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| Conditions were a bit overcast this afternoon. |
I had some good luck this week, yes last week I managed to drive half way across Victoria before arriving at my camp site after midnight to realise that I’d left my pack sitting beside my front door at home. So this week I was concentrating furiously as I loaded up the ute in the early hours of Friday morning, I’d made sure that to even get out the door I’d have to trip over my pack.
Luckily (as it turned out) I had to do a few hours at work this morning before heading down to the Surf Coast. Normally ‘work’ and ‘lucky’ aren’t words that would appear in the same sentence together in my Feral world. This morning the lucky part of the sentence was inserted because, as I pulled up into the dark car park at work and went to check my emails I realised that my phone was still plugged into the charger at home….what the fuck is wrong with me?
Now my first reaction was to abandon all plans and retreat to the couch to watch Trump’s latest cluster fuck on CNN (always guaranteed to make me realise that as bad as things are in my Feral world it’d be a whole lot worse if I was living in America). As luck would have it though my few hours of work drudgery allowed my foggy brain to process the situation a bit better. After a quick look at the Aireys Inlet tide times and a few rough calculations I decided that I’d have time to head back to Chateau Feral, grab my errant phone and still get the walk done in the daylight hours…maybe.
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Setting off today I avoided the beach and climbed up onto the cliff tops towards the Aireys Inlet Lighthouse.
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| The view back down to Aireys Inlet. |
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After a fairly painful (it was the start of a long weekend) drive I arrived at the start of the walk at Aireys Inlet to be greeted by …..grey sky and light rain, maybe my luck wasn’t so good after all. The reason I’d ended up down at Aireys Inlet this afternoon was really due to a process of elimination, I’d wanted to head to the High Country but unfortunately the eastern half of Victoria was once again on fire, the Prom and Mt Blackwood at Lerderderg were still out of the equation due to fires as well. So anyway it was somewhat ironic I suppose that I set off on today’s stroll in the rain.
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I'd be finishing my walk with a 4 kilometres walk along this beach in a few hours - hopefully with a somewhat lower tide.
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| Split Point Lighthouse at Aireys Inlet. |
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It was after 2pm when I left the ute and climbed up to the Aireys Inlet Lighthouse this afternoon, so with over 20 kilometres in front of me I didn’t have a lot of time up my sleeve today, especially considering that I move at the same pace as a Sloth on Valium. I’d walked the first bit of today’s walk last year on a stroll along the coast from Urquhart Bluff, on that walk I’d been blessed with bright blue sky and sunshine. So today, with the grey and overcast conditions it meant that at least I wasn’t getting slowed down taking to many more photos along the cliff tops.
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The lighthouse lookout is a good one.
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With grey sky overhead I was struggling with my photos this afternoon.
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Looking along the coast towards Point Roadknight and Angelsea.
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| The view back towards the lighthouse from Sandy Gully Lookout. |
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Arriving at Boundary Road I left the coast and followed a series of quiet country roads. First up I followed the gravel Boundary Road for a couple of kilometres before turning right onto the bitumen Bambra Road for a few hundred metres and then turning left towards the Distillery Creek Picnic Area. Now if you think that this road walking sounds a little average well you’d be pretty right but the good news is that from now on everything is good again. I’ve been here before quite a few times over the years on walks through Ironbark Gorge and over to Currawong Falls, but I have never realised that the Distillery Creek Picnic Area spread out onto the south side of the road. So arriving at the picnic ground this afternoon I was scratching my head for a couple of minutes while I tried to make sense of my notes, eventually I wandered out the access road (I’d walked in via a walking track thinking that I was being a bit creative) and sure enough just up the hill there was another sign pointing to another picnic area.
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Up until now I'd been walking the Surf Coast Walk....
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....but now I followed Boundary Road for awhile.
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Boundary Road...I was heading for those hills.
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Bambra Road
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| I took a scenic detour as I headed into Distillery Creek Picnic Area. |
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Once in the correct spot it didn’t take me long to find the signposted walking track heading off into the scrub towards Moggs Creek Picnic Area. It was around now that the constant light rain got slightly heavier so there aren’t many photos of this section of the walk, although really the dry, open Eucalyptus forests always test my talent behind the shutter anyway. The walk now followed a designated walking track for a kilometre before emerging onto a gravel 4wd track, and heading towards Painkalac Dam, I’m thinking this old 4wd track was put in when Painkalac Dam was being built as the old track contours fairly easily through the hills towards the dam which would of allowed the trucks to get in.
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Once I found myself in the correct picnic area I was on my way again.
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The rain was light but constant now.
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My ageing brain could do without flow charts on my walks!
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| The quiet road contoured around the hills above some farmland, heading towards Painkalac Dam. |
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The light rain was still falling as I arrived at spillway for the dam, the local ducks enjoying the damp conditions more than the dishevelled walker this afternoon. After taking a perfunctory photo of the dam I set off towards Moggs Creek Picnic Area, my route now starting a solid climb up to meet Gentle Annie Track. The good news was that whilst the climb was long enough it was fairly gentle, I even got a few views back down to Painkalac Dam through the trees, now a long way below me. After crossing straight over Gentle Annie Track I started an equally longish descent down to Moggs Creek Picnic Ground, like a lot of these tracks this section of the walk is shared with mountain bikers and while these guys and girls are normally great people who generally ride fairly responsibly it still pays to be careful on downhill sections where the bikes could come up behind you fairly quickly.
