Goin' Feral One Day At A Time: Pyramid Rock & Red Bluff

Well I'm back in Australia, no matter how good my O/S trips are (and the West highland Way was great) there is nothing better than coming home, and hey we've got a new PM, that can only be a positive. When George Dubya was president of the free world a lot of American's told me that they would tell people that they were Canadians when they were O/S, taking that on board I decided that I'd become a Kiwi if people asked where I was from (sweet, hey bro!). I kept the charade up until we arrived at the Kings House Hotel in the Scottish highlands after a stunning days walking, here we had our first wifi for a few days so of course Sam logged onto her Facebook page and one of the first messages that came up was about us having another prime minister. Please let it be true I mumbled in my dodgy kiwi accent whilst I quickly tried to get onto an Aussie news website, well I'm not going to say the news was better than sex, but I am old and broken so it was probably a close second! And while Malcom in the middle is still in the wrong party I think, it'll be interesting to see how Mal goes with the hard right conservative rump of his own party who will be out to screw him, I think we are in for interesting times its probably a case of watch this space.

Anyway we got back in last weekend so being a bit jet lagged I didn't get out for a stroll, then I was back to work and of course I got crook, so its just been a matter of battling through while eating cold and flu tablets. The first opportunity for a bit of a walk came on Friday, not only do we have a public holiday for a horse race we now have one for a football match. With the weather being perfect Sam decided to accompany me so we headed down to Phillip Island to do the Pyramid Rock walk, a walk that I've done numerous times over the years. The Pyramid Rock walk fulfilled all the criterior for today, that being that its easy, relatively flat and short, and that it would give me some nice views, the only negative that I could see was that it was a retrace, not my favourite type of walk. Arriving at the start of the trail at the Berrys Beach Carpark I pulled out the GPS to reset the trip odometer, 16545 kilometres, now that's a fair walk, actually that's the distance from Fort William in Scotland to Berrys Beach in Victoria, but its the biggest number I've ever seen on my GPS.

This walk is well signposted.

So anyway off we went, the trail initially follows a dirt road that services the houses that have sprung up above the beach before passing through a gate into the coastal reserve. Crossing a gully we climbed up the grassy track as it contoured above Berry Beach, Red Bluff was already prominent in front of us. A lot of the trail today is a mowed grassy swathe and it makes for easy walking. The trail climbs very gently up to a lookout on Redcliff Bluff, this provided our first good views out to Bass Strait and also the objective for today, Pyramid Rock. Looking down to the rock shelves along the coast we could see that there was a big swell running, with waves smashing metres into the air.

Our first look at Red Bluff.

A lot of the trail consists of a mown grassy swathe along the tops of the cliffs.

From the top of Redcliff Bluff most of the climbing for the day was done, we now meandered our way along the cliff tops east towards Pyramid Rock, easily distinguishable by the amount of tourists at the lookout. The walking along the cliff tops is mainly through reclaimed farmland, with revegatated coastal scrub and native grasses it allows for uninterrupted views out to sea in one direction, and a rolling hills of farmland in the other direction. After numerous photographic stops we eventually arrived at the dusty Pyramid Rock Carpark and quickly headed off out along the boardwalk to the lookout.

Following a nice and easy boardwalk through he coastal scrub.

Looking back towards the west.

Pyramid Rock.

The lookout at Pyramid Rock is quite a scenic spot, the boardwalk takes you safely out to the sand of a promontory, with the cliffs dropping away around you there isn't much to get in the way of the views. Apart from the view of the rocky outcrop that is Pyramid Rock we were also lucky today that the pigs face was flowering, so the red cliffs had the added splashes of pink and white flowers, the only negative was the constant drone of the super bikes at the racetrack few hundred metres away.

Pigs face.

Pyramid Rock from the lookout.

There was a decent swell running today.

One of the advantages of our sloth like pace today was that by the time we turned and headed back towards Berrys Beach it was getting late in the day which meant that the light was a little better for photo's and also that the Wallabies were coming out to feed. So that was basically the story of our return walk, I spent the walk trying to get photo's of the wildlife and do something with the setting sun, soaking in the warm sunshine. After checking out the lookout at the carpark above Berry Beach, we headed back to the ute and set off on the relaxing 80 minute drive home, we are lucky to have such uncrowded and clean places so close to home.

Heading back now in the late afternoon, trying to do something with the light, this is the cliffs above Storm Bay.

The Wallabies are coming out to feed.

Looking west into the setting sun.

The cliffs of Cape Woolamai in the distance, one of the first walks I wrote up on the blog.

The Dirt.

We walked 7.5 kilometres on this stroll and climbed 96 metres. This is an easy walk that is within the capabilities of most people. I used some really old notes out of 'Daywalks Around Melbourne' by Glenn Tempest, they're from the first edition of the book which is long since out of print. Really though you don't need notes, just follow the signs and then return the way you came. If you want to see this place at its best go late in the day as the setting sun brings out the red in Red Bluff and the Wallabies come out to feed on the open grassland.