31 Oct 04

Mount Buffalo walk

Today I completed the entire Big Walk up Mount Buffalo from the park entrance to the Chalet and back again. I covered the distance of 23km in just over six hours.

I had done most sections of this walk at different times before, but never the full length. I’m sorry I didn’t keep my previous articles from the old blog, because they would have made interesting reading in retrospect.

The first walk I did was about 12 months ago from Rollasons Falls car park to the top and back. A couple of months later I walked from the entrance to the first road crossing.

This is the hardest part of the walk, rising several hundred metres in altitude over 2.7km.

I started today at 8.45am. This was a little later than I planned, partly because it was the first day of summer time and partly because I slept in! It was early enough though, to see dew on the ferns; the spider webs were glistening and there was steam rising from the fresh wombat droppings.

After scaling the Staircase up Mount Bogong last week the initial climb today wasn’t too daunting. The track was fairly overgrown, however. It was too warm for long pants, so I had to put up with ferns and branches lashing my legs.

The best part of climbing Mount Buffalo is the middle section around the Rocks. The views down the valley are superb and the walk is interesting along barely defined stone paths. Buffalo doesn’t offer true alpine terrain, except for higher points near The Horn, but the views are as good as you’ll see anywhere.

Once out of the rocks, the walk heads through burnt forest at a steady gradient. The highest point, at 1350 metres, is reached at a crossing of tracks to Reids Lookout and Manfields Lookout. I continued straight ahead for the final 3km to the Chalet.

Being a supposed holiday weekend (for a horse race, the Melbourne Cup) the Gorge car park was full of vehicles, many of them motorbikes.

I don’t enjoy the sound of motorbikes while walking in the alps.

I stopped briefly to admire the Chalet and travelled back a few hundreds metres to enjoy lunch while looking down the Gorge from a less popular vantage point.

The descent was easy enough, although I continued to be troubled with blisters on my right heel. My left foot must be slightly bigger than my right.

There was little water in creeks along the walk today, compared with my previous visit.

These articles might be of interest:

• Snowy surprise
• Mt Buffalo Chalet to close?
• Politically correct sign

Tags: blog, holiday, list, Melbourne, PR, travel, war