Enfield Forest, Enfield State Park - July 2016

The route crosses this shallow dam early on.

It's been awhile since I've walked up at Enfield Forest so, needing a walk that would continue to test my leg out a bit (this walk was done while my leg was still in the rehab stage)....but not break it, I decided to head over and check it out again. Last time I walked this circuit was on a baking hot summers day, with the ambient temperature this morning hovering around the single digits I figure today's experience may be a little different. The Enfield State Park is another area that is home to a lot of old gold mines, a fairly common feature of any parks to the north and west of Melbourne. Another common feature of these parks is that nearly all of them feature dry open eucalyptus forest that is best experienced in the colder months, Enfield Forest is home to a large number of wild flowers in late winter and spring so I was hoping to maybe practice my macro shots a little today.

It would appear that horse riders aren't that popular in Enfield State Park.

As I mentioned the weather was a bit marginal this morning, driving down through Ballarat in the misty drizzle I was starting to wonder if I should of just spent the morning drinking coffee and reading the papers. After parking the ute at the end of Dredge Road in Enfield it took a little will-power to pull my old boots on and brave the weather, but once I was off and walking all was good. This walk starts off passing through a labyrinth of old tracks and old gold mines as it heads towards a dam, being a state park there aren't as many regulations here and I was already starting to notice where my bogan shooter and trail bike mates had been leaving there mark on the ground (or, in the case of the shooters any signpost that didn't duck). After passing over some duck boarding and making my way through numerous old mulluck heaps I arrived at the shallow dam, the still early morning conditions making for some half reasonable photos.

There are even a few sections of duck boarding near the start.

Starting down the Dunns Gully Walking Track.

Once I'd crossed the dam wall I started to descend fairly gently into the shallow valley of Dunn Gully, I'd now follow this shallow valley for the next couple of hours all the way to Surface Point Picnic Area. The walk along here generally contours along the side of the hills above the creek and on the map it looks pretty easy but I found myself climbing steeply in and out of numerous steep side gullies, the wet steep clay would have been slippery enough but my trail bike mates had also decided to use the walking track as an enduro track and had cut the damper sections up badly making them even slipperier. So it was a fairly careful Feral Walker who eased his way along this morning, I wasn't keen to go arse over with my dodgy leg, especially considering that the doctor said I could only start exercising next week.

Trail bikes have cut up this section of track, the damage was particularly bad where the track crosses side gullies.

The open forest made for nice walking though.

There was a little bit of fungi around if I looked hard enough.

Meeting the end of Wattle Track I came to what looked like a crime scene with all sorts of random pieces of rubbish littered around the area, its amazing how the rubbish quota increases the closer you get to a spot that has motorised access. Closing in on Surface Point Picnic Area the trail starts to pass through large areas that have been sluiced for gold, the trail alternates between old water races and weaving its way through the mullock heaps, it would pay to stay on the track through here as there are a lot of old mine shafts around as well. Surface Point was the site of an old village back in the 1850's although the only real evidence now is the sluicing scars on the hill sides.

The closer I got to Surface Point Picnic Area the more evidence of old gold mining I started to see.

There's some nice sections along old water races.

Cherry Ballart.

The trail passes some of these mullock heaps.

Surface Point Picnic Area was a good spot to stop for awhile and have a break. I'd been lucky so far today in that while I'd had a couple of passing showers I hadn't as yet needed to put on my rain jacket, the grey overcast conditions weren't doing much for my photos though. Dropping down from the picnic area to a three way intersection of roads near the bridge over Mt Misery Creek I located the faint walking track heading along the east bank of Firth Gully. The steeper sides of Finn Gully now thinned out the number of my trail bike mates who could access this section of the walk, and on reaching an un-marked track junction about half way up Finn Gully eliminated the trail bike damage totally.

There was a large number of Chinese miners that lived around Surface Point back in he 1850's.

The ongoing route follows the east bank of the creek.

This is where the trail bike damaged finished on the route along Finn Gully, bikes exit to the right, walkers follow a pad heading up the valley to the left of the fallen tree, it's a bit vague to start with.

The rest of the walk up Finn Gully towards Bald Hill was a little rougher in spots, the track climbing, sometimes very steeply, in and out of numerous side gullies. Eventually the route starts a more sustained climb through dry forest to the east, popping out of the trees right near the intersection of Incolls Road and Misery Creek Roads at Bald Hill. The hard(ish) part of todays walk was now over though, all that was left for me to do was to nurse my throbbing leg down the gently descending Incolls Road towards Enfield. As Incolls Road meanders its way east it passes by an Air Navigation Facility, now it was heartening to see that our responsible shooters had taken pot shots at the sign asking them not to blow the bejesus out of the area, maybe I'm just getting old and cranky like Sam says....

