Troopers Creek to Halls Gap, Grampians National Park - August 2004

The Grampians National Park has some great walking and over the years I've done a lot of the tracks up there, one of my biggest walks was along the Mt Difficult Range from Flat Rock to Halls Gap, a 55 kilometre grunt I did in two days which if I ever find any photos of I'll do a post on. A year after that epic I headed back up to retrace the second part of the walk, this time I was walking from Troopers Creek below Mt Difficult along the range and once again finishing in Halls Gap. For my second walk along the range I'd roped in a couple of victims companions, my mate Big Dave and my nephew Little Dave, we were planning to complete the walk over a leisurely three days. After spending a night at the cheap and cheerful Halls Gap Motel we were at the trail head at Troopers Creek bright and early next morning ready to set off.

Scrambling along the cliffs that protect Mt Difficult.

Little Dave and the author Day 1.

Day 1       10 kilometres         Mud Hut Creek
From memory Troopers Creek is so named because it was where the police were stationed when the main Melbourne to Adelaide Cobb and co route went through in ye olde days, now days its a quiet camping area on a nice little creek. It didn't hold the interest of my hardcore posse for long though as they headed swiftly towards the first cliff line that protects Mt Difficult, arriving at the first steep incline progress slowed somewhat however and from that point on we proceeded in a more leisurely fashion.

Big Dave and Little Dave refilling the water bottles on the climb up Mt Difficult.

Big Dave.

The climb up Mt Difficult is good fun, the track follows ledges and scrambles over boulders and past waterfalls, eventually heading up through a small break in the cliffs towards the camping area at Mt Difficult. Once there we dropped our packs and grabbed something to eat and drink and made our way to the summit. The summit of Mt Difficult provides a grandstand view of the surrounding rocky country, the eyes being drawn to Lake Wartook cradled by mountain ranges. Re fueled and refreshed we retraced our route back down to our packs where tragedy struck....... The local Currawong's had got into Little Dave's pack and ransacked his huge stash of sweets and were now no doubt flying around on a sugar high, Little Dave wasn't happy.

The cairn on Mt Difficult.

While we were having a feed on the summit the Currawongs were having a feed from Little Dave's pack.

The view to the south from Mt Difficult.

After salvaging any left overs that the Currawong's had dropped we set of on the next stage of our adventure, the traverse from Mt Difficult to Briggs Bluff. This section of track has long sections along rock ribs and ledges which not only makes the walking easy but also affords good views down into the valley that Troopers Creek runs through. Reaching the turnoff to Briggs Bluff we dropped our packs again and headed off for the side trip, Little Dave eyeing the surrounding trees suspiciously. Briggs Bluff is a stunning lookout, you approach by a steeply sloping rock slope and all of a sudden the ground drops away and you find yourself standing on the edge of a 400 metre cliff looking down onto the never ending flat Wimmera Plains. After taking in the extensive view for awhile we retraced our steps back to the packs and made the short journey down to Mud Hut Creek where we set up camp for the night, we were all happy to hit the sack that night.

Relaxing on the summit of Briggs Bluff in the late afternoon.

Looking to the north east from Briggs Bluff.

Looking back down to Roses Gap from Briggs Bluff.

Camp at Mud Hut Creek.

Day 2          12 kilometres          Plantation Bush Camp        22 kilometres total
We all awoke feeling good after yesterdays effort, you might think that 10 kilometres sounds pretty easy but walking in the Grampians isn't necessarily like walking in some of the other more popular parks, a lot of the tracks require some easy scrambling so you find that you are going slower than you would expect and not necessarily making the same kilometres as you normally would. Anyway all was good and after breakfast we set off heading in a general south east direction virtually along the crest of the Mt Difficult Range.

Day 2 Started with a bit of a climb out of the valley behind us.

Good one Dave!

The day involved a lot of short scrambles and descents around rocky bluffs and cliff lines, first up we had a fairly long climb before we tracked around the valley of Deep Creek. This was fairly familiar ground for me as I'd been here a few times over the years so I knew to watch out for the small cairns that mark the route over the extensive rock slabs. Water is normally a bit of an issue along here but being the last month of winter we were lucky to find a couple of creeks flowing so we were able to fill up our water bottles for tonight as the bush camp we were planning on staying at was dry. There was one section that required a bit of concentration to stay on route and that was when the route started to traverse along the base of some east facing cliffs, it was important to keep an eye out for cairns and markers where the route suddenly climbs through a break to the top of the cliffs, the year before I'd wondered along a false lead for awhile before working out the error of my ways.

