Melbourne Cup long weekend! Perfect spring weather the last few days and I have been regretting my decision to stay local over the break (due to my fear of crowds on long weekends). Popped out to Lerderderg for a day hike.
After all these years in the Marsh, I had never been to the famous Lerderderg Diversion Tunnel. Near, but never to. I was keen to explore the area a bit more as I was out there for an SES rescue recently and the area looked lovely.
I found this track and it seemed good.
https://www.trailhiking.com.au/hikes/the-tunnel-and-sardine-creek/
I was expecting it to be difficult as Myra and I did a walk around Sardine Creek shortly after moving out to Bacchus and it kicked our arses! In fact, this was the walk that made me get much more serious about hiking and safety as we were woefully underprepared, somewhat lost, and very much stressed.
Got to O'Briens Crossing at 8:30 after a 30 minute drive and set off. Walked up into the hills West of the river along Byers back track, crossed Amblers Lane, and turned down Gribbles track that took me to the river.
This is the area of the recent SES rescue... and it turns out this is where the tunnel is. I literally walked past it and crossed over it without realising!
I should have looked more closely at the map and route before setting off. I spent some time after crossing the tunnel trying to find the track, finally realising that there was no track! Seems the horseshoe loop between the tunnel and Ambler Lane camp-ground involved bush bashing. And I promptly learnt that the bush was very thick!
Fortunately I was wearing trail runners and decided to rollup my pants and just wade through the river. This was much easier than fighting through scrub.
I made it to Amblers Lane camp-ground around 10:30 and realised I was only about a third of the way thought the hike after 2 hours. I hadn't brought lunch and wasn't planning to spend the day hiking, so I decided to walk back via Amblers Lane to Byers back track as a shortcut. Got to the car around 11:15 and was home for lunch! I will have to try this again when I have more time, it was a beautiful and quiet part of the park.
The camp site was not as busy as I expected either, 3 groups car camping and quite a few spots available. I could have gotten an overnight hike in after all!
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