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| It was colourful start to the walk. |
With a few things to sort out at home this Saturday morning I was looking for a fairly short walk this week. After consulting my library of guide books I decided on Mount Lofty. Now obviously I'm not talking about the fairly well known mountain that towers over Adelaide, no we have our own less well known Mount Lofty right here in Melbourne. Our Mount Lofty might not reach the heights of the South Australian version but at least I could get to it and complete the walk on what was left of my Saturday's afternoon. After making the 60 minute drive up to Wonga Park I parked the ute at the end of Reserve Road, a stones throw from the Yarra River. Pulling on my boots and resetting the GPS I soon found the start of my track and was on my way.
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| The Yarra River below the car park, the river was flowing a banka today. |
The Mount Lofty Track starts a little bit back up the entrance road away from the river, once on the signposted track all was pretty clear for the rest of the walk. The walk immediately crosses Bushy Creek on a substantial bridge around twenty metres up steam from where the creek meets the Yarra River. With all our recent rain the Yarra River was flowing a banka today and it's brown water was actually pushing up Bushy Creek a little. The first couple of kilometres of this walk basically track up stream beside the river, sometimes the good track climbed a little as it passed around some spurs, sometimes I was right down at river level. This section of the Yarra River is a bit of a renowned white water spot and I spent a bit of time trying to do justice to the rapids, without much to show for it really. You wouldn't think it today but this section of the river also features a few great little swimming spots, the Yarra River and swimming are two things that generally shouldn't appear in the same sentence I don't think, I don't think I'd brave swimming in the river much further downstream than Warrandyte though.
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The track is well sign posted.
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Bushy Creek
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There were plenty of glimpses of the Yarra River through the trees along the first couple of kilometres.
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This section of the river is used a lot by whitewater enthusiasts.
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The Mount Lofty Track is a pretty well maintained track.
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The ground beneath the tea trees near the river was carpeted in moss.
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| The walk even featured a tree monster, I think I remember this bloke from HR Pufnstuf.....how old am I hey:) |
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After passing another swimming spot with a large set of rapids up stream, my route started to head south up a broad spur towards Mount Lofty. The climb up here was along an old fire track and as I climbed higher I started to get some views over to Mount Dandenong and a little further away, Mount Donna Buang draped in dark cloud. The tops of Mount Lofty are basically open grass land so the views are a feature, the area is open grassland because it wasn't that long ago that this was farm land, in fact the walk passes by the old farm house just before it drops back to the river. With the river flowing through the steep sided valley below me, kangaroos grazing on the open grassland and long reaching views this was the best section of the walk I thought.
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After passing one last set of rapids and swimming spot my route started to climb towards Mount Lofty.
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The tops of Mount Lofty feature fairly open grassland, that's Mount Dandenong in the distance.
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The Yarra River snaking around below Mount Lofty, Mount Donna Buang is draped in cloud in the distance.
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Arriving at the old farm house I found it over run with kangaroos enjoying the lush grass, it looks like the kangaroos now appreciate the views down over the river flats and the golf course that the farmer use to enjoy. After stalking the roos for awhile I set of again, my route now started it's fairly steep descent back down to the Yarra River. While the descent was a little steep and a bit greasy on this early spring day it's pretty short, less than ten minutes after leaving the open tops I was back beside the chocolate brown water of the Yarra River again. On meeting the river the circuit section of my stroll was complete, now I just had to retrace my outward route a few metres, once again crossing Bushy Creek before arriving back at the ute.
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The roos have moved into the old farm house.
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| The grounds of the old farm house. |
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The Dirt.
I walked 5.7 kilometres at an average speed of 3.6 kph on this afternoons little stroll, with 171 metres of climbing I'd rate this as an easy walk. This walk was written up years ago by Tyrone Thomas in his book 40 Bushland & Park Walks in Metropolitan Melbourne. The book is out of print but you could do this walk easily enough with a copy of the map out of the Melways. This walk is all on pretty good tracks although the descent back down from Mount Lofty can be a little on the slippery side. This walk would be a good one for a hot day if you fancy a swim in the Yarra River, with today's temperature just struggling into double figures I gave the swim a miss on this visit.
Relevant Posts.
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The descent down from the tops is a little steep and slippery but it's very short.
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| Bushy Creek |
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