Three Falls Walk, Great Otway National Park - April 2016

Who would of thought that doing a waterfall walk at the tail end of a long drought maybe wouldn't be great for scenic highlights, what's that.....oh its just me. Well against every bodies better judgment I decided to head down to Lorne anyway and revisit the Three Waterfalls Walk, not being a total imbecile I figured that even if the waterfalls were somewhat barren at least I could get some photos of an interesting section of the track as it passed through The Canyon. So after dropping Sam's boots off to be re-soled in the city we motored on down to the waterfront in Geelong for breakfast.

The Geelong Waterfront.

The Geelong Waterfront is a spot that probably needs a post of its own one day, there's plenty of nice restaurants and bars. After breakfast we headed to the National Wool Museum where we checked out the visiting Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, it was slightly depressing to see that all the photos in the under 10 category were vastly superior to anything that I've ever taken! After checking out the exhibition we wandered around the National Wool Museum for awhile checking things out. The wool museum is a slightly strange place in that not only does it concentrate on our history of riding on the sheep's back but it also features other exhibitions like the aforementioned Wildlife Photographer of The Year as well as a dinosaur exhibition. The main game is wool though and it was interesting to check out all the old machinery, as well as the mock up of the shearing shed. Maybe its just me but there is nothing more Australian than the smell of a shearing shed, when I was a kid when I wasn't travelling Australia in the cab of a truck then I was spending time on relatives farms who ran cattle and sheep, so maybe once again it is just me!

The Geelong National Wool Museum even has its own Pauline Hanson bollard ( actually I may be embellishing that a bit:)

Inside the National Wool Museum.

The Demon Duck of Doom, sometimes also known as Bullockornis lived 26 million years ago. 

Yeah, I know, one dinosaur checking out another.

Leaving the Geelong Waterfront we headed down the Great Ocean Road bypassing the bright lights and earthly delights of Lorne, we instead made our way to Allenvale Mill Site Carpark. The Three falls Walk starts by passing through a small private orchard, it feels a bit wrong but so long as you keep an eye out for track markers then its the right track. Leaving the orchid the track starts to climb and will do so for the next three kilometres, initially we climbed on a foot track and then on a management track, now high above the steep valley of the Saint George River. Looking down into the river it was obvious that the country was pretty dry as instead of rushing water cascading down the rocky bed on its journey to the sea today we could only see the exposed rocky bed. Even though there was a lack of water in the river the walking high above the valley was still pleasant enough and soon enough we arrived at our first waterfall, Phantom Falls.

Passing through the orchid at the start of the walk feels wrong but its right.

Just follow the markers through the farm.

Phantom Falls lived up to their name today, they were indeed Phantom, actually they were bone dry. Not to worry, I was half expecting it as the falls rely on water being released from Allen Dam upstream to get any decent kind of a flow over them, every time that I can remember coming here they have been pretty dry so it was no surprise that in a drought they'd be pretty barren. Still I climbed down to the base of the falls to get a photo of the damp rock face, Sam not only having the looks but also the brains in the relationship decided to sit and wait for me at the top of the falls. After puffing my way back up to Sam we headed along Henderson Track, climbing solidly up the 4wd track towards the turnoff to The Canyon, the clay surface of Henderson Track sticking to my boots and giving me an extra inch of height.

Climbing up the side of the Saint George River valley.

Phantom Falls.

There was plenty of wet clay on Henderson Track.

Reaching the start of Canyon Track signals the start of the best bit of walking on this trip, the walking track contours down off the side of a spur before getting to some rocks and disappearing, well maybe not disappearing but you have to look carefully to notice that the walking track heads down through some rocks into what appears to be a cave in the ground. Climbing down we popped out into The Canyon, the walking was now a bit adventurous for a little while and we needed to use our hands in a few spots. The track through The Canyon climbs around and over a series of obstructions in the confined gorge, passing through a damp and ferny environment while above us we could see the dryer forest on the steep sided hills. 

Sam, heading down Canyon Track.

The entrance to The Canyon.

The Canyon has a bit of adventurous walking.

We could see the dryer forest on the hills above The Canyon.

There were some nice ferny sections along this bit of track.

A few switch backs later and after passing through some excellent ferny sections we arrived at our second waterfall of the walk, Henderson Falls. Well there was a few trickles of water here making their way down the mossy rock face but it wasn't exactly a gushing torrent, still I mucked around for awhile trying to do something with the scene in front of me, somewhat ironically I'd carried my little gorilla pod with me today in the hope of getting some shots of the flowing water, so where normally I'd be balancing my camera on the nearest rock to get long exposure shots (basically any waterfall shot on my blog) today I was prepared, yep I had everything but water:)

Henderson Falls.

There are a few big Mountain Ash as the track sidles the valley sides above Henderson Creek.

Heading back down the valley we visited our third waterfall of the walk, Won Wondah Falls. Now seeing as we were now downstream of Henderson Falls I didn't have high hopes for Won Wondah Falls and my expectations were met, the rocky chute appearing bone dry from our vantage point at the lookout....not to worry I'll take a couple of shots of the lookout instead, yeah you know I'm struggling when I take photos of the lookout instead of the falls. The consolation prize along here was that the walking track was quite nice, benched into the side of the hill high above the valley floor as it climbed up to meet Sharps Road. 

The lookout above Won Wondah Falls was more impressive than the falls today.

Climbing up towards Sharps Road.

A few metres after meeting Sharps Road we turned onto Allenvale Road and headed back down to the mill site and the ute. Interestingly when we were leaving Sharps Road we noticed that the road was officially closed due to storm damage, there was no sign though at the start of Canyon Track. Sharps Road is also notable as being the spot to camp if you want to devise an overnight bush walk in this part of the Great Otway National Park. We were heading down to the ute now though, the easy dirt road walking making for a pleasant finish to our walk, arriving back at the car park at the Allenvale Mill Site just on dusk we threw our boots in the back and headed off home after what had been a fairly long day.

Hmmm, it seems Sharps Road was actually closed.

Easy strolling in the early evening light back down Allenvale Road to Allenvale Mill Site Carpark.

The Dirt,

I used the notes and maps out of Walking The Otways from the house of Chapman, the book is written by the Geelong Bushwalking Club. I'd rate this as an easy walk, we walked 9.9 kilometres and climbed 297 metres, the whole walk is on good well marked tracks with only a short roughish section through The Canyon. Obviously this walk would be better in late winter or early spring when the waterfalls are hammering but even without the falls flowing the varied flora on the walk will keep most people interested, the section of the route through The Canyon is also geologically interesting as well. Like I mentioned above the Geelong Waterfront offers plenty of choices for breakfast, the National Wool Gallery houses visiting exhibitions as well as the very interesting permanent wool exhibition, its easy to spend a couple of hours poking around.

The Otways are famous for waterfalls and ferns.