulty and secondly that I knew I would not be able to see anything when I reached the lookout at the top due to everything being in cloud. I came to the Flat Rock rest area with a water tank and usual tiny shelter; I had lunch here, standing up as there was nowhere dry to sit. Shortly after I got to the Flat Rock lookout but I barely bothered to walk over to the huge flat rock because all I could see was whiteness. 

All along this hike I had been appreciating how the forest kept changing as my altitude changed, from dry eucalypt to rainforest, from dry clear forest floor to masses of grass trees or ferns. Even in the rain I could experience these changes. And the rain appeared to bring out more wildlife, a few wallabies, although animals did not feature much on this hike for me.

I think I was walking along a ridge for hours and I briefly went wrong at the Warrawalong  communications tower as the trail was hard to locate, then I had a long descent down to the Congewai Valley. The mist was swirling a bit here and I got some glimpses of the forested hillsides. I had to walk from one side of the valley to the other and then along many kilometres to the next trailhead. It was going to get dark before I could reach somewhere to camp as I needed to leave the farmland and get back into the forest. As I marched along a woman pulled up in her truck and said there was a hut on her property close to the trail that I was welcome to sleep in; I really appreciated this but she hadn’t given me much idea of where to find the hut.

As I turned off the road and climbed back into the bush it was already dark (at 5pm) and I had to walk by torch light. I wasn’t happy about this because most of the track marker signs were just a timber stake and not reflective and I could easily miss a turn, so after I barely noticed a sharp turn I decided it was time to stop. It was a very black night by 6pm. I realised there was no way I was going to stumble on the hut I’d been invited into. The sides of the track were grassy - I had no idea really what sort of terrain I was in - so I stopped and put up the soaking wet tent pretty much on the path. It was raining fairly heavily and there was no question of sitting outside and cooking, but inside I was nice and dry. I ate my last two bread rolls and a kitkat for dinner. 35.6 kms

The rain stopped in the early morning and there was a strange silence. When I got up I was pleased to see I was in a grassy floored sparse forest. I sat on a log and had breakfast. The weather looked promising. I made good time to the Barraba lookout which I had originally intended to camp at the night before (if I had not miscalculated the distance earlier) but the views were still shrouded in mist. I followed more ridge lines in a downward trend, and had a nice chat with a woman who was out for a stroll. When I got to the Hunter lookout I not only had a good view over the Hunter Valley I also had a chance to hang up all the parts of my tent and get them dry in sunshine. Shortly after I got to the Maclean lookout with a view over the Watagan escarpment and especially a huge cliff face.

From this lookout I embarked on one of the best stretches of the entire hike. The trail began with a couple of difficult descents to creeks (at the first creek I saw a really strange brown and white striped crab) followed by hard ascents back up which seemed like a test for what was to follow. The main stretch of the trail began with a long descent deep into the rainforest, which felt at the bottom like a hidden world with loopy tree roots, overhanging rock ledges and caves, waterfalls I had to pass behind and dense vegetation. There were several creeks to cross and one of these looked difficult as the water level was high; in an effort to get across as safely as possible and avoid getting wet feet I threw myself from one boulder to the next. I cleared the water just fine but one of my (empty) water bottles fell into the creek and was soon whisked away. I was distraught at the idea of littering in such a beautiful place but could see no way to reach it short of wading down the creek which did not seem a good idea as I had no clue how deep it was.The trail ended at the Heaton lookout which looked out in a third direction, towards Lake Macquarie. So three lookouts and three different views.

There was an amazingly steep long descent from this lookout down to the town of Brunkerville. There was a shop right where I reached the sealed road but I didn’t feel I needed anything. My route crossed the road and then I headed into the bush on a rough dirt road and I wanted to find somewhere to camp as it was already getting dark. I came to a flat spot beside the dirt road and was about to start getting out my tent when I noticed a 4WD coming along the dirt road towards me, so I felt it best to move on. The trail turned onto a smaller footpath and after a short while I came to a patch of grass that looked a much safer area for camping. Unfortunately it was very windy and I didn’t think I would be able to light my stove so for the second night in a row I didn’t cook. This time I ate two muesli bars, a sachet of tuna and a breakfast biscuit for my dinner. No rain tonight. 30.1 kms

Last day! There was a light rain falling when I got up but it didn’t last. I didn’t hang around for breakfast but got on my way, planning to stop later. I was once more in a sparse forest and soon walking along a narrow ridge with window views towards either Lake Macquarie or the Watagans. I was surprised how high up I was considering my long descent of the previous evening. I had a few kms on dirt roads through the forest where there were signs about mining subsidence and then I came to a sports oval where I was able to sit and have breakfast.

