Duck Pond Track, Great Otway National Park - March 2019

The photo doesn't really show it but things were looking decidedly dodgy, weather wise, on my climb up to meet Gentle Annie Track.

Up until a few weeks ago I’d never actually been to Painkalic Dam now I’ve been there twice, you’d think it must be a pretty special spot wouldn’t you. Actually the real, but whole lot more mundane reason that I’ve visited Painkalic Dam twice in a few weeks is that it’s close enough to home that I can squeeze a walk in after working for a few hours on a Friday morning. Well that and the fact that it’s not currently under a bushfire warning. Like my last visit a few weeks ago the weather was less than ideal today, the forecast was for storms with very strong wind and indeed driving the last few kilometres to the walk start at Distillery Creek Picnic Area the rain was coming down.

I set off this afternoon from Distillery Creek under some fairy grey and threatening looking clouds.

By the time I mucked around getting changed and pulling on my boots the showers had largely passed through luckily, but looking at the sky I wasn’t overly confident that I’d be staying dry for long this afternoon. Having walked the first section of track recently I didn’t stop to take too many photos on my way over to Painkalic Dam this afternoon, keen to get as many kilometres down before I had to suffer through what I was sure was going to be an inevitable drenching. The first bit of this section follows a really nice single track through the dry forest before the route breaks out onto the gravel Dam Road. Dam Road climbs fairly gently with a few views across the parched farmland to the south before dropping, again fairly gently down to Painkalic Dam.

It's a nice easy walk over to Painkalac Dam...single track to start off with...

...and then I followed Dam Road.

Looking south off Dam Road, overhead conditions were looking a little more promising.

Arriving at the dam I took a small off piste short cut to avoid some fairly heavy duty excavation work going on, before climbing up to the southern end of the dam wall to take the obligatory photo. Last time I was here it was drizzling with rain and that was my excuse for taking a fairly ordinary photo, it wasn’t raining this afternoon so I’ve got no real excuse for the stock standard snap I suppose. Leaving the dam I continued on at a cracking pace, well more of a fast shuffle really. Leaving the dam and climbing for twenty metres it’s important to take the un-signposted track to the left, this track heads east for awhile before doubling back to head west and start climbing.

My stock standard shot of Painkalac Dam.

Climbing away from the dam it's important to take this left fork.

The scenery on the climb up to Gentle Annie Track is pretty sweet.

The good news along here is that whilst I was climbing the scenery was getting better. I now was getting views down to Painkalic Dam deep down in the valley below me as well as glimpses through the trees in the direction of the coast. So far the weather had been….weird. In one direction I had blue sky and in the other it looked like armageddon was heading my way, the thing is it was very changeable as the weather was blowing through incredibly quickly. Still looking ahead of me as I made my final climb up to meet Gentle Annie Track things were looking incredibly dodgy, the black clouds now had a red tinge to them as no doubt the wind had picked up dust. It felt like I was walking into a Mad Max movie.

Climbing up to Gentle Annie Track.

There are some views down to Painkalac Dam on the climb.

My walk along Gentle Annie Track featured some nice walking...and a dust storm.

There are some views back down to Painkalac Dam through the trees off Gentle Annie Track.

Sure enough, climbing Gentle Annie Track the storm hit. Now Gentle Annie Track follows a high ridge so it was a little bit sub optimal to be walking along here in strong wind, thankfully none of the branches that were now blowing horizontally across the track cleaned me up, so that was definitely a bonus. Even more of a bonus was I was blinking dust out of my eyes and not rain, the cloud had obviously been mostly dust. Eventually the wind gusts died off a little and by the time I picked up the un-signposted Duck Pond Track things had settled right down.

Duck Pond Track

Duck Pond Track is an old, closed 4wd track and it all started off innocently enough, however after dropping gently for a couple of hundred metres the track suddenly drops off what looks and feels like a cliff. The descent down here is seriously steep, thankfully the rain that I’d been confidently predicting all day hadn’t arrived as walking down this clay track when it was wet would be diabolical I’m thinking. There was good news though, while the descent was super steep (and eroded) it was also pretty short and it was only fifteen minutes or so before I found myself at the bottom down on Painkalic Creek.

I'm about to head over the edge on Duck Pond Track.

I'm glad I beat the rain down here.

Painkalac Creek

Painkalic Creek was bone dry today so crossing it was no real trouble, although somehow I still managed to drop kick a rock and almost go arse over, ah yes, one of the joys of getting old I suppose. I’m thinking that this crossing would be pretty reasonable in all but the wettest of times which is a good thing as the route actually heads down the creek thirty metres before climbing out of it. And climb I did, the first section of the climb is seriously steep but thankfully it eases off after a few minutes and I soon found myself following a gravel 4wd track, still called Duck Pond Track.

Painkalac Creek was bone dry today.

