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| Lake Eildon was looking good this morning. |
This was actually the first Australian walk that I’d done since finishing my AAWT epic in December, my time since finishing the alps walk had been taken up retrieving food drops from the hills, work, Christmas and then a trip to Singapore. So with virtually no exercise for awhile I decided to head up to Lake Eildon National Park and do the Estate Spur Walk. I’d done this walk years ago and always figured that it would make a nice stroll on a warm day, with the lake making for a great spot for a cooling swim. So with a forecast temperature of around 30˚ today was the day. With a warm day in prospect I headed off from home before 5am this morning, arriving at the start of the walk at the Lakeside Camping Area well before 8am.
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| I was on my way pretty early today. |
Locking the ute I set off up the access road for 100 metres, I’d decided to walk this walk in the reverse direction as it’s usually described so I could finish my stroll along the shores of Lake Eildon and have a swim. So reading Mr Chapman’s notes in reverse I picked up the very steep, loose and eroded old fire track that would take me from the camp up to the crest of Estate Spur. Apart from getting the steepest and longest climb out of the way early, going around in reverse also meant that I was climbing up Estate Spur in the shade of the mountain this morning. While the initial climb was pretty steep it was mercifully short and before long I arrived on the open grassy tops of Estate Spur.
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The good news was the first steep section of the walk was shaded by the spur.
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| Once on the crest of Estate Spur the grassy slopes make for very nice walking. |
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The open tops of Estate Spur are what make this a very good walk I think. With Coller Bay framed by Blowhard Spur down below me to the north and Bolte Bay to my south the views along here on a good day are definitely worth the climb, and today was a very good day. Lake Eildon was almost mirror smooth this morning, the only blemishes on it’s surface being from the numerous houseboats and water skiers out enjoying the morning. Like it’s near neighbour Blowhard Spur, Estate Spur isn’t a level walk though, the grassy spur undulating a fair bit as I headed south west along the crest.
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Looking down over Collar Bay with Blowhard Spur behind it.
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There is a bit of up and down walking along Estate Spur.
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| I was climbing over that next grassy knoll. |
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I was keeping a close eye on the map and the GPS as I shuffled my way along the tops, avoiding a signposted track heading back down to the visiter centre I continued on a little bit further dropping through one last high saddle before sidling the last knoll a little to meet up with the track running down to Bedrock Creek. Like my climb up Estate Spur my descent down off the spur was reasonably steep but pretty short, the spur top being only around 150 metres above the lake level.
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Occasionally the track along Estate Spur would drop into some trees for awhile.
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That's Bolte Bay, my return route would be back along it's shoreline.
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Cook Point at the end of Blowhard Spur, another potential swimming spot.
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Arriving down at Bedrock Creek things got a little vague for a little while, the pad heading down stream beside the almost dry creek, coming and going a bit in the long grass. With the shimmering water of Bolte Bay appearing through the Stringybark Trees I picked up a benched track climbing a little through the dry, open forest above the lake shore. The walking from here back to the ute would now feature water views for the majority of the way. Contouring along the hillside on my benched track I made my way past a clutch (or maybe a gaggle?) of houseboats tied up on the shore below me, no doubt enjoying their the Christmas/New Year holidays.
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I sidled left around this last knoll....
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....and picked up this old fire track down to Bedrock Creek.
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Things are a little vague through the long grass down beside Bedrock Creek.
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| There are enough cairns and track markers around though. |
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While the track along the shoreline is a good track for the most part it does feature quite a few short and steep ups and downs, each little rise and fall is normally only a few metres but walking along in the hot sun it was all starting to add up this morning, so I was quite happy to reach the signposted turn off for my short detour out to Point Mibus, my designated swimming spot. Dropping down to the end of the point I was happy to find some shady trees to leave my gear under while I gingerly edged my way down the last couple of metres to the welcoming water (here’s a Feral tip, if you are thinking of swimming here remember to bring some river sandals in your pack, the rocks and stones around the shore of Lake Eildon are pretty sharp in my experience and very hard on bare feet).
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With the water of Bolte Bay visible through the trees I picked up a benched track.
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The open forest along the shoreline makes nice walking too.
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Floating out into the lake the cool water enveloping me I felt like I was again in my natural habitat. Really I could of spent all day here, swimming and sitting in the shade taking in the view but that wouldn’t have got me back to the ute, eventually after drying off a bit, I pulled my sweaty gear back on and set off back towards the Lakeside camp. Leaving Point Mibus I had to climb back up to meet my contouring track, the pad now traversing slightly steeper ground as it headed towards Point Mead, the views of the lake through the trees now being almost constant. Point Mead is named after American, Elwood Mead, after who Lake Mead in the US is also named after, he was engineer who helped design Lake Eildon as well as Hoover Dam back at home. Stopping for awhile on the point I read the information plaque while taking in the view, thinking to myself that old Elwood would of been pretty happy with this spot being named in honour of him.
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Point Mibus
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The geo-cache at Point Mibus. When does a geo-cache become litter?
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Looking into Bolte Bay from my swimming spot.
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Elegant entry and exits can be difficult in bare feet here!
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I was now on the finishing stretches of my stroll as the pad south west back above the shoreline. The track was now passing through a few areas of fairly dense Tea Tree which gave me a bit of shade from the mid-day sun. Soon enough I spied the ute through the scrub, arriving I through my sweaty boots in the tray, grabbed a cool drink and settled in for the two and half hour drive home, happy that my first decent walk post the AAWT had been good one.
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Your Feral correspondent in his natural habitat.
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| The slopes are a little steeper heading around to Point Mead. |
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The Dirt.
I walked 9.8 kilometres and climbed 542 metres on what I’d call a medium grade walk. As I mentioned the walk is normally done in the other direction, it would make the navigation a little easier going in that direction, however there is no big navigational challenges going around in the direction I did it. Assuming the water level is high enough, Lake Eildon is great place for a swim but if you are not a good swimmer then be a bit careful as it drops off pretty steeply, the exits and entries would be easier in sandals too. This is walk # 35 in the House of Chapman’s second edition of Day Walks Melbourne.
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