1, 2 and 3 days hikes in the Dandenongs

Oooookay so it's been a bit of a while since I posted anything on here, so it's about time I do, before I forget everything that's been happening.

1 day hike - Saturday 26th June

Grabbing a day to head out to the Dandenongs where we could (around my working sort of crazy hours during Radiothon at my work) we headed out early on the train.  Walked up the 1000 steps because the other tracks were closed.  We made it to the Mt Dandenong Tourist Road, and crossed over into Sherbrooke Forest.  After a few minutes on a track running next to the road, we saw some lyrebirds off the track scratching around in the undergrowth.  We could see they were quite large birds with long white tail feathers and we were also lucky enough to hear it's amazing song as it cycled through about 7 different bird calls.

Here's a video about the lyrebird from my favourite conservationist David Attenborough:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y

They really do need to be heard to be believed and we heard at least one lyrebird on each of the following walks we went on in the Dandenongs, so they are not that hard to find!  After a couple of hours we headed back, making it a 5 hours walk altogether back down the 1000 steps to the train at Upper Ferntree Gully.

2 day hike - Saturday 30h of June and Sunday 1st July

Last weekend we decided we should do a 2 day hike in the Dandenongs.  Because it takes about 2hrs one way by public transport from Rezza to Upper Ferntree Gully we decided to make the most of our time, we should book a self contained house / unit in Olinda or Sassafras for Saturday night.  Surprisingly enough the area is very popular even in Winter (perhaps because of school holidays?) but we managed to find an OK looking place to book in Olinda for $160 a night.

Here's a map of the area anyways so you know what I'm on about:

https://maps.google.com.au/maps?q=olinda,+vic&hl=en&ll=-37.853712,145.364571&spn=0.069803,0.154324&hnear=Olinda+Victoria&gl=au&t=m&z=13

So we were up at the crack of dawn on Saturday and trained it out to Ferntree.  We walked up the 1000 steps this time because the Lyrebird and Bellview tracks were closed for some reason.  Stopped for a cup of tea at One Tree Hill Picnic Ground at the top.  In a stroke of genius we recently purchased a thermos from Kathmandu and it has been so great to have hot cups of tea on our walks!  We then headed for Olinda via Sassafras (where a downpour allowed me to try out my newly purchased waterproof pants and gore-tex jacket borrowed from Saki), and after a few wrong turns (damn you confusing trails and maps!) We made it to Olinda 5 hours later.

Here's an 'action shot' of Anton in his new gore-tex jacket pretending to ford a stream:

We had dinner at the local pub (nothing to write home about) and crashed out in our accommodation at around 8.30pm (also nothing special...although it was toasty warm and the bed was comfy enough for a good nights slumber)

Up early and away by around 9am, we headed off to Mt Dandenong.  There was almost no one around when we reached the top, and the day being pretty cold and foggy didn't make for amazing views, but we had a cup of tea and a museli bar and set off back to Upper Ferntree Gully.  The weather turned even more cold and wet and the clouds rolled in.  Here are some pics:

Toadstools at the base of a tree 

Anton making his way up the muddy track 

We dubbed this 'the infinity pool'

After 7 hours walking, we stumbled back down the 1000 steps and onto the train back to Rezza.  Out biggest walk yet!  And it really was a mission, especially given the weather!

3 day hike - Saturday 7th - Monday 9th July

So, this weekend just gone, we decided to utilise my Monday RDO and Anton took that day off work do as we could do 3 days in the Dandenongs.  Initially we were thinking of either heading out to the Grampians, or Halls Gap to climb Feathertop / Bogong, but the public transport options were few and far between, the travel about 5 hours each way, and we would be traipsing up snow covered mountains which we're not sure we're entirely equipped for.  So we decided the Dandenongs was the easiest option.  And it's such a vast national park it's not as if we were likely to run out of tracks.  

We found a place in Olinda at $225 a night, pretty much the only place available so we didn't really have a choice.  Oh well, it was well worth it in the end, with free range bacon and sausages, eggs laid by the resident hens that you could visit, coffee, juice, homemade bread, handmade chocolates, and a fire!  Can't complain :)

Anyhoo, on Saturday we trained it out as usual to Upper Ferntree Gully, walked up the Bellview track (now opened) and all the way to Mt Dandenong, then back to Olinda!  About 24kms and took us 7 hours (mostly uphill)  A huge mission of a day but the weather was glorious which made it all worth it. The top of Mt Dandenong was PACKED with families, a huge change from the weekend before!  Here are some pics of the trip:

Anton not far from the summit of Mt Dandenong

Yes that gathering of fuzzy skyscrapers is Melbourne with Port Phillip Bay to the left

Our shadows in all of our gear as the sun goes down

After 7 hours, we made it back to Olinda as it was getting dark.  After getting settled into our accommodation we somehow managed to rustled up enough strength to stumble down the hill to a pizza restaurant called The Ivy.  The pizzas were mammoth and woodfired and absolutely delicious!  We even added a bowl of chips and called it 'carbo loading' for the next day!

