The Grampians National Park, Victoria

How to get there. The Grampians are just over 258 kilometres from Melbourne. Drive to Geelong and take the A8 to Stawell and then turn off to Halls Gap. At Halls Gap there's an excellent information centre with maps on the main walks. Stawell also has a good information centre so it's worth stopping there as well.

The Walks. I've done quite a few so I won't comment on any particular trail. I'll do that later. The Grampians consist of a main system of ranges encompassing some 167,000 hectares. It has everything; magestic waterfalls, a kangaroo feeding ground, spectacular summit vistas, ancient Koori art sites, such as the cave of fishes and the sublime cave of hands, to name just two. Then there's the many other heritage sites such as the houses of the German pioneer families. There's a good range of accomodation available at Hall's Gap which is a great place for a long weekend devoted to walking. I've attached a few pics taken from my many trips there in 2004 and 2005.

The Pictures: 1. Grampian's Sunset, 2.View from Mt William on Misty Day, 3. The Jaws of Death, 4. Mossy Tree on Mt William, 5. Cave of Hands. 6. Me on Road to Halls Gap.

Cape Conran Coastal Park, Victoria

This is surely one of the best coastal parks in Victoria. You can book accomodation within the park but it's in strong demand so you need to book around six months ahead of your trip. There's a series of Cabins with showers in the park. Each cabin even has a functional Kitchen including a refrigerator and accomodates around six people; four sleeping bags in the loft and two below.

How to get there. Cape Conran is a long way from Melbourne, situated in the far East of Coastal Gippsland. To get there you head along the Princess Highway, past Orbost or Marlo, and take the turn off to Cape Conran using the Conran-Cabbage tree Road or the Cape Conran Road. The park is reasonably close to the Snowy Mountains National Park too, so it can be a useful base to explore that Park as well as many others such as the Begg River National Park, the Errinundra National Park and the Lake Tyers Forest Park. The last three are quite close to Cape Conran. Having said that, I should tell you that I consider anything within a forty minute drive to be "just next door". Once there, you can do a variety of coastal walks. But there's also a number of inland walks with heathland, woodlands (the trees are quite small, must be the sea air). You can also do a walk to Teerung Gorge which I didn't have time to do.

If you come to Cape Conran you'll want to do make sure you do the coastal walks. You get the some mystical views walking along the coast from the East Cape along the Yeerung Beach near the Yeerung River. If you continue along to the East Cape you'll see an interpretive boardwalk that details the area's coastal Koori culture. The best time to do this is early morning or at sunset. You'll get some great photos too.

Pictures: 1.Harsh Coast, 2.Marine still life, 3 and 4 View of Yeerung Beach, 5 View taken walking towards the East Cape from Yeerung Beach.

Lake St Claire National Park, Tasmania

How to get there. I flew from Melbourne to Hobart and drove a hire car from Queenstown staying at Strahan. The journey from Queenstown to the Cradle Mountain visitor centre took a little over two hours. That's taking it easy. It's about 125 kilometres in all, traveling on the A10 and then turning into the C132 to arrive at the Park. You should take your time because the roads are terrible. The roads in Zimbabwe are better. Seriously!

The walk. You can drive to the car park near the main lake, but it's often full. This park gets an incredible number of visitors from all over the world. It's not unusual to hear French, German or Japanese spoken on the shuttle buses that depart the visitor centre. There are eight shuttle buses in all carrying people to the various walks. The final stop is Lake St Dove which is at the base of Cradle Mountain. There' s such strong demand for the buses that you generally have to wait a while to get back to the visitor centre. Despite the wait, this park is truly exceptional. And one must say that the excellent organisation and amenities enhance the experience.

I did the Lake Dove walk and then did the walk to Lake Lila. Cradle Mountain takes its name from the sort of cradle used to separate gold from silt rather than one found in a nursery.

This park is beautiful and I'm so glad I got to see it. Sadly, I had little more than a day to spend there. I really would have liked to have seen more. Overall, the experience is superb and the good organisation is a real credit to the park management. One day I'll do the 65 kilometre overland trek from Cradle Mountain to the Lake Saint Claire (which takes six days).

Good information can be obtained from the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service portal. The information is hard to find but it's all there at: www.parks.tas.gov.au/natparks/stclair/activities.html. There are even downloadable maps. These aren't any good for walking, however so you'll need to buy more detailed maps at the visitor centre.

