Redgum Walk, Little Desert National Park - March 2020

Early morning at Kiata Campground.

This is a walk that I did a couple of days ago up at Little Desert National Park. Now I wouldn't normally of posted this walk so soon as I'm sitting on a fairly large backlog of little adventures, however with our lives changing so quickly due to the Corona Virus I thought that I should get this one out.

For my friends overseas I'm writing this post up as we in Australia are going into lock down. I know some of you guys over in Europe, North America and most other continents have been in various stages of lock down for a while now and we have been watching from afar with mounting horror and trepidation. Now it's our turn. If anyone of my friends need to contact me, even if it's only for a chat then the quickest way is probably to send me a friend request on Fakebook (Goin Feral) and then we can use messenger. As far as the blog goes I'll probably keep posting, as like I mentioned I've got quite a few posts sitting around partly finished, at least the blog will give me something to keep my mind occupied I guess.

Looking on the positive side of things I'm quite partial to a bit of social distancing so that shouldn't worry me too much and hopefully we'll come through this with a higher regard for science. Maybe our older generations will take the warnings about Climate Change seriously and react like they expect the younger generations to react now to protect them, as Alanis would say isn't it ironic? With the forced shutdown of so many industries around the world it may also buy us a few more years at the back end of the century to get our act together... although I'm really scratching around trying to find many positives about all this.

Anyway, with one eye on the fact that I was reasonably sure that I'd be home quarantined soon, I decided to go for a bit of a road trip after finishing work last Friday. After an afternoon walk at the Grampians National Park I motored a bit further west to Kiata in Little Desert National Park to camp for the night. As far as social isolation goes Little Desert seems to fulfil most of those requirements!

Yellow Gums at Kiata this morning.

Kiata Campground is at the northern extremities of this section of Little Desert National Park.

I was up before the sun this morning.

As soon as the sun started to lighten the eastern horizon I was out of the tent and packing up, I was keen to do this little Redgum Walk early in the morning as I was thinking that my photos would need all the help they could get. After breaking camp I idled the ute 100 metres through the almost deserted camp ground to the trail head, locked up, re-set the GPS and set off. Initially the sandy track headed south for a few minutes through some nice Yellow Gums before striking off east towards the still rising sun. Being so early (it was around 7:45am) not only was the light good for my photos but there was also quite a lot of animals around, always a good thing, even more so for my mental health at the moment.

The walking tracks head out from the southern side of the camp.

Yellow Gums

Most of the tracks up at little desert are fairly soft and sandy.

The suns made it's appearance....

... and so have the roos!

Redgum Walk

Heading due east meant that I was stopping to take most of my photos looking back in the direction that I'd come from although that was a small price to pay for the nice light I think. I basically headed east this morning until I arrived at the old Eucalyptus Distillery Site, like a lot of spots in Victoria's Mallee country there is a bit of history out here. The old distillery closed in 1907 and apart from some old fence lines there isn't a lot left of the old enterprise. What there was a lot of this morning was animals though, with big mobs of Roos and Emus, along with a variety of different bird calls echoing through the bush.

Little Desert National Park

Redgum walk.

The great light was the pay off for my early start.

Appart from some old fencing there isn't a lot left of the old Eucalyptus Distillery Site.

I had a feeling that I was being watched!

Turning north at the old distillery site I passed through a beautiful grove of native pines before some cleared paddocks signalled my arrival at the northern extremities of the national park, the open dry paddocks looking fairly parched at the tail end of summer. The cleared land was the spot where my walk turned west to complete the loop. Passing some nice Redgums the well marked track meandered through the scrub to enter the eastern extremities of the sprawling Kiata Campground and my easy mornings walk was pretty well over. After passing by a couple of early rising campers I was back at the ute by around 8:15 this morning, I had plenty of time for my second breakfast before grabbing my pack and setting off on my next little adventure.... however that's another story!

Heading north for awhile now.

This is the first walk that I've ever done that my GPS came out with a 0 metres climbed reading.

Redgum Walk.

These native pines are a Feral favourite.

Redgums... and roos.

The Dirt.
I walked 2.4 kilometres and climbed 0 metres ! on this very easy walk this morning. I used the Parks Vic notes for this stroll along with my GPS topo map, as far as I know there are no published notes for this walk. This stroll is definitely best either early in the morning or late in the afternoon I think, especially if you like taking photos or watching wildlife. Being such a long drive from Melbourne I normally camp for a night when I visit this park, Kiata Campground has tanks, picnic tables, toilets and heaps of room and I've never seen more than a handful of other people out here.

Relevant Posts.
Desert Discovery Walk, Little Desert National Park, 2016
Mt Arapiles Circuit Walk, Mt Arapiles - Tooan State Park, 2018

On meeting the cleared land Redgum Track turned back to the west.

Red Gum

At least the sun was behind me now.

Kiata Campground.

Kiata Camp is a huge area...I've never seen more than a handful of others here though.