The final five kilometres of my hike were by far the least enjoyable. I had to walk on the shoulder of busy roads with a constant stream of mining trucks going by and once my gps wanted me to walk through a quarry. At one point a guy was mowing the verge on my side of the road and I was about to cross the road when I noticed he was beckoning me to come over; he wanted to chat and he had clearly once been a keen bushwalker. Finally I had a quick descent into Teralba, I crossed the railway line and I was all done.

I stayed at Speers Point on Lake Macquarie near Teralba and the next day I decided to go into Newcastle and walk along the beaches again. I also wanted to have another go at finding the proper finish line of my hike. It couldn’t be that hard! I had been seeing intermediate distances on signboards all along the route so there must be a marked finish. I drove into Newcastle and started walking towards the site of the former railway station in the city centre from a road junction I had stopped at the previous weekend; I had concluded that the route must end there as the station I had walked to on the fringe of the city might have been built more recently than my route notes were written. 

When I reached the former station I could see nothing relating to the GNW and believe me I looked thoroughly. The station building was some sort of shopping centre and one shop was open so I went inside and explained my predicament to the three women who were sitting there waiting for customers. They applauded my walking efforts but could offer no answer regarding the location of the GNW finish. So I drove to the new station I had walked to last weekend and asked a pair of police officers there if they knew anything about the walk finish. Nope, but one of them googled the walk and said it finishes at the wharf. So I drove to the wharf and I noticed for the first time that my gps indicated a GNW information board there; this must surely be the marker for the start/finish. I just wanted to see some kind of evidence of where the walk started/finished. I stood on the exact gps spot of the information board and saw nothing. A security guard at a restaurant there said the area was renovated about a year ago and maybe the signboard was removed. Who knows? After this I had to concede defeat.

Two days later I was in Sydney and it occurred to me that I had not seen the official start/finish of the walk at that end either as I had run from Circular Quay station to the ferry wharf to avoid missing the ferry across to Woolwich without walking the very first 300 metres of the route from the obelisk in Macquarie Place to Circular Quay. I duly drove to Macquarie Place and ran the first section of the route. But guess what? There was no sign in Macquarie Place indicating the start of the GNW. So it’s a walk without an officially marked start or finish even though there are many signs all along the route showing how far to Sydney and Newcastle. Hmm...

Home to Queenscliff

 

My route around the Bay

Now that I have run from home to Portsea three times I thought it was high time I ran around the other side of Port Phillip Bay so that I can say I have run all the way round. Going on foot from home to the mouth of the Bay beyond Geelong is a fair bit more complicated than doing the side I’ve already done, and a considerably longer distance. I realised I couldn’t stick by the water for all of the way and I was often going to have to run without the comfort of off-road trails. Actually I wasn’t 100 percent certain it could be done.

The first couple of days were straightforward - ish. I ran from home along the beach path through Elwood, St Kilda and on beside Beaconsfield Parade, then through to Sandridge Beach and Westgate Park where I went slightly astray. I got the punt from Westgate Park across to Scienceworks and then followed the coast trail through Newport to Williamstown and ended my first day at Williamstown Beach. It was a beautiful day but very cold. I did 23.7 kms.

On the second day I continued on the coastal trail. It was really foggy and so cold that I ran with my sweatshirt on for the first 10 kms. Much of the trail was inland across wetlands and there were lots of birds around, especially swamp hens, oyster catchers and herons. As I was reaching Altona Beach I came to a junction and took the turn that looked most likely to lead to the coast; after about 20 minutes I arrived at a junction that looked a bit too familiar - it was the same one and I had gone around in a circle. By this time the fog had lifted and I could see the obvious way to go. The worst of this was that the circle detour had involved a flooded path and I had not been able to avoid getting my feet soaked. Altona Beach looked great, as if the sand had recently been replenished.

