Brunswick Falls, Allembee Falls, The Otways

September 2018 snuck up on us and we were itching to strap on the packs and head bush. With short notice we put the call out to see who was keen for an overnighter.
Kell,  Kev and me were in with Brent having to miss this one. Kev had been studying his Otway maps and noticed an area we hadn't been that seemed like there was a heap of waterfalls in the region, so we were set.

 

After an early Saturday wake up we were on the road arriving in the nice little town of Forrest about 8:30 am. Quick toilet stop and we were soon in amongst the amazing and beautiful Otways National Park.

We drove along Kaanglang Rd until we hit Mt Sabine Rd and parked the car at the locked gate at the start of Curtis Track, ready for our adventure to begin.

 

By 9 am we were packed and loaded walking along the Curtis Track. An easy 2km walk down hill along a 4wd track. Kell like always was asking when the next break was so she could eat some food and Kev was off taking pics of all the flora and fauna, and also all the flowers and wildlife.

 

By 9:30 we had walked about 2km down the road and come to the small track that lead of to the right. It was visible but overgrown but easy to follow as there were orange ribbons that lead the way.

We dropped the packs and headed down, our destination was Allambee Falls.

 

We were heading down quite rapidly and glad we had dropped our packs. The track was pretty much gone in places but the orange ribbon kept us on coarse. It wasn't long before the three of us realised we were in for something special, the trees were as big as we had seen and forest as beautiful as we had explored, we were in heaven.

 

It wasn't long before we hit the Cumberland River, and it was like nothing we had ever seen.

 

I mentioned in one of the thousand videos I took that I felt like a T-Rex was about to pop out, we were in a different time, it felt prehistoric.

 

We now made our first of like a million river crossing for the weekend. The orange tags were calling us to continue, so forward we went.

Not far past the river crossing were stumbled on our first waterfall, the Allambee Falls, and we were all speechless with the beauty of where we were and what we were looking at.

The falls were beautiful so we took some time to just listen to the roar of the water crashing over the rocks and thinking how amazing it would be to go for a swim if it were warmer.

 

We reluctantly had to leave wondering what the next waterfalls have install for us as we were in a beautiful place. We felt so remote as the forest was so thick and all that pointed the way was the little orange tags on the trees.

We returned to our packs for a short rest and refuel before we headed back out along another little less overgrown track, again leaving our packs where they were.

 

Some of the biggest most amazing trees we had seen towered above us as we made our way down to Amphitheatre Falls and as always if she wasn't eating snacks, Kell was hugging trees.  

With the Lerderderg Gorge being our playground, rocky and generally dry, we were amazed how green and wet the forest was in the Otways, simply stunning.

 

 

Yoga master Kev never misses a chance to do a downward facing dog while snapping a pic of some fancy coloured mushroom.

The river crossing started becoming more regular, back and forth snaking our way down stream but still managing to keep our boots dry.

Kell using downward facing dog to attempt a river crossing, I think we have found her Achilles heal as the slippery rocks were messing with her head.

I wasn't long before we had arrived at our second set of waterfalls and like the first, our jaws dropped with the sheer beauty and power and noise of this amazing set of falls.

The Amphitheatre Falls were a set of cascading falls that stretched over a large area set in a remote part of the valley. Really pretty.

As always if we could explore, we did, slow and steady as the rocks were really slippery.

 

After a play in the playground for a good 45 minutes it was time to hit the road again. We decided not to back track but to try and pop out back onto Curtis Track.

We hit the track at the river crossing, great spot to camp, problem was our packs were 2km away up the track so off we went.

By 3:30 we had retrieved our packs and was back at the river. We crossed the river to a really nice grassy camp spot.

 

 

The river was the perfect place to soak our feet and freshen up before dinner, the normal rice and sausage topped with some port. Kev broke out the saki, the evening was full of a few laughs.

 

We woke to light rain but not enough to dampen our spirits. After some porridge we packed a day pack between us, few snack, first aid kit and a water bottle each. We decided to leave our packs in the tent as we would be returning later in the day and walking through this terrain would be extremely difficult.

 

Again the orange ribbons lead the way as the track was very hard to follow. River crossing after river crossing made the going slow

 

It wasn't long before we were at my fave falls of the hike, the Galliebarinda Falls.

