Daylesford & Hepburn Springs, Hepburn Regional Park - January 2016

A couple of posts back I mentioned how I thought that I was getting over a mystery ailment that had invaded my guts, well I was a bit premature in declaring that all was well. It turned out that I had about a week of feeling OK before the dreaded bug struck me down again, to make it even more annoying I had my relapse on a long planned weekend away in Daylesford to celebrate a special occasion, what do you do? Not much really but battle on I suppose (I feel like a politician asking and answering my own questions). Anyway after a couple of hours driving the porcelain bus I woke up feeling half human so, while Sam headed to the day spa, I headed off into the scrub on a reasonable length day walk carrying two weeks worth of toilet paper in my pack for the day.

Not bad, straight out the door and onto the walk.

Who's the dork with the poles...oh hang on.

I decided to do the Daylesford & Hepburn Springs Walk as written up by Mr Chapman in his Day Walks Melbourne book, the biggest contributing factor in choosing this walk was that I could wander out the door of our accommodation and I was more or less on the described route, well that and the fact that with Hepburn Springs about halfway through the walk I could always ring Sam to pick me up if I got too crook. Last time I walked here it was the middle of winter and it was very cold and wet, today was the other extreme and I was more worried about the heat. Picking up Chapman's route I headed around Lake Daylesford passing the rebuilt Boat House Cafe, normally worth a stop but seeing I'd only been walking for about 5 minutes I reluctantly gave it a miss this morning.

There was a little trail art on the initial section of the walk, always a good thing.

Leaving the lakeside path via Central Springs I quickly left the power walkers and joggers behind and set off along an extensive series of historic water races that would more or less deliver me to Hepburn Springs in a few hours. Following the north bank of the bone dry Sailors Creek the walking was easy along the flat path, the bush along here is of the dry eucalypt variety and in the middle of summer it was looking extremely dry indeed, I couldn't help thinking of how quick a fire would rip through here. 

Sailors Creek was a little on the dry side.

The water races that I was walking on are relics from the gold mining era, indeed the whole walk had reminders of early European settlement. A lot of the mineral springs were also discovered due to mining, the dry and dusty Tipperary Springs which were discovered  by gold fossickers over 100 years ago and were my next point of call. The water from these springs normally tests my stomach at the best of times so I didn't tempt fate today, but I did take a slightly dodgy photo of the actual springs, Parks Vic has spent a lot of money rejuvenating a lot of these old springs over the last few years so if mineral water is your go then this is the region to visit. Leaving the picnic area I climbed up onto another water race cut into the side of the steep valley of Sailors Creek, on the way passing some broken china, a remnant of the early settlers I suppose.

Mid summer and the country was looking very dry.

These old water races make for easy flat walking.

A small relic from the early European days.

Tipperary Springs.

From Tipperary Springs to Bryces Flat I walked the water races on the east side of the creek, the valley through here is fairly steep and at times the water race was almost cut into the cliffs high above the dry Sailors Creek. There is a lot of gold mining history on this section of the walk, at one stage the route passes beside the old Mistletoe Mine, the deep shaft covered by some steel mesh. After the old mine the track starts to cross some old sluicing gullies, these areas are massively eroded by the mining activity but nature is slowly reclaiming them and covering some of the scars.

Mistletoe Mine.

The trail crosses a few old sluicing gullies that are slowly being reclaimed by nature.

Bryces Flat.

Bryces Flat marks the spot where I left Sailors Creek and headed into Hepburn Springs along some quiet country roads. Walking along Bald Hill Road the scenery slowly changed from the dry eucalypt forest to hobby farms and country houses as I left Hepburn Regional Park and started to head through the out skirts of Hepburn Springs. I was a little surprised that at this stage of the walk, while I had no energy, I was still feeling OK, so I headed up the hill past some of the fine old buildings to get myself some sustenance, I couldn't go wrong with a piece of cake and a lemonade.....could I?

A ye olde bridge over Sailors Creek near Bryces Flat.

Wandering along Bald Hills Road into Hepburn Springs.

Villa Parma, 1864. Hepburn Springs.

The colourful European gardens in Hepburn Springs were a stark contrast to the dry eucalypt forest on the rest of the walk.

