Estate Spur, Lake Eildon National Park - January 2018

Lake Eildon was looking good this morning.

This was actually the first Australian walk that I’d done since finishing my AAWT epic in December, my time since finishing the alps walk had been taken up retrieving food drops from the hills, work, Christmas and then a trip to Singapore. So with virtually no exercise for awhile I decided to head up to Lake Eildon National Park and do the Estate Spur Walk. I’d done this walk years ago and always figured that it would make a nice stroll on a warm day, with the lake making for a great spot for a cooling swim. So with a forecast temperature of around 30˚ today was the day. With a warm day in prospect I headed off from home before 5am this morning, arriving at the start of the walk at the Lakeside Camping Area well before 8am.

I was on my way pretty early today.

Locking the ute I set off up the access road for 100 metres, I’d decided to walk this walk in the reverse direction as it’s usually described so I could finish my stroll along the shores of Lake Eildon and have a swim. So reading Mr Chapman’s notes in reverse I picked up the very steep, loose and eroded old fire track that would take me from the camp up to the crest of Estate Spur. Apart from getting the steepest and longest climb out of the way early, going around in reverse also meant that I was climbing up Estate Spur in the shade of the mountain this morning. While the initial climb was pretty steep it was mercifully short and before long I arrived on the open grassy tops of Estate Spur.

The good news was the first steep section of the walk was shaded by the spur.

Once on the crest of Estate Spur the grassy slopes make for very nice walking.

The open tops of Estate Spur are what make this a very good walk I think. With Coller Bay framed by Blowhard Spur down below me to the north and Bolte Bay to my south the views along here on a good day are definitely worth the climb, and today was a very good day. Lake Eildon was almost mirror smooth this morning, the only blemishes on it’s surface being from the numerous houseboats and water skiers out enjoying the morning. Like it’s near neighbour Blowhard Spur, Estate Spur isn’t a level walk though, the grassy spur undulating a fair bit as I headed south west along the crest.

Looking down over Collar Bay with Blowhard Spur behind it.

There is a bit of up and down walking along Estate Spur.

I was climbing over that next grassy knoll.

I was keeping a close eye on the map and the GPS as I shuffled my way along the tops, avoiding a signposted track heading back down to the visiter centre I continued on a little bit further dropping through one last high saddle before sidling the last knoll a little to meet up with the track running down to Bedrock Creek. Like my climb up Estate Spur my descent down off the spur was reasonably steep but pretty short, the spur top being only around 150 metres above the lake level.

Occasionally the track along Estate Spur would drop into some trees for awhile.

That's Bolte Bay, my return route would be back along it's shoreline.

Cook Point at the end of Blowhard Spur, another potential swimming spot.

Arriving down at Bedrock Creek things got a little vague for a little while, the pad heading down stream beside the almost dry creek, coming and going a bit in the long grass. With the shimmering water of Bolte Bay appearing through the Stringybark Trees I picked up a benched track climbing a little through the dry, open forest above the lake shore. The walking from here back to the ute would now feature water views for the majority of the way. Contouring along the hillside on my benched track I made my way past a clutch (or maybe a gaggle?) of houseboats tied up on the shore below me, no doubt enjoying their the Christmas/New Year holidays.

I sidled left around this last knoll....

....and picked up this old fire track down to Bedrock Creek.

Things are a little vague through the long grass down beside Bedrock Creek.

There are enough cairns and track markers around though.

While the track along the shoreline is a good track for the most part it does feature quite a few short and steep ups and downs, each little rise and fall is normally only a few metres but walking along in the hot sun it was all starting to add up this morning, so I was quite happy to reach the signposted turn off for my short detour out to Point Mibus, my designated swimming spot. Dropping down to the end of the point I was happy to find some shady trees to leave my gear under while I gingerly edged my way down the last couple of metres to the welcoming water (here’s a Feral tip, if you are thinking of swimming here remember to bring some river sandals in your pack, the rocks and stones around the shore of Lake Eildon are pretty sharp in my experience and very hard on bare feet).

With the water of Bolte Bay visible through the trees I picked up a benched track.

The open forest along the shoreline makes nice walking too.

Floating out into the lake the cool water enveloping me I felt like I was again in my natural habitat. Really I could of spent all day here, swimming and sitting in the shade taking in the view but that wouldn’t have got me back to the ute, eventually after drying off a bit, I pulled my sweaty gear back on and set off back towards the Lakeside camp. Leaving Point Mibus I had to climb back up to meet my contouring track, the pad now traversing slightly steeper ground as it headed towards Point Mead, the views of the lake through the trees now being almost constant. Point Mead is named after American, Elwood Mead, after who Lake Mead in the US is also named after, he was engineer who helped design Lake Eildon as well as Hoover Dam back at home. Stopping for awhile on the point I read the information plaque while taking in the view, thinking to myself that old Elwood would of been pretty happy with this spot being named in honour of him.

