Mt Crozier Walkers Camp to Mt Jess Track Walkers Camp, Sunset Remote Walk, Murray~Sunset National Park - September 2022

The Mallee trees were putting on a colourful display on this visit.

I'd decided to bring a quilt on this walk so I was fairly happy that the temperature didn't get down too low over night and I'd enjoyed a comfortable nights sleep. With the sun lighting up my almost translucent tent I figured that I'd better emerge from my warm cocoon. Staggering to my feet with about as much grace as neanderthal man, I shuffled over to Jo's tent to find her sitting there serenely in the sun enjoying an early morning hot drink... yin and yang indeed! After a quick mornings greeting I wandered back to my disorganised tent, grabbed my food bag and then found myself a log in the sun to enjoy my breakfast... yes, life was pretty simple... but pretty good at the same time!

Sun's up...

... time to make a move I guess.

I'm thinking that it was around 9am this morning when we set off although to be honest I don't even carry a watch anymore. Our walk today had us heading east for many kilometres before we'd swing south in the afternoon to reach tonights camp. I was hoping that we may have been walking the flats between the dunes a little more today as yesterday we seemed to be walking against the grain of the land a little which meant that we did a lot of climbing on the motorbike cut up sand... and more or less that's how things played out.

 

Heading off along the SRW first thing this morning. 

There weren't as many dunes to climb today as yesterday although we still had to negotiate a few of them.

The colours of the bush a fairly subtle up here - this is about as vibrant as things get. 

Once on top of the dunes we got some longer views.

We made pretty good time this morning as we ambled along chatting and curing the ills of the world, the surprisingly diverse country slipping by. The country today had a bit of everything, from low sandy ridge lines which we followed to big grassy plains which were perfect for lazy stops. After crossing the 4wd Mopoke Track we soon reached another large grassy flat, although this one had two dams in it which made out a perfect spot for a late lunch as we enjoyed watching the local roos coming in for a drink.

Spinifex 

Enjoying our first lunch in the shade... gazing out at the Saltbush.

The SRW heading east.

Soon after leaving our lunch spot the SRW swung south and crossed Honeymoon Track, now back in fairly sandy Mallee Tree country. Not long after crossing the 4wd Honeymoon Track we passed by the remains of an old camp, with bottles and other assorted old rubbish scattered throughout the trees - I'm thinking that if anyone was into old relics this would be a rewarding spot to do a bit of fossicking - although I'm not sure of the legalities of that in a national park? Soon after passing by the old camp we arrived at a big grassy flat that even had a few Yellowgums scattered around... and that was tonight's camp - around 100 metres before the SRW crossed the Mt Jess Track.

In one spot a Mallee Fowl has built a huge nest in the middle of the track - I'm glad the motorbikes hadn't ridden into it...yet😟

Our second lunch was enjoyed laying on the ground watching the local roos graze.

There were a couple of earth dams that were actually full of water on this flat. 

We passed by this old camp at the back end of the day.

The Dirt.

We walked around 20 kilometres and climbed around 250 metres on what I'd call a medium grade day's walking. The SRW today was a much better walk than it had been on day 1, the country was diverse and the surface of the track was less cut up by motorbikes. There was no water between the Mt Crozier Camp and the Mt Jess Track Camp - the dams that we passed shouldn't be relied upon in this arid country. The Mt Jess Track has a water tank, some fallen trees to sit on and plenty of flat ground to pitch a tent on however apart from that there are no other facilities. We used John & Lyn Daly's notes out of their old book Take A Walk in Victoria's National Parks as well as our Alltrails App and GPS topos today, we were also carrying Meridian's Victoria's Deserts map.

Relevant Posts.

Day 1 of this walk, 2022.

Late afternoon at our Mt Jess Track Camp.

Dinner time at Mt Jess Track Camp.