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The Painkalac Dam spillway.
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Yep, good weather for ducks this afternoon.
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Painkalac Dam
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Leaving the dam I started a solid climb....
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| ....getting a few glimpses of Painkalac Dam, now a fair way below me. |
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After a nice little walk down from Gentle Annie Track I arrived at the deserted Moggs Creek Picnic Area just as the light rain stopped, sweet! It was a little surprising that this large well appointed picnic area was deserted while a couple of kilometres away the facilities along the Great Ocean Road are groaning under the pressure from all the visitors, still I suppose there are no ocean views here and the forest is looking a bit tired at the tail end of a long, hot and dry summer. Suitably refreshed and after having touch base with Sam (the reason I couldn’t head off with my phone at home) I set off once again, now heading for the Ocean View Lookout along another signposted walking track.
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Crossing straight over Gentle Annie Track I started to drop down to Moggs Creek Picnic Area.
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A lot of these tracks are shared with my mountain bike brothers and sisters.
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The walk down from Gentle Annie Track to Moggs Creek Picnic Area is pretty sweet.
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| The large Moggs Creek Picnic Area was deserted this afternoon. |
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There is a choice of walking tracks along here, I took the left fork this afternoon. Which ever track you take there is another reasonable climb up to the Ocean View Lookout but once again the climb is fairly gentle. With my route slowly gaining height as I passed through a few gullies I eventually started to get some glimpses out to Bass Strait through the trees, although the gun metal grey water beneath the equally gun metal grey sky meant that my photos were fairly underwhelming. After crossing another fire track and topping out I dropped a few metres down to the Ocean View Lookout viewing platform.
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I took the left fork on the climb up to Ocean View Lookout.
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Does anyone else think that there doesn't appear to be as many Magpies around as there use to be?
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I started to get some views out across Bass Strait.
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| Ironbark Forest. |
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The view from the Ocean View Lookout stretches from Aireys Inlet in one direction to beyond Lorne in the other direction so, as you’d imagine it’s pretty good. We are not talking pristine wilderness here though as in every direction the scene has been altered by man, with lots of very flash beach houses clinging to the hill sides and the busy Great Ocean Road twisting it’s way along the coastline. After another long break I decided that I’d better get going if I wanted to be back before dark. I’ve walked up here before years ago and remember a convoluted series of left/right/left turns that saw me finally arrive at lookout from the beach so heading down in the opposite direction this afternoon I was pleasantly surprised to find a clear well sign posted path, about the only danger now would be getting hit by a car as I crossed the busy Great Ocean Road I think.
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Split Point Lighthouse and Aireys Inlet.
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Looking down towards Lorne in the other direction.
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| The author is looking suitably dishevelled and grumpy. |
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| There is an easy track to follow track down to the beach now. |
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Arriving on the beach it was just a matter of turning left and start trudging towards the distant Split Point Lighthouse. This section of the walk was one of the reasons why I’d had to do a few rough time calculations before leaving home this morning, walking along the beach at low tide is a very easy ramble but high tide is a pain in the arse, and not so good for the Hooded Plovers that build their nests above the high tide line. Passing Moggs Creek (which wasn’t flowing to the ocean) I started to get close to a great Ocean Road landmark, the Pole House. This house is built on a pylon protruding out from the hillside, you certainly wouldn’t want to suffer from vertigo if you stayed here I don’t think.
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The biggest danger on this walk is probably crossing the Great Ocean Road I'm thinking.
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Time to turn left and head back to Aireys Inlet.
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| Overhead conditions were still somewhat grey. |
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With the rain having returned again I shuffled the last few metres along the hard sand, the Split Point Lighthouse was now sticking it’s head out from the cliffs above me. Reaching the bluffs I headed inland around the waters of Aireys Inlet, stopping for a minute to take another photo of the local ducks who once again seemed to be enjoying the weather more than me! I arrived back at the ute just before 8pm so the walk was comfortably over before it got fully dark, although with around 4 kilometres along the beach to finish the stroll off, it wouldn’t of been that hard to walk it in the dark I don’t think.
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Approaching the Pole House at Fairhaven.
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Bass Strait was relatively calm this afternoon.
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| Fairhaven Beach. |
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The Dirt.
I walked 21.6 kilometres and climbed 460 metres on this medium-hard grade stroll. I’m thinking that this walk would be a lot better on a sunny day and if the weather was warm a swim is always an option, spring would be good for the wildflowers on the long forest sections. I used the notes out of the Chapman book Day Walks Victoria today, the only time I had any navigational issues was at Distillery Creek Picnic Area but that was totally my fault and not a flaw in the notes. Mr Tempest has also written up a similar version of this walk in one of his books I think. Another option for this walk would be to start at Moggs Creek Picnic Area or Distillery Creek Picnic Area and have lunch at a café or the pub in Aireys Inlet.
Relevant Posts.
Urquhart Bluff & Aireys Inlet, 2018.
Ironbark Gorge & Currawong Falls, Geat Otway National Park, 2017.
Angelsea to Point Addis, Great Otway National Park, 2018.
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