After this I had more wetlands and then turned to follow Skeleton Creek on another sealed path. It was a typical Melbourne bike path: through suburbia alongside a reedy creek with a few ducks. Close to the end I left the path to get to my day's destination, Hoppers Crossing. I had to cross several busy roads and the Princes Freeway, and to my consternation there looked to be no footpath alongside the road as they were doing roadworks, but at the last minute I saw a gap in a fence that was intended for pedestrians to descend to the road I was headed for. This road turned out to have every retail outlet imagineable, but at least it had a wide footpath and took me directly to Hoppers Crossing station via a shopping mall. 27 kms for the morning.

By the third day I was running out of off-road paths and I was a bit worried about running with traffic. I ran from Hoppers to Werribee along suburban streets following the railway line then headed out of Werribee on the footpath along a dead straight road. At the edge of Werribee I was done with my separate path and had to run on the road. The next 7 kms were unexciting as I passed embryonic housing developments, a quarry and lots of roadworks. There was little traffic barring several big trucks connected with the roadworks or the quarry so I could mostly run on the road; the grass verge was uneven and would give a good opportunity for twisting an ankle.

I was pleased to leave this road and move onto quiet dirt roads through farmland with cows and horses. I could see the You Yangs clearly, they are an odd little blip in an overwhelmingly flat landscape. In the whole 8 kms of dirt road I was only passed by one car and one tractor. I came to Little River and went straight to the station to find out the train times. For the third time in three days a train was due imminently so I have been rather lucky. I never even got to see if there was a shop in Little River and I had to wait until I got back to Gardenvale to have time to buy a coffee. This was definitely the least exciting day. 22.8 kms.

My on-road running continued from Little River to Lara, soon turning away from the You Yangs, and coming into Lara I had about four kms of straight road where I could see the same building ahead the entire time, hoping it would be in Lara and signal the end of my road running. I’ve had roughly 27 kms of road running.

From Lara I joined the Hovell Creek Trail (paved) and ran through a marshy area. At the start the creek was wide but it soon became a trickle. I was well away from the road but the traffic noise was loud. The trail undulated a bit across grass hillsides and ended at the Corio Bay foreshore with boats and blue water, and then I had to head inland again to reach Corio station via Geelong Grammar School. 22.6 kms for the day and my legs are getting really tired.

My fifth day was a short one, just crossing Geelong. Between Corio and the Geelong waterfront I had a lot of industrial views, interrupted by a brief section by the water at Moorpanyal Park where I did a sea swim years ago. (There was a sign up about this year's swim.) I tried to run along the bay here but the path dead ended and I had to back track. Sad face. The streets here had nice names: Seaview, Seebreeze, Seaside but all I could see was the fertilizer plant, and the Esplanade was sandwiched between the highway and several factories.

The waterfront was a welcome sight and it was a lovely sunny day for a run along the beachside promenade. Quite suddenly the industrial sights were gone and I could look at the beach, the water and the greenery of the parklands around Eastern Beach (which was not on my route), not to mention the pretty totem poles of lifesavers, theatre goers etc. I turned off and ran down to South Geelong station where a train was conveniently waiting for me. 15 kms.

The last day. I was braced for a long haul on the Bellarine Rail Trail and for the first half this was hard. Until Drysdale at over 18 kms the trail was a paved path in a tree lined corridor between houses and fields with long straight stretches and I was running right into the wind. It was a case of mind over matter and I thought I would be walking a lot in the second part from tiredness. I stopped in Drysdale by the station and got a coffee from a van then sat there for a while before walking the next km with my coffee. I was disappointed to see I still had 16 kms to go as I thought Queenscliff was nearer.

Almost immediately the path changed. It became a gravel trail flanked by big trees (rather than the sapling plantings earlier on) and was entirely through farmland. This was really peaceful and pretty and I had a tail wind to boot. The trail was dotted with former station buildings. I kept up a good pace and felt a lot better.

Approaching Queenscliff the trail stopped abruptly and I had a kilometre of road running alongside the swampy Swan Bay, then joined the dead flat, dead straight bike path into town. Suddenly I was running into a stiff head wind and it was very difficult to keep moving forward. The trail came around the northern shore of the Queenscliff peninsula so I was confused when I reached the town edge and I headed to the wrong boating area, going for Swan Bay rather than the real harbour, and I ended up with extra mileage. Then I located my real destination and ran/walked to the main jetty.