Climbing up through some nice open forest towards Bald Hill.

It gets a bit cold and wet up here.

Heading down Incolls Road from Bald Hill.

hmmm

Now I mentioned earlier that Enfield State Park is normally home to a profusion of wildflowers, but apart from the ubiquitous heath I hadn't actually noticed any colour lighting up the sometimes drab greens of the scrub. So after turning off Incolls Road and starting the last kilometre back to the ute on Dredge Road I was happy to spot some Sun Orchids (although I've now been reliably informed that they were Hardenbergia not Sun Orchids) flowering on beside the track in a damper section of the forest. Now the pressure was on though, I had to get a photo that at least partly did them justice, oh well, no choice really, I was soon down on all fours goin' feral in the mud trying to get a shot that I could use. Normally I walk in shorts so a bit of mud doesn't worry me too much, but with my dodgy leg still bandaged to my knee I've been walking in long pants recently, the one disadvantage of the long pants attire is that when I get down and dirty my pants get dirty too, I must look like the most clumsiest bushwalker around, with my dirty knees, oh well least I don't have to look at me. So, with wet patches on my knees (hey wet patches on other places would be worse!) I arrived back at the ute, relieved once again to find it unmolested.

Yep, follow the arrow. Heading back to the ute through the maze of tracks behind Enfield.

Finally after around 16 kilometres I found myself an orchid that was flowering, well they looked like an orchid to my untrained eyes but apparently they are called Hardenbergia, oh well I guess I'll have to head back up to the Enfield Forest and see if I can actually spot one of the orchids that its famous for. 

I can just see the ute through the trees, the last bit of the walk was a little on damp side.

The Dirt.

I walked 16.8 kilometres and climbed 501 metres on this medium standard stroll. This is another walk from the House of Chapman's Day Walks Victoria, now my stats and the Chapman's stats are normally a bit out of sync, but on this walk the metres climbed was miles out, the notes suggested only 185 metres of climbing over the route but my GPS almost tripled it, my gut feeling is that my GPS is pretty close to the mark as there are a lot of short sharp climbs and descents out of side gullies which all add up at the end of the day. This is a nice walk if you like gold mining history, or indeed you want to do a little prospecting with a metal detector. Unfortunately I must have been a little early for the carpet of wildflowers, so I'd recommend heading to Enfield State Park at the end of winter and hopefully the open forest will be carpeted in flowers. Oh yeah, this walk would probably be best done on a week day if you want to avoid most of my motorised bogan mates.

Relevant Posts.

Lal Lal Forest 2015

Beehive Falls, Grampians National Park - August 2016

Beehive Falls.

It's been a little while since I did a walk up in the Grampians National Park so with a Friday Night/Saturday free I figured that I'd head up and revisit the park. My mate James was keen to get away for a bit of a break as well so after packing enough of James' gear into my ute to house a small army, we headed off into the night. Now the forecast for this weekend wasn't looking real flash so it wasn't no real surprise that we spent a large part of our journey up there driving through the rain. Thankfully when we arrived at the Plantation Camp Ground the rain held off while we erected our tents. Plantation Camp was surprisingly crowded, in fact it was the most crowded national park camp ground that I'd been in for awhile which was a bit weird to me as Plantation Camp isn't normally one of the most popular spots in the Grampians. Maybe the crowds were due to Stapylton Camp still being closed so all the rock climbers were down here, I dunno.....

The Plantation Camping Ground was fairly busy on this damp day.

After a night of wind and rain we packed up our damp tents and headed off....for breakfast in Halls Gap, yep hard core walking indeed. After a couple of cups of coffee and some healthy bacon and eggs we finally decided that we'd better head off on a walk before the whole day disappeared entirely into a haze of newspapers and caffeine. Pulling on the walking gear we jumped in the ute and headed back up the Mount Zero Road to Roses Gap, arriving at the car park to be greeted by continuing light rain. This area of the Grampians was severely burn't a few years ago and is slowly being re opened to the punters, you didn't have to look  far to see evidence left over from the fires though.

This end of the park is slowly being re opened after the bush fires of a couple of years ago, there is still a lot of evidence from the fires around though. 

A lot of my favourite tracks are still closed.

We were heading to Beehive Falls to check them out, these small falls flow from the Mount Difficult Range and are best seen after rain so we figured that with all the recent rain that we'd been having then the falls should be looking ok today. Pulling on the rain jacket we meandered our way along the wide track, James was like an impatient puppy anxious to get to the falls, I was more circumspect and taking it a bit slower, this was the first walk that I'd done without my leg being bandaged up since my operation so I wasn't sure how it would go. This walk slowly climbs up to a small amphitheatre in the range where the falls tumble down, and while it does climb it's a very gentle ascent really.