Point Mibus

The geo-cache at Point Mibus. When does a geo-cache become litter?

Looking into Bolte Bay from my swimming spot.

Elegant entry and exits can be difficult in bare feet here!

I was now on the finishing stretches of my stroll as the pad south west back above the shoreline. The track was now passing through a few areas of fairly dense Tea Tree which gave me a bit of shade from the mid-day sun. Soon enough I spied the ute through the scrub, arriving I through my sweaty boots in the tray, grabbed a cool drink and settled in for the two and half hour drive home, happy that my first decent walk post the AAWT had been good one.

Your Feral correspondent in his natural habitat.  

The slopes are a little steeper heading around to Point Mead.

The Dirt.
I walked 9.8 kilometres and climbed 542 metres on what I’d call a medium grade walk. As I mentioned the walk is normally done in the other direction, it would make the navigation a little easier going in that direction, however there is no big navigational challenges going around in the direction I did it. Assuming the water level is high enough, Lake Eildon is great place for a swim but if you are not a good swimmer then be a bit careful as it drops off pretty steeply, the exits and entries would be easier in sandals too. This is walk # 35 in the House of Chapman’s second edition of Day Walks Melbourne.

Relevant Posts.

Blowhard Circuit, Lake Eildon National Park, 2017.
Southern Circuit, Cathedral Range State Park, 2015.
Northern Circuit, Cathedral Range State Park, 2016.

Point Mead

Heading back to Lakeside camping area through the Tea Trees.

Urquhart Bluff & Aireys Inlet - February 2018

There wasn't a lot of skill involved in taking a good photo this morning.

With the summer school holidays over I finally decided to risk a trip down the Great Ocean Road to take a bit of a stroll. This place is bedlam in the holidays but I was hoping things would be a little quieter on this Saturday. I was helped a little today by the fact I needed a very low tide to complete the first half of the walk and with low tide predicted for 8am it meant that I was up and on my way pretty early, way before any sensible person would of even been out of bed. After my usual walkers breakfast on the way down of toasties and a coffee, I still managed to pull into the Urquart Bluff car park at around 7am on this Saturday, so early that the pack backers camped illegally in their Wicked Vans had yet to vacate the car park. Managing to pull on my boots without rousing my wicked mates I set off on my journey down the coast to Aireys Inlet.

Heading down the Great Ocean Road to Urquhart Bluff, I was planning on walking the cliff line in the distance.

Urquhart Bluff, I've driven past this spot many many times but have never walked here.

The early start not only would make it possible to hopefully traverse the base of the cliffs all the way along to Aireys Inlet, but the early morning sunlight lighting up the costal cliffs wasn’t going to hurt my photos either, well that was the theory anyway. Setting off around Urquart Bluff it looked like for once my cunning plan was going to pay off, with the red cliffs almost glowing I’d managed to take around twenty photos before I’d even lost sight of the car park! With the tide almost dead low the walking along here was really nice, the route alternating between firm sand and large rock platforms. With the occasional cloud providing a bit of a light and shade effect on the cliff line I was finding it hard to make much forward progress as I kept snapping away, at this rate it’d be a Feral swim into Aireys Inlet.

Today's early start didn't hurt my photos.

The red cliffs along this section of the coast are always pretty photogenic.

The other good news this morning was that navigation shouldn’t really be an issue, keep the ocean on my left on the way to Aireys Inlet and on my right on the way back, even my dodgy Feral navigation techniques should be able to handle that! Crossing the wide expanse of sand that is Sunnymead Beach, which was the first access spot to the coast since leaving Urquart Bluff, I started down another long section of wild coastline, once again largely inaccessible from the cliff tops above. Rounding a headland I got my first relatively close up view of the Aireys Inlet Lighthouse, the spot that I’d leave water level and climb to the cliff tips for my walk back to the ute.

Navigation today wasn't really an issue.

Walking these rock platforms was very enjoyable.

Split Point and the Aireys Inlet Lighthouse has just come into view.

Walking past another couple of beach access spots at Sandy Gully and Step Beach I now started the roughest walking of the day around Split Point. With the missing 12th Apostle standing just off shore (actually that’s another alternative Feral fact, the rock stack is called Eagle Rock if you want to be technical about it all;) I slowly rock hopped my way around the point. As I mentioned the walking is rougher along here, instead of flattish rock shelves I was now walking across upturned and jagged rocks complete with a couple of gulches to cross, thankfully the tide was about as low as it gets as even with the low water levels there was a bit of easy scrambling around this headland to keep my boots dry.

Eagle Rock

I think the occasional cloud helped my photos today.

Bugger me, I reckon Eagle Rock is getting further away!