The ferry between Queenscliff and Sorrento was departing in half an hour so I decided to stay there and go on a cruise to Sorrento rather than wait two hours for the bus to Geelong. This means I never went into Queenscliff town. I took the ferry across the Bay to Sorrento, the bus to Frankston, the train to Mordialloc and Denis picked me up in Mordialloc to complete a long day of trains, ferry, bus, car and - oh I almost forgot - 37.7 kms of running.

My total distance around the Bay has been 245 kms including various mistakes and detours to get to trains and buses.

Home to Portsea (again)

View from Millionaires Row in January

In January this year I ran from home to Portsea, just as I did last year, except that I did it over four days rather than three. Last year I had a hard time of it because I had three very warm days and this year I had some smoke haze to contend with; I also had a struggle with the heat, especially on my third day when I had to stop for a rest many times between Safety Beach and Rosebud. So I decided to try again, this time at a cooler time of year. So cool that it was below four degrees when I set out this Saturday morning. I planned to get the thing done in three days, taking a slightly different and coincidentally what I believed to be a shorter route because the coast paths have been so busy during this Covid time.

I made it to Frankston on my first day. Surprisingly my route proved not much shorter than before even though I took a straight course from home to Sandringham, avoiding the beach, and later cut off the India shaped Beaumaris part of the coastline where you have to do two sides of a triangle. I ran from home to Mentone so often this summer that I have a great route that looks the shortest possible distance on the map.

It was a beautiful day but cold. Everywhere seemed quiet in the suburbs except when I came to a coffee shop; they all had long queues. I dipped down to the beach at Half Moon Bay where lots of people were heading towards the water in wetsuits, and I had a brief stop at Mordialloc. Then I got through the boring stretch to Carrum and once again enjoyed the path through the bush between Seaford and Frankston. When I got to the end of that trail I again followed the creek side path into Frankston and found that by crossing the creek I could stay beside it right to the town centre. 35 kms for my first day.

First up on the second day I was pleased to not find Oliver’s Hill too hard, and being fresh must have helped. But I had some navigation issues: I’ve got a good route through Mt Eliza which avoids the busy highway but I managed to miss a turn right near the town centre. I thought the roads looked familiar, then I thought they didn’t and I finally looked at my phone to see I was way off course. I righted myself and got to the edge of Mornington where I decided to try a new route so as to avoid the shopping area and also, because I had wasted time in Mt Eliza, I wanted to cut off a corner of the coastline in Mornington. I found a creek and some nice bushland but then  ended up going wrong a few times and probably ran further than in the past. 

The road beyond Mt Martha, which I always worry about as it has very little shoulder or none at all, was really busy. This is not a highlight of the course and it’s always a great pleasure to take the turn onto the coast path and be spat out at Safety Beach. It was a beautiful day and the beach looked lovely.

The Bay Trail was very popular on a sunny Sunday, but runnable. I wanted to get to Dromana because it’s on the bus route back to Frankston, and when I got there I decided to continue on for a while. It was nice running through the foreshore camping areas without any tents, and also not feeling as hot and exhausted as I had when running here in January. 

By the time I reached Macrae I had had enough. I stopped at a bus stop and saw that a bus was due in two minutes, but it seemed a pity to come all this way and then go straight home. So I got a coffee and a roll and sat on the beach for almost an hour until the next bus was coming. I ended up running 37 kms.

The third day is like the prize for all the hard work and again I had perfect weather. It was freezing as I waited for the bus in Frankston but pleasantly warm by he time I got to Macrae. I made a short pit stop in Rosebud and went down onto the beach for the Capel Sound stretch which I always do on the sand as the path is next to the road.

It was close to high tide so I had very little hard sand. There’s a small creek estuary before Rye but I didn’t leave the sand and go up to the path; I tried to jump the estuary but couldn’t so I got wet feet. After that I didn’t worry about getting lapped by the little waves. At Rye I ducked up to the grass to avoid the pier and then returned to the beach. I wondered if I could get all the way to Sorrento on the beach, and this is what I ended up doing. There were people walking on the beach all along and it was especially busy around Blairgowrie. I only had to leave the sand briefly in a couple of places. There was a nice paved walkway under the first set of cliffs at Sorrento. I didn’t stop at all until I reached the park by the ferry in Sorrento. It was quite strange to miss all the landmarks I know along the Bay Trail route I usually use.