Low cloud draped the Mount Difficult Range this morning.

The last few metres to the base of the falls is a bit rocky.

Beehive Falls looked at their best today.

After crossing over Mud Hut Creek on the substantial bridge we climbed up the now rocky track to the base of the falls. We were right about the rain too, the falls were flowing as good as on any visit that I'd seen them. Beehive Falls are quite a pretty waterfall, the surrounding sandstone cliffs are a mixture of browns and oranges that would look quite impressive in the late afternoon light I would think, even in the damp and overcast conditions today they looked pretty good. The tannin stained water itself has the colour of iced tea and with the numerous swirl pools as it cascaded down there are plenty of opportunities for arty wanker shots, and while I may be a wanker, unfortunately I'm not very arty...so these shots are the best I could do.

The Briggs Bluff track was closed just above Beehive Falls.

We mucked around near the falls for at least 30 minutes which turned out to be a good thing, as when we turned  and started to head down to the ute the grey cloud started to break and we got some glimpses of blue sky. The surrounding sandstone cliffs and turrets, more prominent than normal due the vegetation having been knocked back a fair bit in the bush fires, definitely looked a little better under blue skies. After spending some time watching a couple of wedge tail eagles soaring on the thermals we arrived back at the ute, the good news was that my leg appeared to be holding up ok so it was with a little more confidence that I set off up the road for our next adventure.

While we were mucking around at the falls the cloud started to lift, the blue sky enhancing the photos a bit.

The Mount Difficult Range.

The Dirt.

Are you sitting down?.... Wait for it....we walked a grand total of 4.1 kilometres on this walk, and I reckon 2 kilometres were racked up rock hoping around taking photos. The metres climbed was hardly gob smacking either, 131 metres isn't really going to send your lungs into melt down. While Beehive Falls probably aren't worth a visit to the Grampians in their own right they are definitely worth checking out if you find yourself in the area, especially if it's been raining recently. The easy track up to the falls is very well constructed until you pass over Mud Hut Creek around 50 metre from the base of the falls, from here on it's a little rocky under foot but its a walk that would still be suitable for young kids. I had some old notes and a mud map out of Tyrone Thomas' book 80 Walks In The Grampians but really you only need the free stuff Parks Vic have online, the best map for the area is probably Spatial Vision's Northern Grampians 1:50,000 sheet.

Relevant Posts.

The Seven Dials, Grampians National Park, 2015

Troopers Creek to Halls Gap, Grampians National Park, 2004

Mt Rosea, Grampians National Park, 2014

Wonderland Walk, Grampians National Park, 2014

The bush is recovering well from the fires.

You Yangs, You Yangs Regional Park - July 2016

Well I'm back at work now, my dodgy leg is slowly getting better, however the doc says that I still shouldn't be doing to much physical activity. The lack of any exercise is having a corresponding effect on my waistline, if I sit on the couch much longer then I'll have to find a shop selling XXXXL bushwalking gear and I'm betting that they're isn't a huge market for XXXXL bushwalking gear. Now apart from walking I normally keep my fat guts under control riding the 30 kilometres to and from work but as you would assume I'm not allowed to do that either. So the plan is now to do a bit of swimming, only thing is that I have to wait for all the cuts in my leg to completely heal up, so that's another week away as well. With a few shorter walks already under my belt post op I decided to attempt something a bit longer today, the You Yangs is another place that I've visited a bit over the years, now days I'm more often Mountain Biking at the You Yangs so I figured that it might be time to re visit some of the walking tracks in the park.

It was an early start this morning.

Waking to some sub Antarctic Melbourne weather was a bonus today as I still have some fairly substantial bandages on my leg, which combined with long pants make for pretty warm walking for someone like me who normally wanders around in shorts even in the depths of winter. I arrived at the Turntable Carpark at around 8:30am to be greeted by showers scudding across the granite covered mountains. Mountains may be a little optimistic actually as Flinders Peak, the highest spot on the walk is only 347 metres above sea level, but as the You Yangs rise out of the barren plains west of Melbourne which are basically at sea level then its a high 347 metres! Anyway with wet weather gear stashed in my pack I set off towards my first objective of the day, the summit of Flinders Peak.

That's Geelong in the distance.

