Day Hike - Lerderderg Gorge (Edit)

By Steven Rowlandson
Published 24-Jan-07 10:27 AM

Met at Mckenzies Flat picnic ground, walked off from the carpark at 8am.

Short walk to the start of the River.

Walked up the very very dry river bed for 2.5 hours to the Dam Wall. With water, this section can take 4-5 hours as many crossings are required. We had to use the banks sometimes to get around fallen trees and water holes.








Found a small dead snake. A friend was up there a few weeks ago and saw 2 big brown snakes.



Had lunch in the sun, infront of the Long Point Dam wall. Large signs saying stay away incase the automatic gates open..







After morning tea a climb straight up the end of the spur, 1st section was up 150m very quickly (less than 500m) and then up a further 200m in the next km, following the ridge line. You are pretty much rock climbing part of the way up.

This is the view back from the top of the 1st section back down to the dam. Also visable head on is the diversion tunnel to divert water to Bacchus Marsh . You can see the ridge line we walked along / up. From the side of the Dam




Zoomed Out - looking back down the valley to the dam.



The climb was so hard on the legs, we stopped for lunch at the junction of the 4wd track. Marked as a POI on the map above.

After this there is abour 10km return to the carpark, mostly along tracks and then a very steep decent back down into the gorge and river bed. It was extremely hard on the knees coming down.

After 7.5 hours exactly we were back to the carpark.

With water in the river this walk will require 11-12hours

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