From there I didn’t even go into the town, but continued past the ferry to the big park above Sorrento, where you get a great view of the coast towards Portsea. I was in two minds about taking the detour to Millionaires Row because I thought it would be crowded, and in the end I missed the turnoff. Shortly after I stumbled onto a path leading down to the foreshore and then undulated along the coast so I got the same views as I would have had from Millionaires Row anyway. I emerged just before the Portsea pub, all closed up of course. Portsea was deserted, unlike the other Peninsula places.

In the past I’ve always finished here and slightly regretted not continuing to the end of the road, so this time I continued the 800 metres to Point Nepean National Park. By this time I’d had enough. I walked out to a lookout and then ran back to Portsea. I didn’t linger in Portsea, but I broke my return journey in Sorrento for a large ice cream and coffee/pastry at the only cafe I could find without a massive queue. 24 kms for the day. The previous two times I’ve done this I have coincidentally run 94 kms to the pub finish line despite varying my route, but this time I had done a kilometre more when I reached the pub; I’m not sure how I managed this as I had thought I was taking a shorter route at many points. So much for short cuts.

Making a start on the Great North Walk

After I finished my Buller Huts hike I rushed up to Sydney to get a start on the Great North Walk. The Great North Walk goes from Sydney to Newcastle in about 250 kms with a couple of ferry crossings and is a mix of suburban streets and national parks. I decided to do a series of day walks so I wouldn’t have to carry anything and I could walk a long way each day. Also train access to the early trailheads is good. I based myself at Thornleigh, which is on the walk route. 

On the first day I took the train to Circular Quay and then a ferry to Woolwich where the walking starts. There were only two of us on the peak hour ferry. It was a muggy day but the early morning rain had cleared. The walk started with residential streets in Woolwich and then Hunters Hill, with nice harbour views and small parks. Right from the start the route was extremely well signed. The walking got more and more into parkland, along mangrove lined creeks and around playing fields, but the route was often weed infested. 

Once I got into Lane Cove National Park my route was constantly along the river, which is wide but not especially attractive as it looks stagnant and scummy. And unfortunately the park cafe is closed on Mondays. There was very little water available along the hike and a coffee would have been welcome. The walk had a few access points to small beaches (nothing special), interesting sandstone caves and overhangs, and eventually the river became more of a trickle. It was much nicer from then onward, clear water and gentle sounds of flowing water. By the time I reached Thornleigh, after a climb through a couple of narrow passes, I was pretty tired and the suburban streets were a slog. I’d done 29 kms.

The next day the weather was perfect, blue sky and not a breath of wind. From Thornleigh I headed towards Hornsby, entering Berowra Valley National Park and then going the full length of Galston Gorge. The walking was so much more enjoyable than yesterday because I was immersed in native bush and always seeing sandstone formations and boulders. The hiking was tougher too, more ups and downs and rocks to negotiate, and lots of timber bridges plus a couple of historic steel bridges. Berowra Creek was always down there somewhere.

I saw a couple of geckos, a few lyrebirds, kookaburras and cockatoos. The greenness of the vegetation struck me, compared to the vegetation in Victoria which is so much more silvery. My route was interrupted by Crosslands Reserve, a huge grassy place, which I recalled from the Trailwalker I did in 2004. Apart from here there still wasn’t anywhere to get water on the trail, even at a couple of campsites I passed.There were more mangroves and swamps before I started the section towards Berowra Waters. 

After a particularly long and steep climb I came to a link track leading to Berowra and decided to walk to Berowra and call it a day, because there was another (hilly) 10 km to Cowan and I was tired. (By the next day I really wished I had gone on.) I called in at the bakery in Berowra then got the train back to Thornleigh. About 28 kms.

I woke to rain the following day. I had wanted to get to Brooklyn as this would be convenient for when I come back to continue the hike but I wasn’t hopeful. I took the train to Berowra and hiked back to where I had left the main route; well, actually, I had decided to run as much of today’s hike as I could, which turned out to be not very much. I made good time to Berowra Waters, missing out at all the viewpoints as the valley was all in mist, although this gave it a certain charm. The rain was only light at this stage and looked like it might stop.