They weren't the biggest or loudest, but there were something about these falls that drew we in. The location, the trees towering above, the beautiful swimming hole, everything about these falls made them spectacular.

 

The pics will never do this place justice but this will be a set of falls to visit in the summer to come spend some time at, even with the kids and even a picnic lunch.

 

This section was beautiful, the rain was steady but not annoying

 

 

We pushed on in the wet but pristine conditions continuously looking for a orange ribbon to path the way and leaping across logs, over the river and under dense shrubs.

 

After some serious scrambling we started heading out or the river towards Brunswick Falls, with reports these falls were the biggest and most spectacular in Victoria.

 

 

These falls were really hard to get to, no track and very few orange tags to guide us, we just had to strait line it bush bashing till we found it

 

 

Was dense, wet but pretty and our efforts paid off as we got closer we could hear a roar like no other that told us we were getting close to something big.

 

This thing was massive but very remote and really hard to get too. Kevs eagle ear could smell danger, it was a steep climb down and not a lot of room to even sit. Being wet and slippery made our stay here short as we wanted to start our way back up, this was as close as we could get. There was another track up top that we wanted to explore so we went and had a look.

We made our way along the track to the top of the Brunswick Falls, was easier going but couldn't really see how big they were from the top.

 

Some hikes we go on water is limited, we were never short on this hike, even Kell who normally struggles with drinking anything but Evian was happy to drink straight from the river.  

 

From this point on trying to keep our feet dry was pointless and starting to get dangerous as the steady rain throughout the day was making the rocks really slippery.

 

From here we pretty much returned back the way we came snaking our way along and across the river. Kev was solid as a rock not letting the fast flowing water bother him but Kell who jumps out of planes and can run ultra marathons was finding the river crossings quite challenging.

 

Kev ended up becoming a walking smorgasbord for lots of leeches even having them crawl up his legs under his pants leaving blood spots everywhere.

 

We past Galliebarinda Falls on the way back before hitting the road and returning to our camp site.

Didn't take us long to pack up and make the 4km journey back to the car.

 

We had a great time and this hike was stunning. We missed Brent but spoke about returning again with him as there is still so much to see out here.

As always the company was the best, Wazzas Wanderers is a small little crew but we have some massive adventures, cant wait for the next one.

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Otways Waterfall walk

Winter in Victoria, the time of the year when many things can be hard to get motivated to do. Hiking in a wet cold rain forest would have to be near the top of the list but when Kev came to us and said he had plotted a overnight hike in the Otways that would involve some amazing bush and beautiful waterfalls my ears pricked up, the gear come out and we had ourselves a hike.
I haven't done a lot in the Otways with the exception of getting drunk at a few Rock Above The Falls festivals long ago in my youth, so I was excited to give this one a crack.
Late winter in Victoria, yup, we are going to get cold and wet but as we drove down to Lorne on the Friday arvo the weather looked ok.

Hitting the Otways

 

Brent, Kell and I were in one car and made our way down on the Friday arvo to set up camp and await Kev and two newbies to Wazzas Wanderers

 

Kev had recruited two guys from work who were keen to join us so the 3 of them were to make their way down to Lorne after work Friday night.

We arrived mid arvo at Allenvale Mill camp site, a nice spot set a few hundred metres from the car park but a perfect place to chill for the arvo while we awaited for Kev and his crew to arrive.

Kell saying hi to a local

 

Other than one other lone hiker the rather large campsite was empty. Being close to the car it was nice to be able to cook up a nice big meal on a gas BBQ we bought with us and the arvo was spent catching up, relaxing and a few beers went down nicely also.

 



 

We woke to a brisk but nice morning. It was good to meet the new comers to the group, Damo and Steve, brothers from Ballarat so like Brent, was used to the cold. 



 

We left one car at Allenvale Mill camp site and drove up along the windy but beautiful road to Erskin Falls where we had low lying cloud and the roar of the of the water fall in the distant.

It was 9am, we were all geared up for the start of another adventure, we were pumped.

 

As we started walking we realised a few things.

 



 

The trees were bloody huge.

 



 

The ground was bloody muddy.

 

But the bush was bloody beautiful. We were in out element and loving every muddy step we took.

