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| Early morning, Lake Mournpall. |
The Hattah Lakes area of Victoria has always been a bit of a Feral favourite, the immediate area has great walking, plenty of interesting drives and great swimming and camping on the banks of the Murray River. So looking for a red dirt walk Hattah-Kulkyne National Park was an obvious place for me to head. It's a little bit of an epic getting there from my house in the south east of Melbourne's sprawling suburbs though. After having dinner while we waited for the Friday peak hour traffic to calm down a bit we headed off, six hours later we pulled into the park after an interesting drive through the rain and wind. It wasn't just the drive that was hard work though, arriving into the national park we headed to the Lake Hattah camp only to find it closed off due to flooding. After hanging a u-ey we headed a little further into the park to spend what was left of the night at Lake Mournpall camp, finally crawling into the tent after 1am.
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| The huge red gums not only need the floods to drink but also to regenerate, the line of tees out in the water have germinated from an earlier flood. I'm thinking that the red gum in the fore ground is a canoe tree judging by the shape of the scar on it, although that is a feral fact. |
The original plan had been for us (yes, I'd dragged Sam up on the road trip) to walk a circuit heading out from Lake Hattah camp, but with the start of the walk well and truly under water we went to plan 'B'. Crawling out of the tent early next morning I staggered a few metres to the shore of Lake Mournpall to see the water lapping the trunks of the gnarly old red gums. Hattah-Kulkuyne National Park is a Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO as well as a Wetland of International Importance. Unfortunately up until a few years ago these desert lakes were nearly always bone dry, the nearby Murray River rarely having a flood significant enough to spill into the wetlands nowadays. Thankfully, with a lot of the old red gums literally dying of thirst some environmental water was found for the lakes. With the Murray River not getting high enough to fill Chalka Creek (an anabranch off the Murray River that is the inlet and outlet of the lakes) it was decided to dam the upstream end of Chalka Creek and pump the water in from there, the water then slowly flows down Chalka Creek, filling the fresh water lakes and billabongs as it goes.
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Lake Mournpall camp.
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| We had a guest for brekky. |
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With brekky finished and camp packed up we decided to head off on the Lake Mournpall Circuit, with the track not having to cross Chalka Creek I was hopeful that we might get around it. Around 100 metres into the walk we passed our first track closed due to flooding sign, things weren't looking so good. Now most people would just head back to the vehicle at that point I'm thinking but we decided to keep walking, passing another track closed due to flooding 50 metres later. I'm not totally stupid though, we were actually heading west up into sand dune country and more importantly away from the lake shore, so I figured that unless the clay pans between the dunes were flooded then we should be OK along here and if worst came to worst it would be easy enough to head off piste east back onto the major Mournpall Track. With the day still fairly young the light up in the sand dune country was pretty good and it wasn't long before Sam was a long way ahead of me as I mucked around taking photos.
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Most of the tracks are fairly well sign posted up at Hattah.
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We've walked around 100 metres, it wouldn't be a Feral walk without some kind of issue.....
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Yep, that's our route climbing the sand dune behind the sign.
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Being fairly early the light in the dunes was pretty good this morning.
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Mallee tree
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| The low Mallee scrub sometimes poses a few problems when trying to get an interesting photo. |
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Slowly making our way north east we crossed Konardin Track before climbing onto the crest of another big dune, this time we were looking down at a large gassy area complete with some kangaroos grazing on the green grass under some native pines. Upon the ridge there was the occasional petrified old bull oak tree, their grotesqualy contorted shapes grasping at the sky. The early European settlers quickly worked out the the wood from the bull oak and native pines was not only strong but also very resistant to termites, unfortunately they are also very slow growing and the early settlers quickly denuded a lot of areas.
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As usual I was lagging a fair way behind.
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I always though this was spinifex, but apparently it's porcupine grass, yeah I'm confused too.
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Looks like we are crossing an emu highway.
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Crossing over Mournpall Track we passed another track closed sign, I was now a little more dubious as to whether we'd get all around as the walk was descending slightly into an area of ephemeral lakes. I wasn't overly concerned though, if we arrived at a flood section and couldn't get through we could just retreat back to where we were now on Mournpall Track and follow it back to the camp. It's not long after crossing Mournpall Track that we left the sand dune country and started walking across the black dirt of the flood plains. Almost immediately the water of Lake Konardin started to encroach from the right, it's red gums getting a good drink.
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Hmmm, I've got a feeling that this time they're serious.
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The water of Lake Konardin started to get closer.
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| Gee it was good to see the red gums getting a drink. |
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After successfully skirting Lake Konardin, the flood plain of Lake Yelwell appeared in front of us, yeah I mean right in front of us, the track heading straight into the brown water. This was no short little water crossing that would of meant a quick wade or swim and then some damp shoes, no this was a proper grown up swim, and with no exit in sight there was no real option but to retreat back to to Mournpall Track. Normally this wouldn't make me overly happy but to see this country flooded made this short section worth it. It's not exactly hard core walking out here (except in summer) with the route being generally very well defined, sign posted and track marked as well as being almost dead flat.
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There was water to the left and water to the right.
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| And soon enough there was water in front as well, the route goes through the middle of this floodplain. |
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Back at Mournpall Track we headed south east back towards Lake Mournpall. While this quiet dirt road isn't actually a walking track it still makes for OK walking. The Mournpall Track roller coasters its way back to Lake Mournpall though the low sand dunes, the easy walking giving us lots of time to take in the semi arid scrub. With the huge red gums that line the lakes getting closer and closer it was no surprise to crest one last sand dune and see the ute parked in the trees, while we hadn't done the official route we had still had a nice walk.
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Mournpall Track made for an easy finish to the stroll.
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| The scenery beside Mournpall Track is still pretty nice. |
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The Dirt.
Sam and I walked 9.3 kilometre at an average speed of 3.8 kph on this version of the Lake Mournpall Walk. With around 125 metres of climbing you'd have to rate this as an easy stroll I think. As I mentioned this track is well sign posted and at frequent intervals there are recycled plastic posts with track markers on them. The track itself is sandy in spots and it is a semi arid environment so, unless you have a high tolerance for heat maybe give this walk a miss in the summer heat. When I'm walking up here I use the Meridian map for the park. I also used Melanie Balls notes and map out of her Top Walks in Victoria book, although I had to cut Melanie's version of the walk short due to the flooding. This is a nice walk through some very pretty country that has a very Australian feel about it, red dirt and water, it doesn't get much better in my eyes.
Relevant Posts.
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| Lake Koonardin |
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The camp (and walk start and finish) is actually the trees at the western end of the lake.
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