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| The rarely visited Old River Waterfall. |
As anyone who drops by my blog might know I'm planning on walking the Australian Alps Walking Track(AAWT) later this year. This walk has been on my radar for at least thirty years but due to many different reasons I'd never attempted the walk. Now being on the wrong side of fifty I've decided that I can procrastinate no longer, the AAWT is a tough walk and I don't think I've got that many years in front of me to complete a walk like this. So what's the AAWT got to do with a stroll out in Lerderderg State Park? Well to cut a long story short I need to harden up a bit if I want to finish the AAWT, I'm still struggling to lose the bulk that I put on last year when I had my leg operation so I need to get a bit match fit. The Old River walk over at Lerderderg has quite a few steep ups and downs as well as some off piste action, and with a day in the high twenties predicted I figured that it should provide for a bit of a work out. I'm thinking that as the year rolls by I'll be posting a few more harder walks than I normally do as my AAWT walk gets closer.
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| Looking over towards Mt Macedon this morning across misty valleys. |
Anyway, on to the the Old River Walk, this stroll heads deep into the remotest part of Lerderderg State Park and is another of those walks that I've done before. Heading out fairly early this Saturday I turned onto Lohs Lane, the starting point of my walk just before 10am, well that's early for me anyway. This walk use to start a few hundred metres along the lane before walking through a gate and ambling along the rest of the lane past some farms and a couple of red rattler carriages, now days you can drive the extra couple of hundred metres and park at Blackwood Track, hey it might only be a couple of hundred metres but it all adds up I suppose. Pulling on my boots, locking the ute and getting a start photo looking out over mist filled valleys towards Mt Macedon, I set off south down the easy Blackwood Ranges Track.
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| The mist was still lifting as I set off this morning. |
To access the Lerderderg River this walk has to complete a big loop around the Ah Kow Gully Reference Area (a no-go area), which probably adds around three or four kilometres to the days stats. The good news though is that the walk around the reference area is on good tracks, from the tops of some of the ridges I was getting views through the trees of the mist rising out of the valleys which added a bit of interest to the walk. Now while the fire tracks largely stayed on the higher ground that doesn't mean that they were flat, even the ridges at Lerderderg aren't always easy.
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This stroll has to take a massive loop around the perimeter of the Aw Kow Reference Area, it's good for the stats I suppose!
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| Fire Track walking. |
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After completing my 270˚ almost circumnavigation of the southern section of the reference area I arrived at the start of Bears Head Range Track, this signalled the start of the harder walking. Bears Head Range Track is more of your typical bushwalking pad and it was this track that I used to descend down into the depths of Lerderderg Gorge. The top section of the track descends fairly gently as the spur slowly starts to drop away more steeply to the sides, around half way down a couple of old track markers and a cairn mark the spot where the route plunges down to the Lerderderg River. This section of the walk is stunning as the pad follows the crest of the ridge sometimes less than a metre wide, with drops off both sides to keep my mind focussed. I'm pretty good with heights and scrambling, but going down this spur certainly had my concentrating.
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Time to start the serious stuff!
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These two old markers signal the spot where the Bears Head Range Track makes it's final plunge down to the bottom of Lerderderg Gorge.
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The Lerderderg River looping around the bottom of my descent spur.
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| The spur requires a little easy scrambling in a couple of spots. |
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Reaching the dry bed of the Lerderderg River on a large sweeping bend I headed a few metres up stream before turning up the Old River. Like the Lerderderg River, the Old River was dry which meant that progress up stream was just a matter of rock hoping and occasionally skirting the odd remaining pools of water. The gorge that the Old River has cut is a lot more confined than the main Lerderderg Gorge which was a good thing today as the towering sides were occasionally providing me with a little shade on what had become a very warm day. After a couple of kilometres I arrived at the Old River Waterfall, while the waterfall was dry today there was still a fair bit of inky black water in the plunge pool. Now I did consider stripping off and jumping in to cool down a bit, but with a fairly tough off track climb ahead of me I figured that I'd save my swim for when I hit the Lerderderg River again later in the afternoon, for now I contented myself with a drink and a bite to eat while I sat in the cool shade provided by the rocky bluffs.
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The Lerderderg River was dry on todays visit.
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This arching eucalyptus marks the confluence with Old River...you don't want to miss it!
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Rock hoping up the dry bed of Old River.
