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| Late afternoon on day 2 looking down on Halls Gap and my finishing point, from Baroka Lookout. |
Day 1 Flat Rock to Deep Creek 26 kilometres
There's a flash new trail that is slowly being built in Victoria at the moment, the Grampians Peaks Trail. But back before this flash new trail was even a glint in some marketing persons eye there was a bushwalking route that led from Mount Zero to Halls Gap, well actually it was a series of different tracks that could all conveniently be linked up to make what Tyrone Thomas described as a 4 day walk. Before I walked this route I'd already done a fair bit of walking around this northern end of the Grampians National Park but I'd never linked it all together, the longest I'd been out for was 2 days. So seeing that it looks like the glaciers will be well and truly gone and I'll be sitting on the porch in a rocking chair with a blanket over my knee by the time the new trail is finished, I figured I'd knock out a post about my old walk.
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The view along the Mount Difficult Range from Mount Stapylton, I'd spend the next two days traversing this rocky wonderland.
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| Mount Zero from Stapylton on day 1. |
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November is fairly late in the year for a long walk in the Grampians in my experience, a lot of the creeks dry up and the sun can get baking hot on the rock slabs, so it was with a bit of apprehension that I waved goodbye to the Halls Gap taxi as it motored out of the dusty Flat Rock Car Park. Now I was alone my mind focussed on the first section of the stroll, the climb up Flat Rock and the walk around the Stapylton Amphitheatre. Slogging up Flat Rock with a heavy overnight pack in the morning sun was a taste of things to come, thankfully no matter how hard the walking became the scenery was always worth stopping to admire whilst I got my breath back. After slowly making my way around the amphitheatre beneath the towering cliffs of the Taipan Walls I got to the second track junction that use to form a loop from the Stapylton Camp to the mountain. This would be my ongoing route, but first I grabbed some water and a bit of food and scrambled up to the summit of Mount Stapylton, sitting up there on my own in the morning sun I enjoyed a nice break, taking in the 360˚ view while listening to the cricket on the radio, life was pretty good.
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The Mount Stapylton Area before the last big fires went through.
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The view in the other direction from Mount Staylton.
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| Heading towards Pohlner Road, the walking on these rock slabs was great fun. |
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Dropping back down to my pack I headed off towards Pohlner Road, this section of track was a beauty as it wound in and out of numerous sandstone outcrops, since the last big fires went through the Grampians though this track has been closed, I presume it'll be reopened at some stage though, maybe as part of the Grampians Peaks Trail? After a bit of a convoluted route I eventually arrived at Golton Creek, with the weather being fairly warm I was pretty happy to see a reasonable flow of crystal clear water (this is a bit of a unusual water point, I've been to this crossing of Golton Creek on Coppermine Track a few times over the years and there doesn't appear to be much rhyme nor reason as to whether the creek is actually flowing or not, I've seen it dry in a wet winter and gushing clear water in a hot summer). The next section of the walk was probably the most uninspiring of the whole two day stroll, I now slowly descended Coppermine Track down to meet up with the substantial Halls Gap - Mount Zero Road, which I then followed for a couple of kilometres to Roses Gap.
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| Looking back towards Horsham from Coppermine Track. |
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| Having a bit of a break as I descended Coppermine Track. |
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| Beehive Falls were fairly dry on this visit. |
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After my little road bash I was pretty happy to head into the scrub again on leaving Roses Gap, after passing Beehive Falls the track got a lot rougher as I found myself scrambling up through a series of cliff lines. By this stage in the day I was starting to get a little tired so I was pretty happy when the track levelled off on a bit of a plateau before hooking around and coming to the turnoff to Briggs Bluff. Dropping my pack again I headed off on the side trip out to Briggs Bluff, the walking along here is on a mixture of rock slabs and ribs interspersed with short sandy sections where inevitably there is some native vegetation clinging to life. After one last steep climb I was at the top of Briggs Bluff, the late afternoon views from up here are extensive, to say the least. I could look north back up along the days route from Mount Stayplton, south had me looking along the length of the Mount Difficult Range and tomorrows endeavours and in front of me stretched the seemingly endless billiard table flat Wimmera Plains. With daylight fast running out I returned to my pack and struck out south along the Mount Difficult Range, passing the camp at Mud Hut Creek I pushed on a bit before eventually arriving at a little clearing beside a crystal clear tributary of Deep Creek, the perfect spot to camp after what had been a very solid day.
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Mount Difficult in the distance as I climbed up from Beehive Falls.
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| There were a few small rills of water as I climbed towards Briggs Bluff. |
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The author on top of Briggs Bluff, late on day 1.
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The view from Briggs Bluff. Roses Gap in the foreground, Mount Stapylton in the distance, it and been a fair days walking already and I still had a few kilometres to go.
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Late afternoon on the Mount Difficult Range.
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Deep Creek to Halls Gap 29 kilometres 55 kilometres total
After a great nights sleep I woke up a little stiff and sore after yesterdays solid walk, packing up camp though I was pretty excited about the day ahead as I'd basically be following the crest of the Mount Difficult Range for many kilometres, I wouldn't really leave the tops until Boroka Lookout. This section of my walk was following what was once called the Mount Difficult Range Track, now in spots this old track was pretty obvious but for long sections today I was following cairns and the occasional track markers. Soon after leaving camp I passed the turn off to the right down to Long Point and Lake Wartook, I was now walking country that I'd never walked before. With the route staying fairly close to the crest I was getting some good views down to the lake as a crossed the bare rock slabs in between the belts of scratchy vegetation, but what I wasn't getting was any water, it wasn't a problem yet as I'd filled up at camp but I was hoping to pick up water at some point today so was keeping an eye out.
