Bright in the autumn presents a magnificent display of colour that attracts crowds of visitors from far and wide. This of course means that accommodation, particularly after Covid 19 lockdowns, is at a premium. It was purely coincidence that I visited the area at this time of the year and fortunate that I decided to set up camp at Smoko Campground.
(more…)Having completed the Eurobin Falls Track earlier in the morning, my next stop 6 km up Mount Buffalo Road was the Rollasons Falls Track. This was listed as 1.9 km to the lower falls and 2 km tom the upper falls. In actual fact if you walk to both the total distance is 2.5 km. The Mount Buffalo National Park visitors guide advises that there is a short steep section at the end. This, in my opinion, is a bit of an understatement with regard to both ‘short’ and ‘at the end’.
After a sleepless freezing cold night camping at Smoko Campground near Bright, I set out for Mount Buffalo National Park to tackle a couple of walks, the first of which was Eurobin Falls (yes, another waterfall to photograph is a good incentive to put on the hiking boots). After clear skies during the night, which enabled me to have a go at photographing the milky way at 5 o’clock in the morning, the day started overcast and deteriorated from there.
My partner and I first discovered this walk a year ago and decided it would be a good one for us to lead one of the Gisborne Bushwalking Club organised walks. After a couple of subsequent of pre-walks, we finalised the route that fitted the broad club criteria – around 14 km and 5 hours including breaks. Of course, the one thing we could not plan for was the weather.
With Easter weekend approaching, we decided to get away for a couple of nights, the main reason being to visit Healesville Sanctuary. Realising that this is traditionally a busy weekend, we opted for leaving on the Thursday to beat the rush and headed for Toolangi – the nearest free campground to Healesville. Never having been there before, we were pleasantly surprised with what we found.
Originally constructed in 1994, the Toolangi Discovery Centre was established as an educational facility for the full range of all school groups where they could learn about the local forest and animals through informative and entertaining presentations. It was operated at the time by the Department of Sustainability and the Environment (now the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning). The Centre was closed in 2012 due to it not complying with bushfire building requirements.
The campground is adjacent to the secluded recreation reserve, accessed via an unsealed track, that appears to be no longer used for sporting activity. Vehicular access to the oval is prevented by a locked gate and according to an old sign camping is not permitted on the oval, but this is clearly ignored by campers who leave their cars outside the gate and pitch their tents on the grass. There is also space outside the gate for parking a few caravans, trailers and campervans. It was in this area that we managed to reverse our trailer into a gap between and under the trees.
It was with great expectations of a couple of good walks that we set out for a two night stay in a Lorne hotel that had been booked a year previously, but had been postponed twice due to Covid 19. Arriving on a wet and rainy Saturday afternoon, we planned our 8.6km circuit walk for the next day that would take in three waterfalls. However, our plans unravelled very quickly when we arrived at the setting off point, Allenvale Mill Car Park.
Having completed the Boroondara Track in the Murrindindi Scenic Reserve and our walking club colleagues having left to drive home, we decided to take an early evening drive from our campground to the Cascades, about 10 minute ascending drive to the south, where there is a short walk from the Picnic Area to the rather impressive Cascades. However, having completed the walk, I think it would be better described as a climb!
This was a Gisborne Bushwalking Club organised walk that incorporated sections of the Wilhelmina Falls Walk and the Murrindindi River Walk. The experience of walking with a group of fifteen is quite different, but equally enjoyable, to when there is just two of us.