Pictures: 1 Strange kind or tree fern, 2. Cradle Mountain as seen from the beginning of the walk. 2. Another view of Cradle Mountain from lake Lila. Click on a picture to see an enlargement.

Morton National Park (Mount Bushwalker)
New South Wales


How to get there?

Drive 20 kilometres past Milton and turn off at the little dam road...I think that's the name of the road. I must admit I don't quite remember now. I'd recommend you call into the information centre at the Ulladulla library. They'll supply you with map and some good advice.

The Walk

Strictly speaking this walk is not part of Morton National park. It's on a reserve adjoining the park. This means there's no visitors fees to pay. By the way, did I mention that I love that name of that town "Ulladulla". Heck! I might just get me a pet pig and name him "Ulladulla". Why a pig, you ask? Because Ulladulla is no name for a dog, that's why! And it befits a pig.

Actually, Ulladulla is not "bogun" at all. It's more a coastal tourist town than a rural community. In fact, the only thing that suggests country is that the town appears to be named after a pig. But enough about Ulladulla. Back to the walk . This exquisite walk, called the Mount Bushwalker trail, is not on the national parks site for Morton NP. There's nothing much on that website. Sure there's the park management plan and other useless stuff. Do you think they have a comprehensive list of walks or a map you could download. No way. And look at the information on the site:

For Example go to http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/parks.nsf/ParkContentByDistance/N0022?OpenDocument&ParkKey=N0022&Type=I

and see the following description taken from the website describing the pigeon house mountain walk with my comments in brackets:

"The climb to Pigeon House Mountain is very popular. From the top there are magnificent panoramic views of the rugged cliffs and gorges carved by the Clyde River and its tributaries. On a clear day, you can see the coastline from Point Perpendicular in the north to Mount Dromaderry in the south, making the walk a most rewarding experience. There are ladders to be negotiated at the top."

Holy shit! Do you mean they don't have an escallator? It's a good think they placed that bit of information on the site to warn me. Seriously, was this crap written with the needs of anyone who actually plans to visit the site in mind ? Is it worth telling people that you can see a panorama from the top of a summit or that you can see the coast which is a little more than 5 kilometres away ? As you can gather I'm rather pissed off....
Why am I talking about the Pigeon House? Well that's because I didn't plan to do Mount Bushwalker. I planned to do the Pidgeon House. The site could have told me that you can't actually get to the park on a rainy day if you don't have a 4WD vehicle. And surely they could also post updates of weather conditions? But there's nothing on the website about not being able to get there in a 2WD vehicle on a rainy day. That space is taken up telling you that you can see a panorama from the top. There's just a helpful sign on the trail eight kilometres before the start of the walk letting you know. It was really annoying given I had driven 165 kilometres and it began raining heavily. The NSW parks sites are generally very poor with no thought given to the needs of the park's users. Anyway, that's enough complaining. Hope you enjoy my pictures. The day ended well, because I discovered the Mount Bushwalker trail which is an outstanding walk. It's spectacular, well signed, easy to do and there are no park fees to pay.

I found the trail by dropping into the information centre at Ulladulla searching for an alternative to Pidgeon House. "Ulladulla", God! I love that name...There's nothing like local knowlegde and you can always get it at the local information centre.

Mt Bushwalker takes about two hours and it's a fairly level and easy walk. You could do it in crutches. How do I know? Because I actually ran into someone doing it in crutches. I felt so overdressed in my hat and pack that I actually thought about hiding them under my shirt. No kidding! I kept looking over my shoulder waiting for an octogenarian in a motorised wheelchair, or someone led by a seeing eye dog to, overtake me and completely deflate my sense of bravado. Anyway, it's an oustanding walk and you get a view of pristine wilderness without expending too many calories. The terrain in the valley has never been disturbed. There could be fairies down there. Well, that's what the locals say. But then again, I'm not the type who believes in fairies, ogres or eskimos.

Pictures:view from the end of the Mt Bushwalker trail. Fitzroy Falls,(near Cowra), Wilderness area. Click on pics to emlarge.
Enyoy the pics.

Monga National Park (New South Wales)

How to get there
Drive via Queanbeyan to around 20km past Braidwood and there you'll see the turn off for Monga National Park. The park is 105 kilometres from

Canberra on the Kings highway.

