Stevensons Falls, Otway Forest Park - September 2017

The money shot today.

I normally put up a bit of a favourite on my Sunday night post, but this week I'll break that habit a little and put up this little walk to Stevensons Falls. So why isn't this walk a favourite? Well to start with, the grey overcast weather cast a bit of a pall over the afternoon. Grey skies and light passing showers never do a lot for my mojo and today was no different. Ok, so that all sounds a bit depressing but surely there must be something else? Well this walk was actually meant to read Stevensons Falls Circuit but I never actually got around to the circuit bit of the walk today......

Apart from the overcast sky everything started off OK.

Arriving at the track head at the back of the large Upper Gellibrand Camping Area I reset the GPS and set off along the wide track, all was good initially as the track was well sign posted and clear.  The good stuff didn't last long though, rounding a corner on the track which is benched into the almost vertical slope I came across a very fresh landslip that had taken out the track. Now a responsible walker would return to the car park and put it down to experience and not clamber across the unstable slope, thankfully for this post responsible and Feral walker don't often appear in the same sentence. Threading my way through the branches while trying to keep some grip on the steep red clay and not plummet into the Gellibrand River I was pretty pleased to emerge out of the tangle of rocks, dirt and flora onto the walking track again. Alright, with that out of the way it should be all sweet for the rest of the walk...shouldn't it?

How easy is this walking caper hey?

Hmm, maybe not so easy as it turns out.

Making my way along the blackberry choked river I popped out of the bush where almost immediately I was supposed to head up a 4wd track and climb up to Sayers Track, this was the circuit bit of my stroll. Reaching the 4wd track though my mojo plummeted a little more, the 4wd track had been churned into a braided mud hole by my responsible 4wd brothers and sisters. Now this wasn't just one mud hole, this thing stretched as far as I could see and seeing that I'd be climbing this track all the way up to meet Sayers Track I was pretty sure it would be cut up all the way to the top, around two and a half k's away, fuck! Thinking that maybe this wasn't actually my route I wandered down the the track along the river a little bit further and yes there was another track heading in the direction that I was meant to be going, this one freshly pushed through some pines by some more of my responsible 4wd mates, this track had been pushed through to avoid some of the mud plugging on the other track and they soon met up, not only that but this one was also a mud bath and someone had taken a shit in the middle of it, yes I kid you not, just when I thought that the walk couldn't greet any crappier!

Safely across the landslide I enjoyed the view of the Gellibrand River flowing through a wall of blackberries.

This was meant to be my route up to Sayers Track....f*#k that!

My bogan brothers had even knocked another track through the pines to miss some of the mud, they must of liked this one so much that they actually shit on it........yeah we're not talking pristine wilderness on this stroll.

Abandoning the idea of a circuit I decided to walk up to the falls and check them out. The walk up here was either on or beside a dirt road that my notes said was only open to wheelchair permit holders, after the third 4wd had motored past I was starting to think that the Otways had the highest percentage of wheelchair bound nature lovers in the world. It turns out that this dirt road is now open to anyone and it accesses a small car park and picnic area a few hundred metres from the falls. Oh yeah, have I mentioned the radiata pines? The hills surrounding the Gellibrand River are mostly forestry country featuring the mono culture that is a radiata pine plantation, from the look of it the only thing apart from pines that grows there are blackberries and weeds (for anyone in an OS chapter of the Feral fan club, blackberries are a weed in Australia, ironically sometimes planted by early European surveyors as they travelled the land so as to feed the masses that they thought would follow them into terra nullius). 

There was no shortage of pine trees on this stroll, unfortunately none of then are actually native though.

The track from the day use area was pretty good.

Arriving at the car park I picked up the track crossing the Gellibrand River, immediately heading through some more manicured parkland. This spot would actually make for a good spot for a picnic with it's grassy expanse, pine trees and seeing as you can now drive to around twenty metres away, anyone could enjoy it. I headed across the grass today though and finally I started to walk a good section of track, the benched path now kept to the eastern bank of the Gellibrand River as I made my way upstream the last couple of hundred metres to Stevensons Falls. The waterfall itself was actually pretty sweet today, with a fair flow cascading down the rock face, the spray from the water creating it's own little micro climate in the steep sided valley, the mist not making it overly easy to get a photo though. There is actually another waterfall near Marysville called Steavenson Falls (notice the extra a and missing s) that is pretty nice as well, I might have to write up a walk up there soon just to add to the chance of confusion.

This spot just up stream of the day use area would probably make a nice spot for a picnic on a good day.

The Gellibrand River.

Now this is more like it.... trying not to go arse over on the slippery rocks.

After jumping around the slippery rocks for awhile, as well as getting the stock standard shot from the lookout I put the camera away and started back to the ute. Not wanting to chance the dodgy landslide portage again I headed back to the Upper Gellibrand Camp Area along the gravel access road, like most of this walk it was pretty uninspiring passing below more plantation land, although there was a large area of wattles in bloom which livened up the grey day a little. I suppose the other advantage of using the access road was that it made the walk into some kind of a circuit so I didn't go back over old ground the whole way. Crossing the Gellibrand River on the road bridge I wandered through the camping area down to the ute, noting that some more of my 4wd brothers and sisters had knocked down the bollards which are there to keep vehicles off the grass and then created a few more mud holes to play in with their vehicles....yeah it was that kind of day.

There is a nice steel lookout structure which gives a pretty nice view of the falls.

Alright, time to head back.

One last fleeting look through the scrub.

The benched track from the day use area to the falls is only a few hundred metres but it's a nice walk.

The Dirt.

First up don't try this walk, as of Saturday 2nd September a landslip has wiped first section of the track away, check with Parks Vic to see if it's fixed as it's seriously dodgy at the moment. If the river side first section is still out of action you can walk the day use access track, or maybe better still just drive to the day use area and walk to the falls from there. All that said I walked 4.4 kilometres at an average speed of 4.1kph, with only 48 metres of climbing I'd rate this as a very easy walk (providing the landslide section is fixed). Now I was meant to be doing this a circuit walk as written up in the House of Chapman's Walking the Otways book but the circuit was totally rooted (to use a little used scientific track rating) from what I could see, so not keen on slogging through a pine plantation in a knee deep mud soup I gave that bit of the walk a miss, maybe I'll head back in drier weather and check out this loop.....maybe. So that all sounds pretty crappy hey.....well I suppose there are some positives, the first is that Stevensons Falls are pretty sweet, they feature a fair drop and are situated in a small pocket of native bush. The path from the day use area to the falls is suitable for strollers and wheelchairs as far as the climb to the lookout platform. There are some nice grassy spots for a picnic just over the river near the day use area. The Upper Gellibrand Camping Area is big and grassy with tables, toilets and fire pits, although evidence would suggest that it gets a fair few visits from my fellow bogans.

Relevant Posts.

Mount Noorat, 2017.

Kalimna Falls, Great Otway National Park, 2014.

Three Falls Walk, Great Otway National Park, 2016.

Rather than brave the landslide I walked the day use access road back to the camp.

The large Upper Gellibrand Camping Area.