As I got beyond Berowra Waters and deep into the bush the rain got much heavier. Much of the path was flooded and the rocky bits were slippery. Luckily it wasn’t cold. I had a few huge climbs, some of these quite tricky with metal rungs on rocks and very narrow chutes, and lots of steps. I was surprised to find so many places where the trail became so narrow between boulders that I could not possibly have got through wearing a pack. There were lots of small waterfalls and little beaches on Berowra Creek. And rain. I was on the alert for a creek crossing that was supposed to be dangerous after heavy rain, and sure enough I managed to slip over on very slick rocks just below the surface while crossing. All I could think was that I mustn’t get my phone wet. Now I was really soaked through but it wasn’t too uncomfortable. However I decided at this point that I would stop at Cowan rather than continuing to Brooklyn.

The last part to Cowan seemed endless as the path, now considerably easier, wound around without getting anywhere. Finally I emerged from the bush right at Cowan station. Unfortunately I could see the train arriving right then and I couldn’t reach it in time. I had to sit for an hour on the platform in my wet clothes -  with no entertainment as I couldn’t work my phone with my wet hands and I had no way to dry them. There was no sign of anywhere to get any food. Today: 14 kms.

To be continued. I hope.

Buller Huts Trail

The Buller Huts Trail is an informal hiking route that links a number of the high country huts (cattleman’s huts and cross country ski refuge huts) in the Mt Buller region of the Australian Alps. The basic route is about 96 kms and it crosses many noteworthy peaks.

I rushed off in a great hurry once I decided to do this hike. I got in the car soon after 1pm; I stopped at Chirnside Park for last minute food supplies; I stopped for a quick lunch by the roadside near Yarck; I changed out of my day clothes into hiking gear at Bonnie Doon and I was parking my car at Telephone Box Junction (Mount Stirling) at 6.15pm.

I intended to walk to Bluff Spur Hut (about 4.5 kms) to camp for the night and to join the Buller Huts trail near there on Monday morning. So I set out, making a wrong turn almost immediately even though I had done this exact same route only a month ago. I was annoyed at the waste of time as I wanted to have my tent set up before dark. I had forgotten that I would have to make an elevation gain of about 400 metres so the evening walk would be all uphill. On the way I looked around for somewhere I could stop and camp but there was nowhere flat or grassy. I arrived at the hut around 7.30 and surprised a group of three camping there. They suggested a sheltered spot behind the hut which turned out to be excellent advice: it was really windy at night, maybe the loudest wind I’ve ever heard, but I didn’t feel a thing. I cooked dinner inside the hut by torchlight and went to bed. 

By the morning the wind had dropped and it was a beautiful sunny day. I decided not to climb Mt Stirling until the end of the hike and went down to Howqua Gap before climbing gradually towards Mt Buller village and summit. The village was very closed up apart from a lot of construction work. To reach the summit of Mt Buller I had to make a huge detour due to building works, which seemed to last forever but took me past many of my favourite ski runs. I finally walked to the summit and studied the panorama seriously. There was a sign to help me pick out many of the peaks I was about to conquer.

From the summit I walked down the Family ski run, one I’m not very keen on for being boring, and then almost missed the turn onto Four Mile Spur. The spur wasn’t signed but happened to coincide with Zwiers Zigzag ski run, a run of which I have bad memories of always falling. The spur trail was rough and sometimes indistinct but gave great views over the surrounding mountains. The Bluff really dominated the horizon. The trail climbed a bit but the most interesting part was a steep downhill.

At the bottom I came to the Howqua River and waded across. The trail then climbed again and undulated alongside the river mainly in forest. I had intended to get to Eight Mile Flat to camp at the large campsite but when I got to Six Mile Flat (no toilet and only space for a few tents) I chose to stop. I camped right beside the river. It was a still night with lots of mozzies.  

The next day I knew I had a big climb. I had an easy start following the river to Eight Mile Flat then began on the climb up to the Bluff. Along the way a parks ranger drove past and stopped to ask where I was going; this was a stroke of luck for me as I could make sure all the trails were open after the bushfires. Not long into the climb I could hear voices ahead of me and soon I caught up with one guy of the group of three. We chatted while walking then I moved to get past the other two. They were Dom's friend Callum and his girlfriend! Amazing. We chatted for a bit and they told me there was another hiker not far ahead. Soon I caught up with him, and he was an ultra runner; we had some races in common.

I continued to walk alone and came to Refrigerator Gap, an opening in the forest, and, yes, it was suddenly cold. There was more climbing after that, quite steep, and a bit of scrambling towards the top. The view from the summit was good but it was cold and windy and unfortunately there were many burnt areas in the immediate vicinity. Descending towards Bluff Hut I had to walk through more burnt terrain but this was the only burnt part of the whole trail.