The plan
There's a variety of walks here but being lazy I decided on the corn trail which I reasoned trailed the river. That plan was foiled by a need to cross the Mongarlowe River which would have meant wet feet. I'm prepared to endure some hardships but not on a Sunday. Not on my day off. Reluctantly, I resigned myself to a walk which required an ascent.



So I drove down the River Road, which is an unpaved 2WD loop and went for a brief eight kilometre walk down an unknown track. I saw some interesting birdlife. Jesus! I realise that I'm starting to talk like Tweetie's owner but I did see a very pretty wren with orange plumage. They are very curious and let you approach within six feet of them before they fly off. O.K. That's enough bird talk. I have to admit that I couldn't be stuffed looking it up and finding out what it is. That's probably the sort of thing that a vegetarian with spectacles sporting lenses thicker than bullet proof glass does. If I did that sort of thing, I'd probably be in danger of following up the sighting with a dance of joy or even taking up lawn bowls. I did see an Echidna on the day and took a picture of the little guy from a distance of less than a foot. I went alone today which was a drag. On the other hand, not having reached the stage where I talk to myself yet, I was reasonably quiet and saw a few animals as a result.



After my grunt walk along an unnamed trail I then walked to a place called Penance Grove which has a brief platform walk around a section of forrest that was stripped of tree ferns by some unscupulous bastards. The area got fairy misty which is always good for photographs. Monga is well worth seeing. It's essentially a subtropical rainforest very much like the Otways or parts of the Yarra Ranges. There's lots of ferns, even a few tree ferns. The area shows evidence of logging with many tree stumps and fern-ladden gaps in the forrest highlighting the selective felling of trees. A mill operated in the area until 1987. It was closed when it become unprofitable in 1988. Monga is a comparatively new national park being established at late as 2001.



Pictures
1. Misty Forrest 2. Mongarlowe River at Crossing on the corn track 3. Split log 4. Mongarlowe river near Penance grove. 5 Misty Marsh 6. Echidna 7. Penance Grove (Click hotos to see enlarged images.)

The Cathedral State Park, Victoria

How to get there

Take the Maroondah highway just past Tagetty. It's about 112 kilometres from Melbourne. The turnoff to the park from the Maroondah highway is well signposted. Just look for the brown sign. It's hard to miss.

The Walk
Well folks I did the Cathedral with my two sons. I've done it three times in all. Once as an overnight trip camping at Cooks Mill. It's a strenuous walk that rewards those who persevere with some absolutely splendid views of surrounding pastoral landscape. The Cathedral is a 7-8 kilometre ridge of upturned sedimentary rock. It’s a high point surrounded by a plain so the view is spectacular. There are many good walks here. My favourite is the walk along the Cathedral circuit via Ned's Saddle, starting off from the Ned's Gully car park.

The first part of the walk is calm and undemanding along Little River. By the time you get to Ned's Saddle you are fairly, well let's say warmed up. The final scramble to the top is an extremely steep ascent but thankfully it's relatively short. On wet days it can get slippery and you need to be very cautious on the way down because in some places a one metre slip can potentially turn into a slide down the mountain. On this walk, it was fairly slippery and I saw some tots being carried up. While you've got to admire the spirit it's a little risky. This definitely isn't a good walk for small children when conditions are wet. I guess the weather can't always be foreseen.

Once you make the summit it's really sweet. I must add that the whole walk is well signposted and well marked. One of the best things about the park is that you never see any litter here. The summit walk took around two and a half hours. Very good time, considering the conditions. I’ve done it in three hours and was puffed. What can I say, sometimes I’m just lazy. We stopped for lunch at the top. What a view! I love this place. It's got to be one of the best day walks in Victoria. We were very lucky too because there was no wind at the top to spoil lunch.

I recommend the walk from spring to autumn. In autumn, the drive there is lovely. The countryside is very picturesque and a great deal of colour is added to the landscape by the many wineries where the leaves have turned a yellow or a deep marone.

Pictures: From top down 1. Panorama back towards Ned's Saddle, 2. Panorama at the top showing the boys climbing in the direction facing Tagetty, 3. Daniel at Top (photostiched image -the seems are easy to spot). 4. Matthew taking a break, 5. My KitKat Break

Lerderderg State Park Victoria

How to get there.

Take the Western Freeway from Melbourne to Ballarat. Exit at Bacchus March and travel down the Bacchus Marsh-Gisborne Road for about 6 kilometres. Turn off at the route towards Mackenzie Flat.