The next day we were up early, and after a hearty eggy breakfast, headed east to the large north eastern block of the Dandenongs.  Here's Anton lacing up his boots in the morning outside our studio:

The real walk began when we reached the 'R J Hamer Forest Aboretum' which at the top, granted us some amazing views north:

View from the top of the R J Hamer Forest Aberetum.  The trees have an amazing pink tinge to the at their tops.

Forest pond complete with duckies!

We headed down, down, down, all the time knowing at some stage today we would be headed back up, up up!  The arboretum really is quite amazing with mass planting of exotic trees from all over the world.  One of my favourites was this one:

This is a 'Himalayan Cedar' if I remember rightly!

I can't remember what these ones were called, but I was surprised they were still putting on such an 'Autumn glow' considering I would call it mid Winter right now.  This photo hardly captures the morning beauty of it:

After stopping for a break at Eagle's Nest Picnic Ground, we headed north along the fence-line of the Silvan Reservoir which is one of Melbourne's water catchment areas.  Finally we came to Silvan Reservoir Park, however the gates were closed with a note saying that the rangers were on strike so the park was closed.  We were pretty disappointed because we really wanted to see the reservoir.  We soon noticed though that a family were wandering around inside.  They came up to the gate, and one by one struggled through a hole in the wire fence next to the gate that we hadn't noticed.  Oh well, if it's good enough for them!?  So we posted our packs through the hole and then struggled through after.  It was well worth the effort.  We were rewarded with stunning views of the reservoir and a very friendly kookaburra made friends with us while we were having our lunch!

The Rezza!

The dam wall with crazy tree

'Gazza' the friendly kookaburra

Meeting Gary the kookaburra was def the highlight of the day, they're such cool looking birds.  After lunch with Gazza we headed north up the Olinda Creek Track.  We really would have liked to have made it to Mt Evelyn, but at about 1pm we decided we should probably turn back as it had taken us 4 hours to get to this point and we didn't really want to  be arriving back at Olinda in the dark.  We headed back up the steep trails (the toughest being the 'Black Hole Track')  We heard a very loud lyrebird right next to the track on the way back up and spent a good few minutes just standing still listening to the magical song.  I could never get sick of listening to it.  To tackle the final hills I grabbed a walking stick from the bush to help me, and an energy bar also helped us reach the top.  It ended up being a 6 hour trek and we had takeaway pizzas from The Ivy again, partly because they were delish and partly because we were feeling lazy after such a hard out day.  Mine was smothered in porcini mushrooms and about 3 different cheeses and truffle oil.  We earned it.  Haha

We left the studio at around 9am again the next morning, and grabbed a coffee in Olinda.  The weather was supposed to be rainy and horrid but it was pretty good actually.  Walked to Sassafras, then on to the Sherbrooke Forest again.  This time we took a different track, and we saw a lyrebird again hopping through the undergrowth.  We also saw a wallaby hopping away through the bush.  the tracks thorough the Sherbrooke are lovely and narrow and damp and mossy.  We would have walked for a lot longer in this area but I needed to go to the bathroom and after taking a detour specially to the O'Donohue Picnic Ground for this reason, we found they were locked  :(  We think this is probably also because of the rangers strike as we encountered a similar problem the day before.  It's pretty frustrating to have to cut your walk short because you have to go to the loo, but that's mainly the reason we found ourselves back at the Belgrave train station after only 3 hours of walking.  Oh well, Failleu should just give them their pay-rise in my opinion.  On the bright side, at least we got home with plenty of time to update this blog, eat some tea and get organised for the working week ahead.  We plan to come out to the Sherbrooke forest again next Saturday as a final Kilimanjaro training last hurrah!  Not long to go now...eeek!  However on a high note, I do think our legs are feeling stronger and now that we have done some mega walks with quite a lot of uphills we are feeling better about the whole thing.  

Here are a few more pics from over the last 3 days:

Anton next to an enormous mountain ash (eucalyptus) that had fallen over

Me on mossy seat (yes my bum did get wet if you're wondering)

Bark peeling off a eucalyptus

Anton in Sherbrooke

 We were hoping to see Robin Hood and his merry men, but they didn't appear unforch.  However Anton can be the resident 'Man in Tights' as he can be seen here in his merino long-johns, haha!

Until final pre-Kilimanjaro update next week, hope you enjoyed the read!

Helen