It’s always a bit of a worry when your leaders take a wrong turn on their way to the start of your walk. There were stories of two guys doing a recci (in the rain and hail on Wednesday) and not being able to find the right track along with tales of bush bashing and walking down the river. What the heck had I let myself in for?
Surprise, surprise we all had a great day! It was fascinating to see evidence of the force of the water in recent floods. Tea tree mowed down, large trees uprooted and boulders and rocks repositioned, exposing a very different river course in places. Although the river has some dramatic changes the walking track has mostly escaped major damage. Friends of Wirilda Park have cleared away many felled trees and cut back scrub ensuring easy walking for visitors. Anti climax! Our trusty leader deemed the river crossing too deep for safe crossing, unfortunately the water level had risen over night. In reality Ken was afraid the water would reach his knees. With a river crossing out of the question we had no choice but to enjoy an early lunch, then make our way back, taking in a different vista of the river. This gave us time to appreciate the lovely vegetation, copious maidenhair ferns, mosses and lichens as well as correa in full bloom. Along the way there are large metal valves and remnants of the old wooden pipe that supplied water to Traralgon, spiralled wire wrapped around timber slats. In an effort to keep our leader happy we decided to take an alternative route to the Pipeline Track and slog our way up a huge hill just to see commanding views of the “Industrialised Valley”, smog and low-lying cloud obliterating the view of the towers on Mount Tassie. A short stroll, mostly downhill had us back at the cars, Ken extremely happy that we had ventured to the hill top but disgusted that we had only walked 11kms.
It’s ok Ken and Graham, you can take us back another day and find those elusive caves, we might even get to cross the river!
Thanks heaps Guys for another enjoyable day out with great company.
Participants: Ken Moulton (leader), Graham Talmage (co-leader), Patsy Scales, Shane Bright, Barbara Burton, Roz Spratt, Frithjof Arp, and Pat Williams.
Distance: 11kms - easy