The Pros and Cons
Lerderderg is a pretty park marred by poor signage. Sadly Lerderderg's proximity to the city attracts people that aren't environmentally conscious, as is evident from the litter. I did the walk because I wanted a day's outing that wasn't too long a drive from Melbourne. The park has a lot to offer. There are mineral springs and the many interesting features include gold diggings, a spectacular gorge and a lovely river walk. Despite all these highlights, the experience is somewhat ruined by the large number of plastic drink bottles and food wrappers scattered along the trail. How much effort can it be to take your litter out with you? There are even plenty of examples where recent camp fires contain half burnt litter such as cans that have been left exposed amongst the char.

















The signage seriously needs improving. It's not good enough as it is. It would help if the walk names at the information board have the same name as the signage at the start of the walk. The whole thing is confusing and hard to follow and tends detract from the experience. Still, Lerderderg is very picturesque and well worth visiting. You just have to get to know it by trial and error I guess.

The Lerderderg River and Gorge are spectacular. Especially in October when the wildflowers are in bloom. I hoped to do the gorge and the tunnel but the combination of poor signage and half-interested kids made that impossible.

Still a good time was generally had by all. I'm looking forward to getting to know this place better in future. Sometimes I wonder whether its worth taking kids. I find that walking is an acquired taste, especially for kids, whose nature threshold is generally two hours max. After that they I find that, unless they see an Allosaurous or a Woolly Mammoth every ten minutes, its hard to keep em keen. Still, my theory is that even if they hate it now they'll love it later on as they get older. It must work, they're getting keener.

Pictures:1. Walking along the Lerdenderg River, 2.The boys at the outset of the walk, 3. Riverwalk . 4. More Riverwalk. 5. Landslide along the Gorge. 6.Quite a nice view

The Little Desert
National Park

375 Kilometres North West of Melbourne
Sure! I'd seen the Kalahari, but I'd never been to the desert in my own state. I decided to drive to Dimbola, stay overnight and spend all the next day driving through the Li'll Desert National Park.

I intended to take both my sons but couldn't prize the youngest from his computer.

Anyway, I hired a new Prado expressly to drive it across the sand. If you're expecting dunes the size of mountains you'll be dissappointed by the little desert. It's more a bush velt with chest high scrub growing on sand base.

I did this park last October and stayed at the Dimbola Motel which I strongly recommend. Three beds per room, inexpensive and absolutely spotless. I entered the park just past Nhill and drove for around three-quarters of an hour and then did a one-hours walk.

I had my Garmin GPS device with me. You really need it here as it's easy to get lost.

The park was incredibly striking. It had rained recently and the flowers were in full bloom.

I saw the eastern and the central blocks. Many of the tracks in the park date back to pastoral subdivisions. Although, for the most part there was no agricultural use, in freehold tenements adjoing the park, the vivid yellow of the canola crop in full bloom (a brilliant sight in its own right), suggests that the land had some agricultural potential.

Pictures: 1. Hire Car, 2. Deserrt colour, 3. Desert landscape, 4. Little Desert panorama 5. Canola field 6. Daniel at the Little Desert. Click to enlarge each image.

Morton National Park , New South Wales


To the immediate left and below is an image of Granite falls.













The images above show the top of the falls. A larger image below, constructed using canon photostitch shows a full sweep of the entire falls some 150 metres deep. Set against the valley, the damp colouration on the sandstone creates unique and compelling visual effect. Three images were joined to depict the entire waterfall. The photographs below show the mist covered bushland on route to the Summit at the Grange. Click each image to see an enlargement .


Wow! What an awesome place!
Last week I did my second trip intending to do Pidgeon House Mountain.
Unfortunately it was raining and the road to the starting point can only be negotiated by 4 wheel drive in the wet. Bummer! I'd driven for almost two hours. Anyway I decided to try some alternatives. I did a quick and easy walk to Granite Falls.

This is a special place. Spectacular, but strangely eirie. Despite the rain, the falls could not be described as much more than a trickle. But what a majestic view. The curvature of the sanstone and the colour give the falls a really unique quality. I'm not sure why they are called Granite Falls, when the cascade topples over sandstone.

The nearby summit is by all accounts spectacular. The walk to the top was strenuous, but I think you appreciate a good view after you've worked hard to see it.

In the end, my effort was futile as the mist was so thick that I couldn't see more than twenty feet from the summit. Still I got some nice pictures of mist covered bushland. I guess I'll do the Pigdeon House some other time. Enjoy the photos.