I was sharing the track at this early hour with a few joggers but apart from that the sometimes very busy park was deserted. The walk up to Flinders Peak involves hundreds of steps so I took my time, trying to make sure that I wasn't over working my dodgy leg, luckily the early morning light was good so I was able to stop and muck around with my camera a bit. After passing a lookout that gives an aerial view of Bunjil, a Geoglyph in the valley below, as well as the Melbourne skyline in the distance. Not long after passing the lookout I shuffled my way to the summit, to be greeted by a very cold wind and a shower of rain. Luckily the showers were passing through quickly so after waiting a few minutes I was once again under blue skies. Flinders Lookout provides for some great views down to Geelong and beyond in one direction, and Melbourne and the CBD in the other direction, to the south east I could see the ships making their way through Port Phillip Bay.

Bunjil, a Geoglyph constructed by artist Andrew Rogers to commemorate the local Wathaurong Aboriginal people.

The summit of Flinders Peak.

Looking down to Geelong and Corio Bay from Flinders Peak.

The view north from Flinders Peak, this is the view Matthew Flinders had when he climbed the peak in 1802, well without the quarry and the cleared land.

Dropping down off Flinders Peak I retraced my route unit I hit the turn off for the East West Walk, this track basically circumnavigates Flinders Peak, weaving its way around the mountain through a labyrinth of granite boulders. East West Track is a little rougher than the climb up Flinders Peak, the loose granite on the ground can make for some slippery walking conditions so once again I was pretty slow and careful not to go arse over. The western side of the mountain was still shaded at this early hour, which combined with the showers coming across from the south west made for some chilly conditions, as well as for some rapidly changing light conditions to take photos in. One minute I'd be in grey cold rain coming in sideways, literally a minute later I'd be bathed in blue sky and sunshine, unless you've lived in Melbourne you'd think I'm exaggerating, you'd think so but I'm not!

The East West track is a little rougher than the climb up Flinders Peak.

East West Track.

After passing above The Saddle around to the eastern slopes the track climbed a little, passing above some huge granite slabs which once again gave good views to the east. I was now meeting a few other walkers on the track and it wasn't long until I started to hear the sound of cars signalling my immanent arrival back at the Turntable Carpark. Now you'd think that having walked around 6 or 7 k's I'd call it a day, but instead of climbing into the warm embrace of the heated seats in the ute I headed down Branding Yard Trail. Branding Yard Trail drops from the Turntable Carpark, lazily zig-zagging its way down to a flat area in a the shallow valley to the east.

Some more weather coming in from the south west.

A minute or so later and the skies would be blue again.

Branding Yard Trail is an easier walk than East West Walk, once down in the valley the walking is more or less flat. The trail also passes through a bit more of an unaltered natural environment, it was particularly good today with the wattle blooming and adding a vivid splash of bright yellow to the sometimes drab greens, the Yellow Gums in the damper spots also looking good the soft winter sunlight. After checking out Bunjil up close, just a jumble of rocks from down here, I continued on the Branding Yard Trail. Now I'm not sure who marked the track out but talk about meander, I could often see the gravel path meandering through the light forest ahead of me almost doubling back on itself. You'd swear that the trail builders were intent on getting the kilometre stats up when they marked this walk.

Branding Yard Trail is a fairly easy stroll.

There was plenty of wattle flowering today.

Looking back up towards Flinders Peak.

Eventually I emerged from the scrub to pass over Branding Yard Road, the views to the south from the road showing yet another rain squall heading my way. Seeing the rain on its way I set off on my climb back up to the Turntable Carpark with a little more urgency, the thing with my leg is that it actually feels fine when I'm walking but I've got to be careful not to cause any internal damage, hence the no exercise directive, so my head was constantly telling my body to go slower, but my body actually feels good. I copped a bit of rain on the climb back up to the car park, but once again managed to get by without donning the wet weather gear, with the help of numerous large rocks and caves I'd actually managed the whole walk without the need to put on the gortex, so that was a definite bonus.

The Yellow Gums (I think) were a feature along Branding Yard Trail.

It's impossible to make out the shape of the Geoglyph from ground level.

The Dirt.

I walked 13.3 kilometres today and climbed 564 metres, I'd probably class this as an easy walk. I used notes from the House of Chapman's Day Walks Melbourne its walk number 6 in the book. The walk can be split into three easier walks if you wanted to, as the carpark forms the basis for each leg. This walk features plenty of views as well as passing through some nice open forest, littered with huge granite boulders in places. Parks Vic has a lot of free stuff online for the You Yangs Regional Park and I'm pretty sure that Glen Tempest and Tyrone Thomas have also published notes about walks within the park as well.

Sections of Branding Yard Trail meander around like a drunken sailor, the track is well marked though.

The shower that has just passed through making its way towards Melbourne.