 

By 10:30 we had hit our first set of falls on the hike, the Cora Lynn Falls. Fast flowing and a nice spot to fill up our water bottles.

Things started to get interesting from here. The river was flowing, the terrain was thick with parts of the track unrecognisable meaning we were disorientated for about 30 minutes until we found the track and the footing was muddy, but this was awesome, we were loving it.

 

We spent a good 2 hours snaking our way along the Cora Lyn Creek, finally giving up on trying to keep our feet dry and just walking through the water.

This section of the hike was amazing, we had never done anything like it. There were a lot of laughs as we were all getting soaked and falling over constantly on the slippery rocks and logs.

We all at the beginning were trying to do the number of creek crossing without getting our feet wet, but this was a challenge and by the end were didn't care, it was full wet feet knowing we would have to try and dry our boots out a little that evening.

About 12.30 we were out of the river, and just quietly, were were happy. It was rugged, wet, beautiful but a little hard going with loaded packs. A lot of fun though.

We walked a little more up and out of the creek until we come to Allen Dam where we would stop for lunch about 1:30 on a nice grassy spot where we were all keen for some well deserved food. We know the one member of the group that was about to start eating the bark from the tress if we didn't stop for food.

With loaded bellies and wet feet we were off by 2pm heading for the next stop, Phantom Falls.

There were a few day walkers at the falls, first people we had seen all morning.

We climbed down had a little look around before we pushed on.

As always if it wasn't Kev stopping to take pics of some weird and wonderful mushrooms, Kell was taking her time to show some love for the gigantic trees that towered above us.

 

 

As the arvo was getting on we had reached The Canyon a little before 3pm. This place was nice, very enclosed with boulder walls seeming like they imprisoned us. A few other tourists were wondering around this section as we made our way through it.

 

The map said there was one more waterfall to pass before we made our camp sight for the night. As always the way was wet and muddy but by now trying to avoid the bog holes was pointless as our boots and socks were soaked.

We were pleasantly surprised to arrive at the Henderson Falls, my favourite falls so far, not the biggest fastest or loudest but definitely the nicest.

 

By now our boots were muddy and wet through but we knew we were on the home stretch for the day with our next stop being our camp for the night.

 

 

We arrived about 4:30 in the day and were a little underwhelmed with the Sharps Camping area. It wasn't that pretty and there were dedicated areas that were covered in garden mulch, but it had to do.

 

We got a little fire going to dry our boots and sit around while we ate our dinner. Some light rain started but it wasn't that bad so we continued talking crap while sipping on our hiking drink of choice, port.

 

 

We woke to a nice but chilly morning, made some breakfast, geared up and headed off.

 

By 8:30 we were back in the mud hiking towards Sheoak Picnic Area.

 

 

Quick toilet stop and we were off heading through some nice green forest and giving up instantly to try and keep our feet dry .

We were on our way to the Lower and Upper Kilimna Falls

 

The Lower falls were really cool with a great spot to sit and look and take in the beautiful surroundings. We all made our way under the falls where we were deafened by the roar of the water.  

 

It was 10am when we arrived at the lower falls, we spent some time there before heading to the upper falls. They were ok but were only visible from a distance.

From here we followed the Garvey Track and made our way down to Castle Rock lookout.

 

The lookout was ok but took some time out of the day and steep in parts to get to, but not too bad. We are glad we dropped our packs before making our way down to it.

 

We headed back up and continued our journey in the direction of Swallow Cave falls where we would stop for lunch and a rest.

 

We had a nice little lunch spot on the creek bed, a good spot to fill our bottles and have a break.

 

A few or the crew started to show signs of fatigue so scoffed their food and took the opportunity so have a sleep.

 

The area was nice, worth a visit and very popular as it is very close to a car park so there were quite a few people around.

 

From here we started our way back to where we would finish, the Sheoak Picnic Area.

 

By mid arvo we were back, pretty wet and muddy but were not complaining a bit as we had an amazing hike and saw some beautiful forests and waterfalls.

I would highly recommend getting out in the Otways and finding some of these falls and hiking some of these trails, was stunning, and made it better as we picked the perfect time of the year to visit. Will definitely go down as one of my faves and as always, I was lucky to share it with some awesome friends.

Upper Kalimna Falls