Dandenong Ranges Walk, Dandenong Ranges National Park - November 2015

So after last weeks epic things returned to normal this week, instead of pushing through Grampians scrub I walked some nice clear trails in the Dandenong Ranges National Park. The other thing that returned to normal was my Saturday morning routine, coffee, breakfast, the papers, more coffee and then lob at the trail head in the early afternoon. I suppose the one advantage of my sloth like starts is that I end up walking that late in the day that the low afternoon sun can help out with my photos a bit. Now before we get too far into this post I need to warn you that it is gong to feature a lot of big trees and impossibly green ferns, now I like big trees and ferns but if they are not your thing maybe this isn't the post for you.

Yeah, they'll be plenty of photos of trees in this post, this is Olinda Falls Picnic Area.

For todays ramble I decided to do one of the walks written up by Glenn Tempest, his Dandenong Ranges Walk, and while over the years I think I've walked all the tracks on the walk at sometime or another I'd never actually linked them together in this sequence, so I could claim that this was a new walk for me (not that I want to come across as a bushwalking nerd or anything!). Knowing the area fairly well has its advantages however, as when I arrived at the suggested start point of Olinda and found it overrun with day trippers from Melbourne, and with no parking options to be found, I was able to drive on a bit and park at the Olinda Falls Picnic Ground, a spot that I'd started numerous walks on over the years and I knew wouldn't be to busy. Sure enough the car park was only half full and I soon had the GPS re zeroed and my boots on, time to head off.

Plenty of ferns as well, this is on the climb up Mechanics Track.

Now if the photos have a bit of sameness about them, then the writing maybe a bit bland as well, basically everything went to plan so there is not much colour to fill in the post. Starting the walk at the 5.7 kilometre mark in my notes had me walking one of the most enjoyable sections first, the walk up Mechanics Track. The walk up Mechanics Track follows tributary of Olinda Creek upstream, the track can get a bit overgrown and crowded with ferns but today it was clear and pleasant to walk. The track stays in the shallow gully all the way up to Mechanics Reserve and the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road, the gully being deep enough that for the most part I was unaware of the houses above while immersed in my green ferny world, the only noise I could hear for the most part were the local birds and the babbling creek.

Reaching Mount Dandenong Tourist Road the feel of the walk changes a bit, making my way across the busy road I entered the Mount Dandenong Arboretum. I now headed up through the arboretum and the introduced trees gave my photos a bit of colour, the walk now followed a gassy track all he way up through the arboretum until I met Ridge Road. Crossing Ridge Road I picked up the gravel Kyeema Track which contours around the western slopes of the Mount Dandenong summit, almost immediately I turned left up a steep un named track to visit the summit of Mount Dandenong. The steep climb had me puffing a bit but the camera around my neck gave me a legitimate reason to stop and get my breath back as I snapped away.

Mount Dandenong Arboretum.

Mount Dandenong is the highest hill closest to Melbourne, (yeah that makes sense you idiot!) well its the lookout most Melbournians visit for an aerial look at the city. Apart from a lookout the summit of Mount Dandenong also has a restaurant and reception centre, over the years it has had a bit of a chequered history, for a long period of time it fell into disrepair, now however its all go and the place was full of punters enjoying the nice weather while taking in the view and a meal. There is plenty of room to wander around up there though even if you don't want to go for a meal, I spent a few minutes trying to get a photo of the Melbourne CBD that looked half decent but the hazy sky didn't help me much.

The view to the CBD was a bit hazy today.

Sky High restaurant on Mount Dandenong.

Deciding that no matter what I tried I wasn't going to get the haze to clear I packed up and continued on my walk, where as the forest up to here had been towering Mountain Ash, the forest high up on the western slopes of Mount Dandenong was mainly Stringybark, like the Mountain Ash they too grow pretty much vertically straight up, although they are only about half as tall as the towering Mountain Ash. Returning back down to Kyeema Track I now followed the contouring track, first underneath the summit and then to the Kyeema Memorial Cairn. This is very near the spot where the DC-2 Kyeema crashed in poor visibility in 1938 on its journey from Adelaide to Essendon in Melbourne killing all 18 people on board, the spot is a little neglected now days and could probably use a little love.

The walk passes the Kyeema Memorial.