The climb out of Painkalac Creek is a steep one.

After passing what looks like a solar powered UHF repeater Duck Pond Track climbs onto the crest of a spur as it heads up to Bambra Road. This section along the upper part of the spur is arguably one of the best bits of the whole walk, I was getting some good views now, particularly to the west over receding ridge lines. The other good news was that now I could see a little into the distance I could tell that rain wasn’t going to factor in my immediate future, well for the next twenty minutes or so anyway. Around 150 vertical after leaving Painkalic Creek I emerged onto Bambra Road and set off along the gravel road heading north. Bambra Road is a substantial road with a bit of local traffic using it, so once again I didn’t muck around on my couple of kilometres walking along here, stopping only once to take a photo of a fire dam (incidentally, I know that I’m struggling for scenery when I resort to taking photos of fire dams!).

Climbing Duck Pond Track I shuffled passed what looks like a UHF repeater.

I started to get some good views to the west as I climbed higher on Duck Pond Track.

Duck Pond Track

Meeting Bambra Road I turned left....

...and followed it for a couple of kilometres...

...walking passed a very picturesque fire dam, hmmm.

Meeting up with Loves Track the good walking resumed again, although initially I was heading south through some fairly thick regrowth. It looks like Parks Vic have pushed a bulldozer down Loves Track recently and the track was actually a little cut up in spots, but the walking is almost level and the scrub soon opens up, so all was good. Reaching the trig on Loves Track marked the spot where this stroll intersects with the Currawong Falls Circuit, another walk I’ve done quite a few times so once again I was back in familiar territory. The trig on Loves Track is also the spot where I’d turn off and start heading down towards Ironbark Gorge.

Loves Track

It looked like Parks Vic had run a bulldozer down Loves Track recently.

The trig on Loves Track marks the spot that I'd turn off and head down to Ironbark Gorge.

The walk from Loves Track to Ironbark Gorge is a good one, initially the single track gently dropped off the side of a broad ridge before meeting a spur, the views now stretching all the way down to Aireys Inlet and the Split Point Lighthouse…and of the dark clouds once again stalking me. After taking in the view from the lookout I quickly dropped down the rocky track to another lookout, this one overlooking Ironbark Gorge. Whilst Ironbark Gorge isn’t a huge geological feature its rocky buttresses are still pretty sweet, and a little unexpected.

Dropping down to Ironbark Gorge the pad heads past this great lookout down towards Aireys Inlet.

This section of the walk is particularly pretty.

Looking down into Ironbark Gorge from the informal lookout. I didn't linger long here as the rain was getting a little more insistent.

I didn’t linger too long up above Ironbark Gorge this afternoon as the rain was now the heaviest that it had been all day, not heavy enough for a jacket yet but still difficult to get a photo in. For the first time all afternoon, and against all likelihood, I was starting to think that I may actually make it back to the ute without digging out my wet weather gear. A lot of the track around here are shared with mountain bikers which generally means that the gradients are pretty reasonable, so needless to say I was able to make quick time on the long gentle descent into the gorge.

Looking out towards Bass Strait over Ironbark Gorge.

Heading down towards the bottom of the gorge.

A lot of the track around here are shared with Mountain Bikers so the gradients are pretty good.

After meeting up with the gorge access track, which came in on my right, I started mentally preparing for the drive home. All that was left now was to stroll through the extensive Distillery Creek Picnic Area, this picnic area spans both sides of Bambra Road and of course I’d parked the ute on the south side. Arriving back at the ute I checked out the GPS, 18 and a bit kilometres in around 5 hours and about 100 photos, not too bad for an old bloke. Oh yeah, somehow this afternoon I’d managed to always generally jag a little window in the weather and I'd managed to finish the walk without digging out my waterproof jacket, happy days indeed!

The gorge track comes in from the right here, I was heading straight ahead to the carpark today though.

I shuffled my way through the extensive Distillery Creek Picnic Area.

The Dirt.
According to the GPS I walked 18.8 kilometres and climbed just over 500 metres on what I’d call a medium-hard grade walk. While most of the walk is on dirt roads or fire tracks the sections that are single track are really good, especially the descent down into Ironbark Gorge. Some of the tracks aren’t signposted on this stroll so you need to keep an eye on the map a bit. The final descent down Duck Pond Track into Painkalac Creek is steep, slippery and eroded so it needs caution, especially if things are on the damp side I imagine. This walk is written up in a book published by the House of Chapman called Walking The Otways and the map and notes are very handy. I’m thinking that this walk is probably better in late winter and early spring when the wildflowers come out, but really so long as it isn’t stinking hot it’s not a bad stroll.

Relevant Posts.
Ironbark Gorge & Currawong Falls, Great Otway National Park, 2017.
Urquhart Bluff & Aireys Inlet, 2018.

Somehow how I managed to complete this walk without needing my wet weather gear.