2020. I think we will all know what that you will go down as. Living in Melbourne we had some of the harshest lockdowns in the world and during the winter months we pretty much couldn’t leave our homes, it’s sucked. When the normal crew organised a hike in September we thought we could join them, but unfortunately we couldn’t as Melbourne metro was still in lockdown and the rest of Australia was free, so off they went leaving us behind for Lake Tali Karng.
Unfortunately for them it didn’t go to plan as the Wellington river was far too high so the hike was abandoned. Fast forward six months and it was on again, this time us Melbourne Metro folk were free and could join in on the fun.
The drive from Melbourne was a long one, approximately four hours arriving there late afternoon on Friday, camping at the start of the Wellington River at great little campground called Platypus.
Kell and I set camp and waited for the others to arrive late that day, and after a few beers around the fire we all retired to out tents ready for a big few days to follow.
We had a big crew on this hike, nine of us were gonna walk along the Wellington river, camp where we could, visit the lake and return by Monday arvo.
The weather on Saturday morning was perfect, we cooked up a decent breakfast on the fire, packed our gear and drove the few hundred metres to the Wellington River Bridge and the start of the Wellington river walking track
The sign wasn’t kidding, within minutes were were rock hopping over our first of many river crossings. If we really wanted to we could have kept our feet dry I guess but it’s a lot safer to just walk through rather than risking a fall on a slippery rock.
Was pretty easy walking for the first couple of Km, was good chatting to Shane, a new comer to Wazzas Wanderers, the postie from Ballarat fit in perfectly to our ever growing group. 
So on this adventure we had the usual 3, Waz(me) Kev and Brent. Some regulars were along also, Kell, Damo, Steve, Jonah and Abe made their return and Shane.
A big crew but the more the merrier.
It wasn’t long before we were de-packing for a little side trip along the river to check out Crolls Gorge. 
Crolls Gorge was definitely worth the side trip. You had to pretty much walk through the river bed the whole way but that was no problems as we felt really remote walking down the river for about a kilometre before we hit the gorge. There was some nice little secluded camp areas along the way also.
We need to get some km under out belt as the gorge took up a lot of time, so pack on and we were off.
Shane had a bit of a shoe blow out so after a bit of patchwork we continued. River crossing after river crossing the going was pretty easy and we made up good time.
This section of the river has plenty of spots to camp and lots of nice little pools to swimming if it was hot. We found a great little spot for lunch and had a break before continuing on.
Our goal for the day was to get to the bottom of the Riggall track spur. The map we were using indicated a little green tent on it meaning we assumed it was gonna be good for camping. By about 4 pm we had arrived and this place was perfect. Nice little flowing stream plenty of camp spots and lots of firewood. It was time to set up camp.
The first thing to do was to set up a fire and start to dry out our boots. This campsite was pretty big and will fit in nicely.
As the day got on a few more hikers pulled in but there are still spots for them. We actually decided that tomorrow we would leave our stuff here and to do a loop of the lake, meaning we were only going to carry day packs and the going would be a lot easier.
Lots of food, lots of wine, and the night was good. We sat up talking crap like we always do and hit the sack about 10 pm.
The next morning we woke to a perfect sunrise through the trees, got the fire going and cooked up a nice little breakfast. There were two ways to get to Lake Tali Karng, they were both about 6km. One was up over Riggall Spur, the other was along the awesomely named Valley of Distraction. That sounded too cool not to try so it was off to the valley we headed.
The name sounded cool and the hiking was pretty good but valley of destruction didn’t quite live up what I thought it would be.
I think I just overestimated the coolness of the name, it was a great path up to the lake but nothing we haven’t seen before.
A beautiful single trail winding its way up through the green lush forest and popping out at the top to reveal this huge blue lake.
The lake was beautiful, it helped as it was a warm sunny afternoon, the sun shines off the water, we knew we were in a magic place.
At the east end of the lake on the map showed that there were some waterfalls to go and have a look at. There was actually a track that lead all the way around the lake on both sides, so off we went looking for the falls.
Was it worth it? Hell yes, the Snowden falls were beautiful, flowing fast and pretty big.
After playing around here for awhile we headed back along the other side of the lake to stop in the shade and have some lunch. There was only one thing to do now before we headed back, and that was to go for a beautiful swim in a mountain lake.
This for me was the highlight of the trip, a warm afternoon, beautiful blue water on the top of the mountain, it was perfect.
We dried off a bit and decided to head up Echo point track to the top of Riggall Spur where we would make our way back down to the campsite.
The section of the hike for the next five k’s was okay but probably the least interesting. It was pretty much all down hill which is great but all on a four-wheel-drive track. We did get some nice mountain views in the distance. We made our way slowly back down to camp and arrived about 4 pm. It was actually great to get in and have our tents already set up.
Tonight was pretty relaxing,we cooked up some nice food and once again talked crap about the day and how awesome it was.
The fire was raging and we all were finishing off our last little bit of port from the previous night.
The next morning was pretty cruisy, we packed up and headed off about 9 o’clock. Once again making our way along a heap of river crossings back to where we had started two days before.
This hike would have to go down as one of my faves. The company was awesome, the hiking side of it was like most others but the fact that we got to visit a lake that’s pretty remote on top of a mountain and we got to go swimming in it was pretty amazing.
We arrived back to the car by early afternoon. The only thing we had left was the journey home and then reminiscing in the car as we made the trip home. I’m not even gonna go into the traffic and the storm we had to endure on the way home, that’s another story in itself but Im glad it didn’t put a dampener on the trip.