Easing my way around Split Point the long open expanse of beach along to Moggs Creek slowly came into view along with views down along the Otway Ranges towards Cape Otway, I was only heading west a far as the inlet though today. Reaching the closed off Aireys Inlet I headed inland a little way beside the still waters of the inlet, the only ripples on the mirror smooth water caused by the birds coming in for a drink. After walking a hundred metres or so from the beach I picked up the Surf Coast Walk, I’d now follow this walk all the way back to the ute at Urquart Bluff. First up though I climbed up through the coastal scrub towards the lighthouse, the views down along the coast giving me reason to pause every now and again.

There is even a cairn garden at Step Beach.

I was trying for the arty wanker shot here, Sam said I got it half right?

Eagle Rock

The walk around Split Point is best done on a very low tide, this was as low as it would go today.

There are some nice rock pools at low tide on Split Point.

Aireys Inlet Lighthouse was a nice spot to wander around for awhile this morning, with the beach section that was tide dependant now complete there was no urgency to get back to the ute. Apart from the actual lighthouse there are also a couple of nice lookouts in the immediate area as well as a nice café just down the road a few metres from the lighthouse, not a bad spot to relax and chill out for awhile really. Now while for my walk down to Aireys Inlet I’d largely had the early morning sun behind me, from now on I’d be walking into it, thankfully though I had a pretty mild day for February with temperatures in the low 20˚ so it wasn’t going to be too much of a death march this morning.

This rocky turret marks the spot I headed inland beside the inlet.

Aireys Inlet was closed to the sea this morning.

The locals were out and about...

The view down the Otway Ranges towards Cape Otway.

After a short section along the quiet Aireys Inlet street the Surf Coast Walk heads off along a track that keeps very close to the tops of the high cliffs. The Tea Tree providing me with a bit of shade which was welcome, but also knocking out any cooling breeze which wasn’t so good, unfortunately the lack of any wind was also a boon for the local population of March Flies who proceeded to feed on me any time forward progress ceased for a minute. After crossing Sandy Gully the Surf Coast Track climbed again up towards a lookout high above Eagles Nest Reef, the advantages of returning back along the cliff tops obvious here as down at sea level I couldn’t really see the reef.

The Surf Coast Track on the way back gave me a different perspective to the wild coastline.

Easy walking along the Surf Coast Walk.

Sandy Gully

After passing the lookout the Surf Coast Walk dropped down to the sand at Sunnymead Beach for a few metres before I immediately climbed up a gully, through some Tea Trees and then steeply back up onto the cliff top heathlands. By now I’d largely left the beach houses of Aireys Inlet behind, the track now doing a long arc inland to pass through some dry stringy bark forest close to the Great Ocean Road. This section of the Surf Coast Walk is more typical of a normal bushwalking pad, for most of the walk today I’d been walking wide beaches or rock shelves, or on the Surf Coast Walk a wide gravel path, along this forest section though it was a single file dirt pad with a little bit of the over hanging scrub, while not exactly a scrub bash it was a nice little change.

Eagles Nest Reef

Sunnymead Beach, how lucky are we in Australia, hey?

When I mentioned in an earlier paragraph that the track headed towards the Great Ocean Road I meant it, the road was now sometimes only a few metres above the walking track. For the most part though the heavy traffic on the Great Ocean Road wasn’t too obtrusive, a thin belt of native bush meaning that the noise was screened out a bit. Eventually the Surf Coast Walk emerged from the scrub onto a very old alignment of the Great Ocean Road near Urquart Bluff, the patchy sections of bitumen being the give-away that I was on an old road. After one last long range view, this one through the Casuarina’s down towards Point Roadknight in the distance and with the Urquart Bluff car park and my ute visible below, I set off on the last few metres of today’s stroll. Emerging from the bush behind the the car park today’s walk was over. Now I’m thinking this post will be a bit heavy on the photos but don’t imagine that I put everything that I took into the post, I’m thinking that today’s walk probably had the highest quota of photo’s per kilometre that I’ve ever done with me having taken around 200 shots over the distance.

There is a steep little pinch climbing away from Sunnymead Beach.

I really enjoy walking this type of coastal heathland country.

There is a nice section of the walk through this Stringybark forest close to the Great Ocean Road.

Very close to the Great Ocean Road!

The Dirt.
I walked 11.1 kilometres and climbed 90 metres on this medium grade walk, those figures are from the notes that I used for today from the Geelong Bushwalking Club’s Walking The Otways (published by the House of Chapman). It’s vitally important to time the beach section of this stroll for the lowest of low tides, even timing it perfectly I had a bit of a scramble around Split Point in order to keep my boots dry. The beaches along the coast would be beautiful spots for aswim on a hot day but you are a long way away from help if you get into trouble, so keep that in mind if heading in. There is a nice café near the lighthouse if like me you need a caffeine hit. Navigation wise everything is pretty straightforward on this walk.

Relevant Posts.
Ironbark Gorge & Currawong Falls, Great Otway National Park, 2017.
Angelsea Perimeter Walk~West, 2016.
Lorne Forest Walk, Great Otway National Park, 2017.

That's Point Roadknight in the distance.

One last view through the Casuarinas.