At last, a good day for hiking along ridges, valleys and mountain tops. Leaving our gathering point at the usual time we drove, in convoy to Mt Macedon via Bacchus Marsh and Gisborne enjoying the great view of the Lerderderg State park ranges along the way.
After doing the car shuffle thing we arrived at the top of Mt Macedon and walked to the Cross remarking on the view that used-to-be and now blocked by some sub-alpine trees. Walking back to the Major Mitchell Lookout allowed us to see the vast vista of Western Victoria including Mt Buninyong and Mt Cole in the distance.
Our leader Gordon then led us to the start of our walk and forced us to walk past the Café and the tendrils of coffee aroma emanating from it. This caused some semi-mutinous talk of “bugger the walk let’s have coffee first”. However, Gordon cracked his whip and we all meekly followed.
The Walk basically circumnavigates most of the mountain, part of which parallels the main road via Camel’s Hump, Sanatorium Lake and Mt Towrong, finishing at Mt Macedon Village and approximately 14.7 km in length.
The first few kilometres along the track consisted of a gradual downhill walk but was made difficult because of the many rocks on the path and one had to look carefully to avoid and ankle injury. However, the forest floor here was very lush and blanketed with tiny purple daisies. Bird life was prolific and we were all delighted to see a little flame robin perched on a branch. In mentioning the difficulty of walking around the stones on the path, it’s also worth a mention of the many large deposits delicately deposited on top of the rocks by wombats.
After over an hour of walking we began to climb to Camel’s Hump. Now, some people may think that starting a walk from the top of a mountain generally means and long, easy downhill trek. Not so! In our case the climb to the top was a 1.1 km grind from McGregors Picnic Ground along a stony track. The view at the top was worth it though, especially considering that Camel’s Hump is actually a few metres higher than Mt Macedon itself.
After Morning Tea there we walked onto Sanatorium Lake. The lake was constructed to supply water to a TB sanatorium which was located in the valley. On the way we traversed some magnificent fern growth as well as some open fields where walking was very pleasant in the sunshine. A few larks decided to see how many persons could fit in the hollow of a tree.
At the Lake we stopped for lunch and Gordon showed off a leech found crawling on his leg. This caused all to do a quick check themselves. We had a very interesting Botany lesson on the way to Mt Towrong when Gordon #2 showed us the Trigger Flower. This flower when tickled causes it’s seeds to be sprung off the flower and spread around.
After the Zig Zag Track and Mt Towrong we began the steep and, at times, hazardous climb down along rocky and open terrain to Mt Macedon Village below. The views, when we were able to look, were stunning.
Tired but happy we arrived at the end and drove back up to the top of Mt Macedon for our long-awaited coffee. Sitting outside away from a noisy group inside Andrew gave us a short but fascinating talk on how to make lots of money in shares (or conversely how not to lose