Dandenong Rangers National Park

1000 Steps

October 2010 and the family and I wanted to give the famous 1000 steps a go in Ferntree Gully. We arrived mid arvo on a cold, drizzly day thinking it would be quiet, but we were wrong, it was packed.

We parked in the Ferntree Gully picnic area at the base of the mountain with the signs saying that the 1000 steps were 800mt up the Kokoda Memorial Track.

With my son on my back and daughter along side we head off with my wife close behind.

The 800mt walk to the start of the steps was an easy uphill stroll with memorial plaques lining the side of the track.

At the start of the steps the track narrows dramatically and with lots of walkers and joggers it was very tight in spots.

From here to the top is about 1.7km, uphill and it was tough, especially with Baxter on my back. My 5yo daughter did really well, she walked 2/3 of the way, I carried her the rest. There are rest areas along the way which we took advantage of.

Except for the loads of people the walk was beautiful, the stream was flowing nicely after recent rain and the trees and ferns looked great.

It took us about 40min to reach the top from the car park where we had a well deserved rest and gave Baxter a run around.

The walk down was just as hard and while the kids had a play on the playground in the picnic area I thought I would go back up by myself, without the pack, to see how long it would take.

I gave it a good crack and got up in 9min with 7min to get back down, from the base of the stairs.

Good walk on the day, I wouldn't want to go there on a nice day, I'm tipping it would be packed.

Werribee Gorge

Circuit Walk

It was late August 2010. Brent and I decided to tackle the walk which is quite popular for day hikers in the area. The Werribee Gorge is 10min past Bacchus Marsh along the Western Hwy.

So far we have had a wet winter which meant the river would be up and flowing. We parked the car at the bottom picnic ground, Meikles Point and set off on the 8 km circuit walk around lunch time.

We head in an anti-clockwise direction up the track towards the Quarry Picnic area and continued up to the Eastern Viewpoint. After taking in some great view to the north the track kept rising until we hit the top at Picnic Point. It took us a bit over an hour of complete uphill walking to reach this magnificent lookout which looks down into the gorge and you can see the walking track far below near Needles Beach.

From here it was along the ridge and we started to make a slow decent into the gorge to meet up with the river. I really enjoyed this part of the walk as the track was narrow in places with drop offs on either side.

We soon hit the river and it was flowing nicely. We wound our way along the river where we stopped for a 15min break at Needles beach. This was quite a large pool and looked like a good swimming hole in the summer.

The track continued along the river and there were parts where we had to do some serious rock hopping to keep ourselves from getting wet. This was great and challenging at times.

After passing Pyramid Rock we came to a section where you had to use a thick wire rope attacked to the rock wall to keep going. This bit was cool and it was now an easy walk along the disused aqueduct back to the car.

he walk took us 2.5 hours and I enjoyed it a lot.

WERRIBEE GORGE

Take 2

Early Jan 2012 and it was time to kick of my wife Tammy's and her mum Lynne's training for a mid year conquer of Mt Bogong. The aim for today was the 8km circuit walk around the Werribee Gorge.

Tammy and Lynne have a moderate level of fitness and are beginner hikers so I was allowing 4 hours for the circuit to be completed.

Leaving the Quarry Picnic Area at 1pm on this overcast, 30 degree day, we headed in an anti-clockwise direction.

Having a quick stop at all the lookouts we cautiously made our way down to the river which was surprisingly flowing nicely.

We stopped at 2.45 at Needles Beech for a rest and I had a nice swim in the watering hole. It was beautiful.

We left at 3.15 heading towards Meikles Point. Tam and Lynne did great over all the rocks and shimmering around the cliff faces.

After passing a few people having a swim in the poles closer to the car park, we hit Meikles Point Picnic Area at 4pm then continued uphill for the last and hardest part of the walk arriving at the car at 4.30 for an icy cold pepsi max that was awaiting.

3.5 hours was a great effort and a good start to the longer more difficult walk that awaits the girls later in the year.