I got to Bluff Hut, my destination for the day. The others all stayed there too, plus a pair of hunters in a ute. As soon as I arrived they set off to do some hunting with big rifles. I felt a bit uneasy and was glad the other hikers were there. 

The next day was my only cloudy day. I started with the walk over Mt Lovick to Lovicks Hut (where my soaking wet flysheet dried in five minutes in the breeze), mainly on fire trails, then turned onto the Australian Alpine Walking Track. At the turn off I chatted to my parks ranger again, this time he was supervising some roadworks. The alpine trail was great, loads of views and very tranquil. I climbed Mt Magdala, briefly lost the trail, then continued to Mt Howitt. This was a longer climb but worth it, crossing several saddles, and Mt Howitt was treeless so the views were good. Sometimes I walked past areas full of wildflowers. Mt Buller already looked a very long way away, but it was always nice to be able to use it (the buildings distinguished it from the other peaks) to get my bearings. 

There had been no water on the trail since Bluff Hut and I had been drinking very little. I decided to detour to Macalister Springs to get water and it was a good thing I did so, even though this was an unnecessary descent to be followed by an uphill. Then I retraced my route towards Mt Howitt and turned towards the Crosscut Saw. This part of the Alpine Walking Track was labelled as wilderness so there would be no signs or markers, not that I’d noticed many anyway. I had left Mac Springs at 2.30 and I thought I would walk until 5pm then start looking for somewhere to camp. The trail became quite rough and I lost it a few times. The wind was blowing low cloud towards me and soon I could not see much into the distance but I knew I just had to continue along the ridge.

At about 4.50 I came to a tiny grassy spot beside the trail just before the top of Mt Buggery and I opted to stop here. I had been going extremely slowly. It seemed sheltered and there was a tiny break in the bush where it looked like I could cook. It was a great choice as the wind howled all night but didn’t make my tent flap at all.

In the morning the fly sheet was stiff with frost and I had to wear all my clothes, even while walking, but the sky was completely blue. I went over Mt Buggery and onto Mt Speculation. More good views then I had a longish descent to Camp Creek and some welcome water. I stopped to sit in the sun for a while and drink coffee. I had a long stretch on fire trails through sparse forest before starting the long steep descent of Muesli Spur which I had been dreading. It turned out to be nothing like as bad as I had feared although it was rough and rocky. I saw one small brown snake. After crossing a scree slope the going got easier and there were grassy meadows, so I stopped at one of these for more coffee.

I finished for the day at King Hut, right by the King River. I knew it was going to be a much warmer night. 

On the final day I started with five crossings of the King River. I thought it would be easiest to keep my shoes and socks on and just walk through the river. The water was certainly cold but so long as I kept walking my feet felt ok even in soaked shoes and socks. At the second crossing I had to wait for three black cows to cross first. After plenty of fire trail I turned onto a trail leading up to Craig’s Hut. The trail was very infested with blackberry and unfortunately I fell into the blackberry bushes twice which was not nice. Shortly after the second fall I saw a huge black snake leaving the path.

When I got to Craig’s Hut I knew the hike was almost done but I decided to stay out another night as I had plenty of food left. So, after a leisurely lunch, I hiked towards Mt Stirling on the Clear Hills Trail. This trail was an amazingly steep roller coaster and sometimes when I was hiking uphill I felt I was going to slip back down. The distance to GGS Hut seemed endless, probably because I was tired. I paused at the hut for a while then went to the summit of Mt Stirling. When I was here a month ago I never imagined I would be back so soon. I not only summited Mt Stirling I also crossed the road to visit the 300 year old snow gum that is some kind of significant tree because snow gums don’t usually grow at this altitude.

It was only a short stroll downhill to Bluff Spur Hut. I had the campsite to myself and I camped by the snow gums. It smelt a bit smoky and I became a bit worried about possible bushfires but I had seen several vehicles in the area and a hiker came past in the evening (without noticing me). The wind picked up in the night so I was glad I wasn’t directly under the trees. 

In the morning I packed up my gear and I was back at my car by 9am, to find that the Ski Patrol and police had been concerned about me. But my top priority was to get down to Mansfield and eat some real food. 

My total distance for the hike was 112 kms.