Desert Discovery Daywalk, Little Desert National Park - March 2020

Little Desert National Park.

Just before we all got locked down due to the Corona Virus I indulged in a bit of a walking binge and one of those trips was up to an old favourite - Little Desert National Park. Now as I'm typing this up after the lockdown has come into effect I'm not sure when I'm actually going to be able to head up to Victoria's Mallee country again, however the way things are looking in other spots around the world at the moment it's going to be quite awhile. Yes, I don't think I could quite justify a five hour drive just for exercise! So anyway I was pretty keen to make the most of what was a stunning looking morning today.

Heading out from Kiata first thing this morning.

This morning I left the Kiata Campground and headed off south for five minutes or so before branching right onto the long(ish) distance Desert Discovery Walking Track. I've walked the Desert Discovery Walk (DDW)  a couple of times before so I had a fair idea of what was coming up first thing this morning. The DDW initially heads through some fairly thick, heathy scrub as it makes it's way to the south west to gently climb onto a low ridge that runs north south through the park. The scrub through here has actually grown quite a lot since my last visit a few years ago and sometimes this morning I was walking through a bit of a tunnel of vegetation as the track meandered my way across towards the ridge.

I love the early morning light up here.

I veered right onto the Desert Discovery Walk (DDW) here, I'd return from the left in a few hours.

Following the DDW through the desert scrub.

I was heading towards that low ridge.

In my experience I found that Dirt Bikes illegally using the walking tracks are a real pain in the arse up here.

Around an hour and a half after leaving the ute this morning I spied the trig point poking out above the scrub in the distance, climbing up onto the small lookout platform beside the trig it was time for smoko. As far as long range lookouts goes this is about it in Little Desert and while the ridge and trig are only 221 metres high (at the highest point) the surrounding flat, semi arid land means that the view is surprisingly long ranging. The views south towards the brooding cliffs of Mt Arapiles drawing my eye this morning. The lookout also gave me a chance to take a bit of a bearing off some cleared rural land in the distance, this was reasonably important as I was shortly going to be heading off track for awhile.

Early morning on the DDW.

The DDW.

The DDW.

Have I ever mentioned that I'm quite partial to Grass Trees.

The trig has just come into view.

After a nice break at the lookout I left the DDW and dropped down an old 4wd track to the north east to meet up with the major Salt Lake Track. With Salt Lake Track being open to vehicles I wasn't overly keen to walk it this morning, so I'd decided to cut across country from here it intersect with the DDW again south of Albrechts Mill Site. This next section is completely off track and being Mallee country there isn't a lot of landmarks to aid navigation, thankfully the scrub isn't overly thick although it is a little thicker than the last time a came through here many years ago. The go here (well for me anyway) was once I hit Salt Lake Track I followed it north for couple of minutes onto a slight sandy rise. Once on the gentle rise I veered off the track and struck out on a north west bearing, I was lucky(?) in that the low morning sun in my face meant that it was pretty easy to keep pretty well on the right bearing. The first time I came through here years ago a fire had knocked things down a bit however now days there are a few belts of thicker scrub that I had to work my way through, however so long as I kept the sun ahead of me slightly to the right I was going OK.

The lookout at the trig makes a nice spot for a break.

The view west from the lookout.

I was using the cleared land in the distance to take a bearing that would get me back onto the DDW later.

Mt Arapiles rising from the plains to the south.

There's a wind farm up here now.

After leaving the lookout at the Trig I followed this old 4wd down to meet Salt Lake Track.

Salt Lake Track

Salt Lake Track is a soft and sandy 4wd track.

After twenty minutes or so of picking my way through the Mallee scrub I spied the reassuring sight of the sandy DDW through the trees ahead of me and the adventurous (best) part of today's little adventure was safely completed. Turning left I now followed the sandy DDW north as I headed up to Albrechts Mill Site, the open and clear track making for very easy walking after my short off piste section. Arriving at Albrechts Mill Site I checked out the old pump and dam, Fred and Ted Albrecht run sheep here back in the 1930's. Now days the old mill site makes for a nice spot to sit at the picnic table for awhile and quietly watch the animals come in for a drink, the birds flittering around being particularly entertaining.

After following Salt Lake Track for a few minutes I waded into the scrub.

For the most part the going was pretty good - as far as off piste walking goes anyway.

There was some open sections...

....and then there was some scrubbier sections.

It probably looks worse in a photo than it really is I think.

Hey, hey, I've just spied the DDW through the trees.

Suitably refreshed and refuelled after my stop I grabbed my pack and set off north again on the last section of the walk. I was once again following a section of the DDW as I made my way north towards Kiata. This section of the DDW gets progressively better the closer it gets towards Kiata I think, the Mallee Trees giving way to Stringybarks and then finally Yellowgums as I approached the camp ground. Around 40 minutes after leaving Albrechts Mill I spied the ute in the distance and my morning's walk was over, it was time to head home and settle in for some uncertain times.

Easy going now I'm back on the DDW.

Albrechts Mill

The old bore at Albrechts Mill.

The other old bore at Albrechts Mill - my legs copped a little abuse on the short scrub bash section.

The Dirt.
I walked 11.6 kilometres and climbed 110 metres on what I'd call a medium grade stroll. Now while there is very little climbing involved on this stroll there are a few things to be aware of, the first is that while things are fairly flat the tracks can be pretty soft and sandy, it's not super tough however it's still a little harder than walking on a normal track. The other thing to be aware of is that the walk as I did it requires just under a kilometre off track through heathy Mallee scrub, once again it's not super hard however you will need to navigate off a bearing - you don't want to head too far east and miss the DDW to the south otherwise you'll be in for a long walk in the desert! All that said it's easily possible to avoid the off piste section by just following the Salt Lake Track north and then cutting east along PumpJack Track to meet the DDW at Albrects Mill Site. This walk has been published by Glenn Tempest in his Daywalks Around Victoria book and I recommend it.

