Silvan Walk, Dandenong Ranges National Park - June 2020

After some good recent rain the bush was looking good.

After a couple of hours at work this morning I was looking for somewhere fairly close to home to go for a stroll today. Remembering I walk I did years ago up at Silvan I dug out Tyrone Thomas' old guide book checked out the notes... it all looked quite reasonable, maybe even better than reasonable considering the good soaking the bush has received over the last few months. Anyway, that's the rambling preamble on how I found myself parking in the small dirt overflow car park at Silvan Reservoir under overcast skies late on this Friday morning.

There is room for around a dozen vehicles here.

Pulling on my trail runners (yes, I'm using trail runners on some of the easier walks now) I set off down the wide grassy pipeline easement. There is a labyrinth of walking (and MTB) tracks through the bush around here with little in the way of signposting so it's always a little hit of miss on whether I end up on the exact track that I'm meant to be on, not that it really matters as it was just a matter of heading down hill to cross Olinda Creek. Once across Olinda Creek I climbed up onto a wide grassy road and headed south beside Olinda Creek.

I dropped downy this grass easement towards Olinda Creek.

This fence wasn't here last time I walked here I don't think - it's easy enough to skirt around though.

Dropping down to Olinda Creek on Grey Gum Track (I think).

I thought I was in Tassie for a minute.

Olinda Creek

On this side of the creek the tracks are a bit better signposted although for the most part the names of the tracks on the signposts, my map and my GPS bore little resemblance to each other so I still had to concentrate a little. With Olinda Creek down to my left it was just a matter of heading south for awhile, whether I was on Road Number 13, 11, or 18 I'm not exactly sure. Heading south the only time I left the creek was were my track (road?) skirted above water treatment plant for Silvan Reservoir. The walk along here, let's call it Road Number 18, is very nice. While things were a little muddy under foot, the rain had given the ferns and bracken, along with the surrounding forest, a verdant green lushness that was doing wonders for my Corona addled brain.

Heading south along the Olinda Creek Valley.

Olinda Creek is beneath the ferns and bracken.

The rain had made the tracks a little soft and slippery however the scenery had benefitted.

After Olinda Creek and my track started heading west I arrived at a signpost that did match up with my map and GPS and I turned north up Road 13. My easy amble was over for awhile now as I climbed fairly steeply up Road 13. After avoiding a few roads off to the the right the climbing eased up a bit and Road 13 arrived at another junction. I now turned left (west) along what I think was Road 21, although once again things were a little vague on the ground. Road 21 climbed fairly gently west along the crest of a the forested ridge, every now and again I got glimpses through the canopy to distant cloud covered mountains however for the most part it was a forest walk. Keeping a close eye on my map I turned right (north) onto the un-signposted Richardsons Track and started to lose all the height that I'd gained. I'd broken my trekking pole on a recent walk and dropping down here on the greasy red clay track I was really missing them now, this is also one of the areas where I find the limits of my trail runners.

Road 13... time to start climbing.

Check out the size of this old stump... these trees must have been huge before they were logged. You can see the notch cut into the tree that the old loggers used to stand on.

Climbing Road 13.

I turned right here and started descending down the un-signposted Richardson Track.

Wet red clay meant that I had to be very careful whilst I dropped steeply down Richardson Track.

I was getting some glimpses through the trees to distant mountains. I'm thinking that this is Mt Donna Buang.

Safely down my steep and slippery descent I once again found myself back down in the Olinda Creek Valley and on a wide grassy road. Heading east and then south I eventually arrived at the walking track that I'd crossed Olinda Creek an hour or so ago, dropping down I crossed the Olinda Creek again and climbed up to a walking track junction. Now once again things got a little vague as I made my way back up to the car park. All I can say is that I mostly stayed left as I climbed through the forest until I heard the traffic on the nearby Monbulk Road, with the traffic noise signalling that I didn't need to climb anymore I started to contour the slope a little and take tracks that were heading south-east and then south-west before arriving back at the car park that I'd set off from a couple of hours ago.

Back beside Olinda Creek things were pretty easy again.

I even got some glimpses of blue sky now.

I followed a fairly vague collection of walking tracks once I was back on the Monbulk Road side of Olinda Creek.

The forest up here is a little drier than in other areas of the Dandenong Ranges National Park.

The Dirt.
According to my GPS I walked 9.4 kilometres and climbed 320 metres on what I'd call an easy-medium walk. Now I've waffled on a bit about un-named tracks and navigational conundrums however you shouldn't really get seriously lost here, Olinda Creek makes for a good reference point to regain your bearings. The Olinda Reservoir Grounds would make a nice spot for a picnic pre or post walk I guess. I used some old notes and maps out of Tyrone Tomas' 40 Bushland & Park Walks In Metropolitan Melbourne along with my GPS topos.

Relevant Posts.
Olinda Creek & Grey Gum Track, 2016.

Mt Evelyn Forest Walk, Dandenong Ranges National Park, 2016.

I used the traffic noise on the nearby Mombulk Road to guide me through the maze of tracks.

Eventually I arrived back at the top end of the car park - maybe on Messmate Track?