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| I was tempted to test out the plunge pool at the Old River Waterfall. |
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All good things come to an end though and I eventually shouldered my pack and left my shady refuge. I was now headed west up a very steep untracked spur, initially making my way up though a series of rocky bluffs I used the feral goat's pads where I could. The climb up here is very steep and I was now in direct sunlight, the open forest not doing a lot to provide me with any shade. The trick climbing up here is to stay to the highest ground, initially the spur is very wide but as I gained height it became more pronounced and therefore easier to follow. With my shirt now soaking wet with sweat I topped out on a small knoll, two cairns indicating that I wasn't the first to pass through here. The spur now turned a little north westerly and eased of a bit, I was aiming to intersect with Hogan Track on the crest of another ridge and managed to emerge from the scrub right beside another cairn, at least my navigation is going good even if my fitness isn't so flash.
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The initial climb out of Old River is steep to put it mildly.
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Higher up the gradient eased a little.
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Eventually I topped out on this small knoll which even had a couple of old cairns.
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| Popping out of the scrub onto Hogan Track, judging by the old cairn my navigation was going ok. |
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Once on Hogan Track I once again started plunging back down to the bed of the Lerderderg River. Initially Hogan Track was a fire track before it started descending very steeply on a rough foot pad, the periodic views off the rock bluffs giving my a somewhat depressing view down to the river and just how far I had to descend again. I was now starting to get a bit tired and was concentrating hard to stop myself going arse over on the steep slippery ground, so I was pretty happy to see a small grassy opening through the trees below me indicating the site of the old Ah Kow Mine and the point where I had to once again cross the Lerderderg River. Before picking up my on going pad up and out of the gorge though I wandered downstream a few metres towards a large rock bluff on a sharp corner in the gorge, I was hoping for a waterhole and that's what I found. I was a very happy Feral walker who stripped off and eased myself into the beautiful cool water, all of a sudden not feeling quite so feral. The large waterhole was almost the perfect spot to relax and cool down before I had to take on the longest most sustained climb of the walk.
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The day was becoming a little unsettled.
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Mt Blackwood (where my ute was parked) doesn't look too far away, does it!
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| It was a bloody long way back down to the river though. |
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The old Ah Kow Mine Ruins, I'm back at the Lererderg River.
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There were some nice swimming spots left in the gorge.
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It doesn't get much better than this I reckon.
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| The spur in the middle distance is my route out of Lerderderg Gorge. |
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Suitably refreshed after my swim I back tracked a few metres and after scouting around the west side of the Lerderderg River I picked up Aw Kow Track climbing almost vertically out of the gorge. While not quite as steep as my climb out of the Old River Gorge this climb was a lot longer, not to worry I just plodded along, one foot in front of the other and as is always the case before I knew it I was making good progress. Looking south I was happy that I wasn't climbing the next spur down the gorge as it looked even steeper, although the numerous rocky bluffs did look like fun but unfortunately this spur runs right through the guts of the Aw Kow Gully Reference Area so they'll be no off piste exploring there. Eventually the gradient eased off a bit and I met up with an old fire track, which I then followed along the tops of another of those undulating Lerderderg ridges.
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That'd be my track.
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My spur was steep but the next one to the south of me looked even steeper.
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| The top of the spur followed a long ago closed fire track. |
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The cleared land around Mt Blackwood was now looking very close as I got glimpses through the trees. After passing by a memorial for a member of the Melton Bushwalking club, my faint track emerged out onto the wide open spaces of Blackwood Ranges Track, which had been my outward route this morning. All that was left now was to walk back up past some farmland, checking out some old machinery on the way I was soon back at the ute. The final 4 kilometre, 300 metre climb had taken my just over an hour in the mid afternoon heat, maybe there is hope for me finishing the AAWT after all!
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There's a bit of old farm (or maybe mining?) machinery littering the forest near the end of the walk.
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| Hey hey, I'm back. |
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The Dirt.
This is a fairly hard walk, I walked 18.9 kilometre and climbed 960 metres over the course of the day. The tracks today are a bit of a mixed bag, they range from easy, well sign posted fire tracks, to very steep single track that requires some scrambling, to long sections completely off track. I used a set of Glenn Tempest's old notes out of his Daywalks Around Melbourne book which date back to 2005. I also used Meridian Maps Lerderderg & Werribee Gorges 1:35,000 sheet. Lerderderg Gorge is a great spot for a bit of tough walking close to Melbourne, it can be a bit snaky in summer though.
Relevant Posts.
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| The mist has well and truly lifted, looking across to Mt Macedon. |
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| The author in his natural environment. |
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