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

Little Desert National Park

Nice walking on the DDW again.

Back at my track junction south of Kiata.

Arriving back at Kiata - it was time to head home after another nice walk.

Noojee Trestle Bridge Walk - March 2020

The highlight of this afternoons stroll, the Noojee Trestle Bridge.

I broke an unwritten rule that I have today, yes I foolishly decided to head away from home in the middle of a long weekend. This post should of been about Toorongo Falls, all things being equal. However after making the longish drive from home I arrived near the start of the Toorongo Falls walk to find that hundreds of people had already beaten me there. Fair dinkum it looked like a cross between Coachella and McPhillamy Park on Bathurst weekend, punters were camped on every available spot of grass, people were riding around on trail bikes and monkey bikes, fires were going everywhere and cars were parked for kilometres on either sides of the small dirt access road, how's the serenity indeed!

Kicking myself at my stupidity I didn't even bother climbing out of the ute, turning around and escaping the heaving dose of humanity I headed for home. While weaving my way through the traffic and parked vehicles I calmed down a little and decided that seeing that I still had quite a few hours daylight up my sleeve then I may as well try another walk. Heading back through Noojee I decided walk the Noojee Trestle Bridge Walk. It's a fairly standard walk that I've done before, so I knew pretty well what was in store - a pretty straightforward out and back along an old railway line with the highlight being a big old trestle bridge, nothing really exciting however nice enough, considering that I was in the area.

The Noojee Heritage Centre. There is normally plenty of parking around here.

I parked at the Noojee Heritage Centre this afternoon, this spot is part museum part picnic area and there is generally a fair bit of parking here (the other option is to park at the trestle bridge). Crossing the Mt Baw Baw Tourist Road I immediately picked up the old railway alignment and headed west...and that was pretty much the extent of today's navigational requirements. For the first ten minutes or so I was walking through the outer suburbs of Noojee before shuffling my way out of town. Once out of town the old railway line passes beneath some fairly impressive Eucalyptus forest, although in reality this protected forest is just a thin line. A couple of kilometres of very gently climbing saw me arrive at the historical Trestle Bridge. With a car park just below the bridge the trestle bridge is generally a fairly busy spot and this afternoon was no different in that regard, so I decided to keep walking a bit today.

Before leaving the grounds of the Heritage Centre I poked around the old rolling stock for awhile.

This old steam train was the last steam train to be regularly rostered in Victoria, being in use up until 1972.

After crossing the Mt Baw Baw Tourist Road is was onto the old railway alignment.

Noojee

The trail starts off feeling a little rural....

.....before heading into the bush. The old Warragul to Noojee rail line operated from 1919 to 1954.

The gullies that I crossed were looking lush and green after some good recent rain.

Away from the gullies the forest was a little drier.

The normal go with this walk is to walk out to the trestle bridge and then head back into town for a walk of around 4 kilometres, this afternoon I decided to keep heading west along the old railway line for awhile and see where I got to. Leaving the bridge the old railway easement gets a little rougher and slightly overgrown, however things are still pretty easy going.... for awhile. After crossing a couple of damp gullies and passing through a couple of decent sized cuttings I eventually arrived at the my turn around point, the open rural land now seen through the trees is the signal that it was time to turn around, well that and the impenetrable wall of blackberries chocking the next cutting.

Arriving at the trestle bridge I decided to push on and explore a bit on my return journey.

Once over the trestle bridge the rail trail is a little rougher however it's still all pretty easy.

There are some nice old cuttings.

The forrest below the rail trail appears to be a little drier.

I turned around at this cutting.

Retracing my steps to the Noojee Trestle Bridge I decided to brave the late afternoon crowds and explore a little. This is a pretty impressive bridge and I'm sure that there are copious amounts of photos floating around the inter web of the bridge and now I've contributed a little. Actually photographing these old structures isn't necessarily a bad things as sadly a lot of this old infrastructure is either rotting away or being claimed by bush fires. Dropping down below the bridge gave me arguably the best photos however I paid for it climbing back up the very steep bluestone steps.

Back at the Noojee Trestle Bridge.

Apart from the bridge I got to check out the Noojee Trestle Bridge Humpy:)

The climb back up to the rail trail is a solid one.

Once I was back up on the rail trail it was now just a matter of ambling down the last couple of kilometres back into town again. The main attraction on my late afternoon walk back to town was watching a couple of Red Breasted Parrots flittering about, although trying to get a photo of them tested me a little. Tearing myself away from the birds I arrived back at the ute a few minutes later and I pulled off my boots and settled in for the drive home, happy that at the day had turned out alright after all.

There are some very tall trees along here.

This afternoons wildlife encounter.

The Dirt.
I walked 7.1 kilometres and climbed 107 metres on this easy walk. Like I eluded to earlier this is one of those excursion that probably isn't worth driving all the way from Melbourne to do, however if you are in the area it's worth spending a couple of hours checking it out. Most people seem to only walk from Noojee to the trestle bridge however it's easy enough to push on another 1.5 kilometres to the end of the cleared trail, the forest scenery is pretty enough and the walking is good. I used Craig Sheathers notes and map out of the book Best Walks East of Melbourne this afternoon, Glenn Tempest has also written up this walk.

Relevant Posts.
Ada Valley Walk, Yarra Ranges State Forest, 2019.
Ada No.2 to Powelltown, Walk into History, Yarra Ranges State Forest, 2017.

Back at the Noojee Heritage Centre. This whole area has a big logging history - unfortunately a lot of the forests around here are now being clear felled.