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My bush camp beside a tributary of Deep Creek, I've actually camped in this magic spot a few times over the years. The Mount Difficult Range escarpment is only a 20 metre scramble away.
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Looking across to Mount Difficult (Mount Gar) from near camp.
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| Heading along the Mount Difficult Range toward the distant Wonderland Range. I was following cairns on a lot of the rocky sections. |
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By late morning I was it was starting to get a bit warm crossing the bare rock so I was pretty relieved to enter a small copse of tea tree and come across a trickling creek, filling my water bottles I was now confident that I could finish the walk comfortably enough with my supplies of water. Soon after my little creek my undulating route actually crossed over onto the eastern side of the crest of the Mount Difficult Range, this was notable to me because it was the only spot on the stroll that I had to retrace a little to find the correct route, basically I followed the base of a small cliff line too far south. Retracing my route a few hundred metres I noticed a small break in the cliff line and sure enough on closer inspection I noticed a small cairn, this was obviously were I was meant to climb back up onto the crest, all was clear again.
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| Day two and I've just found a trickle of water......happy days! |
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The water of Lake Wartook teased me a little as I traversed the hot rock slabs high up on the range.
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| For a short section my route dropped slightly to the east of the crest of the Mount Difficult Range and followed the base of this low cliff line for awhile. The trick here was to find a breach in the cliffs were I had to climb back onto the crest. The overhang provided a bit of welcome shade first though. |
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It was early afternoon when I entered an open area that had obviously been used as a camp fairly often, this was the Plantation Walker Camp, which should not be confused with the car based Plantation Camp at the base of the range. Dropping my pack for awhile I checked out a few likely looking spots that might have some water but they were all dry today, eventually I decided to head off again, water wasn't critical and I was confident that I'd pick some up somewhere before Halls Gap. Not long after the bush camp the route leaves the crest and heads across a shallow hanging valley before emerging out of the scrub onto the dirt Mount Difficult Range. I now had a bit of a road bash for five and a half kilometres to Boroka Lookout, I won't say that the road walking was great but with the road still closed to vehicles it wasn't the worst walking that I've ever done, the eucalyptus trees providing a bit of welcome shade on what was now a pretty warm afternoon and the even surface of the road making a change from the rough rocky walking that I'd experienced so far today.
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Up near Plantation Walkers Camp.
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| Plantation Camp Ground is down near those pines. |
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| Boroka lookout. |
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Arriving at the deserted Boroka Lookout (it was pretty late in the day now) I took in the classic view down to Halls Gap with Lake Bellfield in the distance. I was a pretty tired walker now but the good news was that even though the cricket had finished on the radio for the day I now had the Rugby World Cup, which Australia was hosting, on the radio now. Even better news was that we could actually play the game alright back in the day, so I spent the last couple of hours of my walk listening to the Wallabies go about their business. The walk down from Boroka Lookout headed through some fairly steep country as it made it's way down to cross Mount Victory Road, crossing a couple of trickling waterfalls on the way. Thankfully now the mountains were now providing me with some very much appreciated shade as I was getting pretty tired after what had been a long, hot and hard day. Crossing Mount Victory Road I decided to forego the side trip up to The Pinnacle and instead turned left and headed down Stony Creek towards Halls Gap, two kilometres later it was a very hot and sweaty Feral Walker who wandered into Halls Gap and threw his pack into the back of the troopie.
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Dropping down to Halls Gap from Boroka Lookout the track passed a couple of these small waterfalls.
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| One very tired Feral Walker, approaching the end of my two day stroll. |
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The Dirt.
I walked 55 kilometres over two days on this walk, this was way before GPS so I haven't got any reasonably accurate metres climb figure but my gut feeling is that the figure would be way north of 1500 metres on day one and I'm thinking something pretty close to 1000 metres on the second day. So with 2500 metres climbing on some rough indistinct tracks over two days I'd rate this as a hard walk. Water can be an issue on this stroll, it's out there but you have to plan when you'll get your next drink. Weather can also be a bit of an issue, it can and does snow on the tops over winter and those same open rocky tops are baking hot in the warm weather so the window is pretty small for multi day walking in the Grampians I reckon, think Spring and maybe Autumn (although water can be hard to come by in Autumn). Like I mentioned at the beginning of this indulgent post, Parks Vic are currently constructing a flash new walking track called the Grampians Peaks Trail which will cover large sections of this walk so expect things to be a lot more civilised up there in the future. Currently large sections of this walk are closed due to area recovering from bush fires, the cynic in my thinks that Parks Vic are in no hurry to open it up due to the new trail being built.....who knows? The walk as I walked it back then consisted of dedicated walking tracks, bushwalking pads, scrambling, open rocky sections where I followed cairns, and some quiet dirt road walking. I used the notes out of one of Tyrone Thomas' old books 80 Walks in the Grampians. All in all this is one of my favourite walks, the combination of great scenery, adventurous walking and no crowds make this a firm Feral Favourite.
Relevant Posts.
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| The Mount Difficult Range. |
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| Day 1 and I've got a fair walk in front of me..... |
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