The view across towards Mt Korong from my camp up on Mt Kooyoora was a nice one.
Well my Corona lockdown has ended… for now. Yes, I can’t help thinking that this new found freedom is just one extended family gathering away from being snatched away from me again! Yep, the scars are going to take awhile to heal I think! Pretty much wanting to be alone with my demons today I decided to head up to Mt Kooyoora after I finished work early this afternoon. Mt Kooyoora is on the far side of Bendigo and the summit is an off piste job so I was hoping the combination of distance from Melbourne and a lack of a track would see me camping on my own… and for once my cunning plan paid off.
I left the ute at the Melville Caves Campground.
Melville Caves Campground
As I’ve eluded to my day started off with a typically hectic 8 hours at work before I was able to jump in the ute and well and truly burst my bloody 25 kilometre bubble. After safely making its through the Corona war zone of Melbourne’s northern suburbs I settled in to listen to a bit of soothing Sepultura as I cruised north up the Calder highway, arriving at the busy Melville Caves Camping Ground just on 4:30 pm. By the time I organised my pack it was closer to 5 pm by the time I shuffled off down the dirt road… and 15 minutes later again by the time I locked at my map, realised I was going the wrong way and scrub bashed my way across to the right track… yes, my life was slowly returning to normal. Anyway, after scaring the local roos as I completed my off piste detour lets just say that the day was getting on a bit by the time I finally set off.
Alright, I was off...
... for a couple of minutes before I realised I was heading the wrong way. I then headed off on a short scrub bash to get back on track...
... startling a few locals along the way!
After passing the car park for Melville Caves I picked up Mountain View Road and set off an a fairly short road bash. Heading north for 15 minutes I left Mountain View Road which swung off to the north-west and continued shuffling my north, now on Kirwans Road. Soon Kirwans Road started dropping into a valley to the east however once again I kept north, now on Crystal Mine Track. After a few minutes walking I crossed a barrier stopping vehicles and started to drop down a little for the short side trip to the old White Swan Mine Site. This old mine basically just consists of a fairly large open-cut that had a little bit of water in it today and a mullock heap in the scrub, I didn’t do an extensive search of the bush however I didn’t notice any off the rusting machinery that I sometimes find at the old sites.
Passing the car park for Melville Caves I set off down the dirt Mountain View Road.
Mountain View Road.
Our latest drought had pretty well broken while we were locked down and the country was locking good on this trip.
Mt Kooyoora in the distance - from Mountain View Road.
Looks like Parks Vic have a decent budget for white posts and reflectors! I went right.
Gnarly trees and Granite Rocks are Kooyoora State Park staples.
Kirwans Road dropped away to the right. I went left towards the Crystal Mine.
With the day slipping away pretty quickly and with me still having a mountain (mountain is fairly generous really, Mt Kooyoora is really just a large hill I reckon) to climb off track. Retracing my way back up to the barrier that I mentioned earlier I left the track and headed off into the scrub on a bearing. Initially I headed just west of north as I aimed for a wide gentle saddle in what was fairly open forest. The fairly open country made for reasonably quick off track walking and I was soon crossing my saddle and starting my climb of Mt Kooyoora, which looked its most intimidating from this low vantage point. I now basically climbed north east to pick up the main Mt Kooyoora east - west ridge line. Yeah, that all sounds easy enough hey. Well it wasn’t too bad I suppose but for someone who hasn’t done any real walking for the best part of 10 months it still had me raising a sweat this afternoon.
The old Crystal Mine and my feeble attempt at an arty shot!
The old Crystal Mine site.
Mt Kooyoora looks a little more substantial from the Crystal Mine Track.
The main issue with the climb is safely negotiating the large granite slabs that buttress the mountain, that was the reason I’d swung away from the summit and onto the ridge - the direct route from the saddle to the summit while shorter looks a little sketchy for a old campaigner like myself. Once on the ridge I climbed to the west, negotiated a few niggly bands of scrub and rock before arriving on the summit just after 6 pm, yes it had been a big day!
The huge granite slabs could make the off piste walking easier - providing that they weren't too steep.
I was dropping gently to cross a broad saddle in the scrub before swing to the right to eventually pick up the summit ridge.
Climbing towards the summit ridge.
The flanks of Mt Kooyoora.
After putting my new Zpacks tent up that had been gathering dust at home for most of the year I settled in to enjoy the serenity off this pretty place. The summit of Mt Kooyoora consists of huge granite rocks interspersed with beautiful flat grassy openings, and with plenty of long range views available from various rocky perches it made for a very pleasant camp tonight.
After setting up camp on the summit of Mt Kooyoora I had a bit of a poke around before sunset.
The summit is crowned by yet more huge rocks.
Looking north from my camp.
The Dirt.
According to my GPS I walked around 5 kilometres this afternoon and climbed around 224 metres on what I'd call a medium grade walk. I'm calling this a medium grade walk this afternoon as the climb up Mt Kooyoora is totally off track and while the scrub is fairly light there are some steep slabs and huge boulders that need to be negotiated. I parked the ute at the large Melville Caves Campground and there is normally plenty of room here. My Mt Kooyoora Camp featured a nice grassy flat area and plenty of rocks to climb onto to check out the different views, the camp has no other facilities. I used a combination of Mr Tempest and Mr Thomas' notes and mud maps on this stroll, as well as my GPS topos.
Relevant Posts.
Relevant Posts.
Dusk from Mt Kooyoora.
Mt Korong in the distance.
My camp on Mt Kooyoora... I'd been waiting a long time to get out of isolation in Melbourne and spend some quality time on my own in the bush.
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