If you are walking in the Grampians,
the obvious choice for a long day walk is the Major Mitchell plateau
and the track that runs from Jimmy Creek to the gated road on Mount
William. I had this on my tick list of walks to do while at the
Grampians, but was not expecting too much of the walk as the ridge
does not have the interesting rock features of some of the other
areas of the Grampians, and, I suspected the trees would be too thick
to prevent views.
Turns out I was wrong and this long
walk (19 km, 1500 metres of gain from Jimmy Creek) was one of the
best walks we did in the Grampians. Apparently, Victoria Parks
considers this a "remote" area so you have to register out
to do the walk and back in again when you finish. This is easily
accomplished at the Visitor Centre, but, when questioned by the Parks
staff, I glossed over the fact that I would be walking solo from one
end, and my partner solo from the other. All these bureaucratic
bodies get unduly concerned about people walking alone or doing other
things they consider foolhardy.
If you had someone to drop you off and
pick you up, the logical way to do this hike is from Mount William
down to Jimmy Creek as the track is overall down-hill. Without that
luxury, one of us had to endure a lot of elevation gain, and the
other had to endure a lot of elevation loss. Personally, I - and my
knees - would rather walk up than down but I gave Doug, who has a
slightly bung knee after an adventure in Umbrawarra Gorge, the
choice. Secretly, I was glad that he opted to start from Mount
William leaving me to start from Jimmy Creek.
Serra Range
The track climbs steadily from Jimmy
Creek until it reaches a big gently inclined plateau where the
various Wannon Creeks drain to the west. There's not much point
giving a step by step breakdown of the hike as there is really only
one track, and you simply follow it, mostly up, but occasionally
down. At about five kilometres (roughly 1.5 hours) you reach a
cleared helipad and the track joins a rough road for a short section.
You can escape off to the south here down to Mafeking. Shortly
after this junction, you encounter the steepest climb of the walk
where the track gains about 200 metres in half a kilometre. There's
also a bit of rocky scrambling here.
The next five kilometres along to
Wannon Campsite is wonderful walking along the ridge top with
expansive views in all directions, but, most prominent the jagged
Serra Range to the west. The bush is low scrub reminiscent of the
heathland bush found along much of Australia's east coast and flat
slabs of rock provide easy walking. There were masses of different
coloured wildflowers blooming when we did this walk in late November.
I met Doug somewhere around point 1152 metres about 45 minutes from
Wannon Campsite.
I stopped for lunch at Wannon Campsite
where there are clear tent pads, an outhouse and water from Wannon
Creek. A short climb out of Wannon Campsite leads to the steepest
descent on the track down into Boundary Gap. This is a scrambly
section of track that eases as you descend but you'll lose about 170
metres of elevation in just 300 metres. It feels like a long climb
out of Boundary Gap - it's about 250 metres - and, once up the first
climb, the towers on Mount William look very close. But, there are
still two or three more short descents followed by slightly longer
climbs until you finally reach the paved road at Mount William.
Turns out that Mount William (1167 metres), or perhaps point 1167
metres south of Wannon Creek, is the high point in the Grampians, so
you can feel good about completing a long walk and tagging the
highest point in the Grampians.
Apart from Doug, I didn't meet anyone
until I was almost back down at the gate on the Mount William Road
and that gives this walk a wonderful remote feel. If you don't mind
humping an overnight pack, there are definitely worse places to spend
the night than Wannon Campsite.
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