We had to track around the Deep Creek valley behind Little Dave.

All good so far.

Having a rest in one of the many overhangs.

We arrived at our intended camp in mid afternoon. The bush camp is situated at the junction of the Mt Difficult Track and the Plantation Track and is waterless, it does provide quite a bit of flat clear ground however for a few tents. After setting up camp and having a bite to eat Little Dave retired to his tent for a bit of a nanna nap whilst Big Dave and I headed a few hundred metres up Plantation Track onto the crest of the range where we settled in for sunset. Eventually the temperature drove us back down to camp and after dinner we were into our tents just after dark.

Big Dave at the top of the Plantation Track on the Mt Difficult Range.

There are plenty of rocks to play on, although the temperature soon drove us back to our tents.

Day 3          12 kilometres         Halls Gap                         32 kilometres total
Awaking on day three the skies didn't look as promising with cloud down almost to the tops of the trees. Not that it mattered that much as we were heading back to civilization today so if we got a bit wet we could always dry off in the cars. We successfully broke camp without getting wet and resumed our walk along the Mt Difficult Range, the aim today was to walk the range to Boroka Lookout and then drop steeply down to Halls Gap. We followed the walking track for another three kilometres along the range, by now the intermittent showers were making the rock slabs fairly slippery so we had to be a bit careful of our footing. We were somewhat relieved then when we broke out of the scrub onto the gravelled Mt Difficult Road, this provide us an easy route all the way to Boroka Lookout.

Big Dave, Little Dave at Boroka Lookout.

The author certainly looks happier than Little Dave.

By the time we got to Boroka Lookout we were well and truly in the cloud, at 840 metres it normally gives stunning views of the surrounding country, the only positive we could take from the situation was that there was no tourists up here today, as you can drive all the way to the lookout and its normally very popular. After getting a couple of photos at the lookout in the cloud we quickly picked up the descent track to Halls Gap.

Heading down to Halls Gap the weather didn't improve.

Little Dave looks rooted tired.

Now in theory as we lost altitude the weather should of improved, at least that's what we were hoping, In reality the weather took a distinct turn for the worse, by the time we got down to Stony Creek it was pissing down and we were a very wet and bedraggled group of bushwalkers. Not to worry we only had a little way to go, so after rock hoping across Stony Creek we sloshed our way down the track and into the big smoke of Halls Gap. Its times like this I was glad to have the troopie as it gave us enough room inside to get changed into some dry clothes.

Big Dave powering down through the mist.

Almost down to Stoney Creek.

The Dirt.
Little Dave is now Big Dave and we catch up at family events occasionally, I think I ruined him for bushwalking as we never did another big overnight walk together. Big Dave is now Old Dave and we are still mates, we catch up for coffee and breakfast regularly but Dave's days of hard walking are unfortunately over. The walk as we did it hasn't been written up by any author as far as I know although Tyrone Thomas has covered all the tracks on various walks that he has written up. Apparently Parks are building a long distance trail that will follow a lot of the route called something like the Great Grampians Trail so I'm not sure what the access is like at the moment. The area has been ravaged by at least two serious bushfires and one massive flood since we did this walk so it would definitely pay to check with Parks Victoria what the current situation is. Finally if you're a glutton for punishment I wrote up a Crazy Guy Journal of a walk I did here a couple of years ago (after the floods). There is also a post on the blog of a walk Sam and I did up Stoney Creek last year.
All in all this is a top walk which I'm definitely going to revisit when all the cards fall into place. I suppose I'd have to rate the walk as a medium walk as there are a fair few ups and downs and a bit of easy scrambling, a lot of the route follows cairns along bare rock. The other thing to consider is water along the range it can be very scarce in the warmer months, in the cooler months snow is not unheard of. The camp sites were of the basic bush style with no facilities.

Yay, we've made it down.

Crossing Stoney Creek on the last section into Halls Gap and a warm dry troopie.