Hmm, to slow to get a photo of the cake!

The walk back to Daylesford from Hepburn Springs heads over some dry hills after passing by Sulphur and Soda Springs, climbing into the low hills was about the point that I started to feel really crook again, maybe that cake and lemonade wasn't such a great idea, who knew? Luckily the dry forest gave me a few excuses to stop, an old fence line and the Hepburn Reservoir being the most notable. After passing above the Hepburn Reservoir I strolled through a small pine plantation before striking out across the golden grassland on the out skirts of Daylesford. 

A few of the mineral springs at Hepburn Springs.

Hepburn Reservoir.

The rural scenery provided another contrast on what is a walk with a fair bit of variety, the golden paddocks shared by some cattle and a mob of kangaroos. As I was now approaching the out skirts of Daylesford I was now walking on a quiet bitumen road, but with a flat wide grassy shoulder it wasn't much of a problem, and it had the added benefit of allowing me to concentrate on keeping my arse cheeks tightly closed rather than concentrate on where I was putting my feet. I didn't linger walking through town with my strange gait, my focus now was getting back without embarrassing myself. Dropping down to the lake edge again I once again headed around the shore to our accommodation at the Lake House, very thankful that Sam was in the room and answered the door quickly, I'll spare you the rest!

He's a big boy.

The rural country on the out skirts of Daylesford.

The dry paddocks were shared by a mob of kangaroos.

Walking through the outskirts of Daylesford allowed me to get a couple of photos with some colour in them..

I've made it.

As I mentioned above this was meant to be a special weekend for us, so we booked at The Lake House in Daylesford. This is one of the group of the Luxury Lodges of Australia and is a very nice place indeed. We had a Waterfront Suite which included a cooked breakfast each morning and a meal in their 2 Chef's Hat restaurant on one night. Our room had a fairly private balcony that looked out across the calm waters of Lake Daylesford which was a great spot to sit and read, the bathroom came complete with a spa, and the king size bed was perfect for me. The other good thing for me was that they had good free wifi.....yeah I know its not really free when you're paying a motza for the room but its surprising how many of these expensive places still want you to cough up for wifi  in Australia.

Our room at The Lake House.

If you venture out of your room the grounds of The Lake House are also very nice, with everything from well manicured lawns that lead down to a series of small lakes with their resident ducks, to a ferny wet forest area complete with a cascading creek. The restaurant was also one of the best I've been to and was a great place to sit a watch the sunset while enjoying some fine food, I'd like to tell you about the cooked breakfasts but unfortunately I didn't think that they would be my best option! Oh yeah Sam tells me that the spa at the Lake House was worth every cent as well, apparently the shoulder massage was particularly good, hmm one day I must get myself a massage.

The day spa at the Lake House comes highly recommended by Sam.

Heading in for our complimentary flash dinner, I'm already clutching at my arse by the look of it!

Unfortunately Sam didn't get a photo of the main course, mainly because it was a shared meal of Salt Bush Lamb, and even accounting for me feeling like death warmed up I was still able to polish off the lamb fairly quickly!

The Dirt.

I won't go into much detail about The Lake House here as I've just crapped on about it, it's a great place to stay for a very special occasion although you're spoilt for choice for flash accommodation in Daylesford, you'll have to make up your own mind in the value for money stakes. I've just embedded a map and I noticed that the Lake House is described as a Posh lake-view option with fine dining, yeah I've always thought of myself as pretty posh:)

Like I mentioned at the start of the post this was another Chapman walk out of his Day Walks Melbourne book, its walk number 11 in the book. I walked 19 kilometres on this stroll and climbed 414 metres. I'd rate this as a medium walk. The cooler months are probably a better time to visit this area but the walk is do able in summer, although I'd pick a cooler day. Don't rely on the mineral springs for your water requirements unless you're confident they will agree with you, I've heard of people having some adverse reactions in the past.

Our balcony was the one on the right.

Sam's quite partial to Ducks.

The Lake House have extensive landscaped gardens, we walked through this wet ferny section to access our room, they've even created a cascading creek that flows down through the ferns under the boardwalk...very nice.