Leaving the Kyeema Memorial I passed the hang glider platform at Burkes Lookout and then passed underneath the transmission towers of Melbourne's commercial television stations, the channel 10 one is the biggest and also the closest to the track. Now I picked up Zig Zag Track and dropped steeply down the steep slippery gravel track before meeting up with Channel 10 Track and following that along to Dandenong Creek Track. Following the undulating Dandenong Creek Track I was now back in Mountain Ash and fern country which once again gave me plenty of excuses to stop and take photos. Since leaving the summit of Mount Dandenong I'd been walking along a succession of fire tracks but o meeting Olinda - Basin Road I picked up a bushwalkers pad that had me climbing to meet the wide grassy fire break of Ridge Road.

The Channel 10 transmission tower.

Climbing up the wide Ridge Road was the hardest climb of the walk, well at least initially. Putting my head down I trudged on and the hardest climbing was over in around 15 minutes when I arrived at the locked gate that marked my entry into Olinda. Passing through the gate I was still on Ridge Road but now it was a suburban bitumen street, the gradient a lot easier as I continued to climb for another 500 metres. Initially I thought that I would stop and re caffeinated in one of the many cafes in Olinda but as I made the short descent into town I could see that there was still way to many people around for my liking, so I decided to just walk straight through town a pass up the culinary temptations, I've probably got enough fat stored on me that I'd last a few weeks without eating anyway.

Lower down Ridge Road is a wide fire break, but it was a solid climb.

Ridge Road still climbing a little through the outskirts of Olinda.

Leaving town on Olinda - Monbulk Road made for an easy interlude on my stroll before, after passing the golf course I turned off and headed back into the towering forest along Golf Course Track. I was now heading towards Mathias Road through a section of the R.J.Hamer Forest Arboretum and once again the introduced trees, along with the wild flowers helped my photos a bit. Apart from the beauty of the trees I seem to remember that the R.J.Hamer Arboretum was established to help protect Olinda from bush fires as the introduced flora doesn't burn as fiercely as our native eucalyptus.

Turning onto the closed gravel Mathias Road the walk now contoured the slopes below the National Rhododendrum Gardens, although being surrounded by native bush you wouldn't even know that you were so close to the gardens unless you peruse your map. Now came the hardest navigational challenge of the walk, picking up the start of Predator Track, the track isn't marked and starts as a very faint pair of wheel tracks across a large grassy opening, once I hit the forest though the track was a lot more obvious and I followed it all the way down to Bartlett Track passing through another pretty grassy opening on the way. Meeting Bartlett Track it was a matter of turning west along it for a couple of minutes before making my way down to Doreys Bridge on Falls Road, yeah more ferns and Mountain Ash.

The route through the R.J.Hamer Forest Arboretum.

I now headed down to Olinda Falls to check them out, if you want to see a good photo of the falls don't look here, check out Mr Fiasco's work. If you want to see a dodgy photo with the camera resting on the safety rail you're in the right place. After checking out the top of the falls I trudged down to the base of the falls and attempted to take even dodgier photo's, this time using my knee as a tripod, who'd have guessed that wouldn't work out hey. While I was mucking around trying to use my knee as a tripod a group of tourists wandered down from the carpark, the old man posing for a photo while scooping up the water and drinking it, I suggested that maybe it wasn't a good idea to drink the water out of Olinda Creek seeing that there a a large number of houses in the catchment, I'm not sure how he has pulled up a few days later but he might want to google giardia.

Looking into the late afternoon sun at the top of Olinda Falls.

Like I said, check out Mr Fiasco's photos if you want to see how professionals do it!

All that was left to do now was to climb from the falls back up the the car park and the ute, throw my sweaty gear in the back and head home for a hot shower. An hour later I was walking in the door at home after another great days walking. Reading through this post before I click on the publish button it comes across to me as a bit like 'bushwalking by numbers' so I'll have to work on that in the future, I don't want to end up re-writing route notes.

The final climb of the day.

The Dirt.
As I mentioned at the start this walk was written up by Glenn Tempest in his 'Daywalks Around Victoria' book, its walk number 23 in his book. According to my GPS I walked 18.8 kilometres and climbed around 683 metres on this stroll. I'd rate this a medium grade walk. Starting the walk at the Olinda Falls Picnic Ground gives you a couple of options for food and drink, the first is Mount Dandenong about 3 kilometres in and the second is the Olinda township after about 12 kilometres. The walk follows well marked trails all the way, the only trick being to keep an eye out for the start of Predator Track, although if you miss it you can just wander down Falls Road and rejoin the route at Doreys Bridge, you're not going to get seriously bushed on this walk.