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.