Chiltern - Mt Pilot National Park - March 2015

A typical view on the White Box Walking Track.

As seems to be a bit of a common theme, Saturday dawned grey and dreary. Wanting to abuse my polariser a bit I pondered where I might go to get some blue sky action, figuring anywhere north of the Great Dividing Range should be good, we (yes I'd roped in Sam) headed of up the Hume Highway to the small town of Chiltern. Pulling up at the Chiltern Bakery mid morning for a late breakfast the sky was indeed blue, things were looking good, after a coffee and a couple of toasted sangers things were even better.

Now, where are we?

That's were the good news ended though, driving out to the trail head for the White Box Walking Track the clouds started to roll in and by the time we stared walking it was overcast and grey, oh well at least we'd had a relaxing three and a half hour drive. The White Box Walking Track is a walk that I'd looked at for awhile but being so far from home I'd never got around to checking it out. After working out that Parks Vic had realigned the first kilometre or so of the track and it was in a different spot to my map and I wasn't just geographically challenged, we set off. From the Honeyeater Picnic Area we took the very freshly cut track and climbed slowly up onto a low ridge to the north, on the way passing the old Golden Bar Mine, once on the ridge we met up with the original alignment of the track and from here on my map and notes were correct.

The new alignment of the track was well signposted.

The old Golden Bar Mine.

Under the arching eucalypt.

Is this a Golden Orb spider? I didn't know that we had them in Victoria.

Following the ridge for awhile we could hear the Hume Freeway to our left down in the valley but it wasn't overly intrusive, climbing over a high point in the ridge the track drops into a broad valley passing under an arched eucalypt as it does. The vegetation in the national park is mainly dry, open eucalypt woodlands with the occasional wetter shallow valley supporting some native grasses. The skies were still grey as we headed to the interestingly named 'Quiet Spot' it sounded like something Sam might use in her classroom. The 'Quiet Spot' provided a good excuse to stop for awhile and have a bit of a break, we were now over halfway through our 8 kilometre walk and the wooden stumps fashioned into seats were as good as anywhere to sit.

There are plenty of Stringybark trees.

Along with Red Box.

And Ironbark.

By now I'd resorted to taking photos of the bark on the trees trying to find something of interest to post, now my skills with the camera when taking macro shots are even more average than when taking landscape shots so I really was scraping the bottom of the barrel. Luckily I was looking at a spot on my map that said 'Grasstrees' and as they are a favourite of mine I was looking forward to getting a half decent shot there. So after climbing over the highest point on the walk (about 50 metres above the ute, no need for oxygen) we got to the spot on my map where the Grasstrees are marked, I knew I was in the right spot because helpfully Parks Vic had placed a sign there explaining all about the Grasstrees, unfortunately they had forgot to organise the Grasstrees and there was only one solitary Grasstree there to be photographed, it really was that kind of day!

The high point on the walk.

A lonely Grasstree.

Leaving the lone Grasstree in peace we headed down the last kilometre or so of the track making our way back to the ute, getting a shot of Sam crossing a bridge over a dry gulley near the car park providing a last highlight. Reaching the ute Sam took her boots off, she wasn't doing anymore walking today, I wanted to check out another walk in the park, the Yeddonba Aborignal Site, a short twenty minute drive away on the Beechworth Road.

About three minutes from the ute.

Parking at the Yeddonba Picnic Area I left Sam in the ute reading and I headed off on the short interperative walk. The walk is very well signposted with information explaining how the aboriginal people lived and utilised the various trees and plants that grow around the area. After climbing a bit up through the granite rocks I got to an overhang with some indigenous art on it, the drawing was very faint but I could just make it out, it was thought to be a depiction of a Tasmanian Tiger. Climbing a little more I passed another overhang in the granite rock, the ledge here gave an extensive view over the valley below, it would have provided a great place to set up camp I would think. The ute was now in view below me and I quickly zig zagged my way down through the small cliff lines getting back to Sam only thirty minutes after leaving her.

The Yeddonba Aboriginal Site walk climbs up the side of a hill in between these massive granite boulders.

If you look really hard you might just make out the Tasmanian Tiger drawing.

There was quite a lot of native pine trees in this section of the park, the indigenous people used the hard timber for tools.

It was now my turn to to take the boots off. First stop on the way home was Beechworth for some very late lunch. We stopped at the Beechworth Provender for some coffee and cake, Sam checking out the shops while I read the Saturday Paper with my new reading glasses, yes I finally got around to going to the optometrist and surprise, surprise she said that I need some glasses. Now not only do I feel old and broken but I look it as well, at least my in my mind I'm still eighteen! Suitably re caffeinated we then set off on the three plus hours back home on what had been a fairly long day.

Heading back down to the ute past another large over hang.

The view from the over hang, as you can see by my proximity to the ute it wasn't a long walk.

The Dirt.
Both the walks we did are written up in Top Walks in Victoria by Melanie Ball, which is published by Explore Australia. As far as I can tell this is Melanie's first book and she has written up some good walks. We did the White Box Walking Track which according to my GPS came out at 8.8 kilometres and climbed 208 metres, we then travelled over to do the Yeddonba Aboriginal Site Walk, at 800 metres and 45 metres of climbing it is a very short walk. Both walks are in the Chiltern - Mt Pilot National Park, I don't think we saw the best of the park in my opinion it would be a lot better in spring when the open forest would support a lot of wild flowers, having said that there was enough to keep me interested with lots of old mining history and native birds. Both walks that we completed were well marked and easy.
We ate at the Chiltern Bakery for breakfast which a typical country bakery (ie pretty good), and for our lunch we went to the Beechworth Provender which had great coffee and OK cake.

Reading the Saturday Paper with my first pair of reading glasses, I think they make me look.........OLD!

As far as I can tell the park has been renamed as the Chiltern - Mt Pilot National Park.