Of the three multi-day hikes in The Grampians, the Briggs Bluff Mount Gar Traverse was my second choice. Like the Major Mitchell Plateau, it’s only an overnight hike.
While there are several ways to do the hike, I decided on a more direct route between the two – park the Pointy Brick at one end, walk to the other end and hitch/walk back. It could be done in one very long day, but for the enjoyment, I decided to do it in two – to give me more time to check out the wonders. Well it wasn’t to turn out that way…

I drove the long way to the Rose’s Gap to avoid all the dirt roads and parked the Pointy Brick at the car park. I donned my pack and headed off. The initial walk is 1.3km to the Beehive Falls and is a flat and wide dirt track. Once you reach the falls – which is only a trickle – the track changes.

As I walked, I could make out the wind blown rocks above.

The track then became a rock ledge climb. It wasn’t hard and in short order I made it to the top of the initial cliffs.

Undulating ground almost like a plateau spread out before me, with the jagged teeth of the peaks across from me.

I stopped for lunch and to dry off as the day had started pretty warmly. After lunch I walked along the plateau following yellow arrows and the occasional cairn.

It’s easy to lose the trail as lines of flat rocks go off in different directions. At a certain point the trail heads towards one of the jagged peaks and climbs around the side of it. I gained a bit of respite as it clouded over and became cooler. From the higher vantage, I could see it was raining along the plains, but by the movement of the clouds, the rain didn’t appear to be heading towards the mountains just yet.

I reached a turn off to Briggs Bluff, the northern most section of The Difficult Range – Mt Gar is also known as Mt Difficult. I decided to walk to the bluff without my pack, so hid it in a small cave…

…more to protect it from sudden weather changes than rampaging wallabies. An older German couple had just come back from the Bluff, so I stopped and chatted to them about the rest of the walk before climbing the 1.4km to the top of the bluff. The bluff is purely rocky ground, with plentiful steep climbs.

I crested the top and sat for a while looking out across Victoria which was being lashed with rain. I headed back when I noticed that the rain was on its way towards the range. I had just arrived back at my pack when a small scattering of rain started. I put on my pack cover and headed out. It was only 3.4km to the wilderness camp.

Across the top of the traverse it seemed that the only way is up. If I wasn’t climbing a short steep peak I had a long slow climb along the plateau. The rain didn’t last long and I made my way across the spectacular low ridge line towards Mt Gar. It rained again briefly and looking out west, a lot more looked to be on its way. It was only an additional 4km from the camp to the base of the range so I decided to forego the camping.

I did stop at the Mt Gar Wilderness camp, leaving my pack under the protection of a Grass Tree man.

I climbed the rocky face of Mt Gar, similar to Briggs Bluff, there were steep rocky walls to climb, but not difficult as the name would suggest. At the top, spectacular 360 degree views…

…including that of Lake Wartook.

With the rain due in short order, I hurried back down to my pack and continued. The rain began and didn’t stop for an hour. 4km will generally take an hour to walk on a fairly flat trail, but this trail was anything but flat, and it continued climbing slowly.

It climbed around the side of some of the steep rocky peaks with thin trails and plentiful boulders to climb.

I took care because of the rain, but found my boots didn’t slip much. A hiker must trust his boots. If they can grip a 45-50 degree angled rock they’re great. If they can do that in the wet as well, they’re brilliant. Mine are brilliant. I love my boots.

I continued meandering around the cliffs, heading downwards occasionally only to find I had to climb again. At some places I had to crawl through low gaps in rocks, in others I had to take the pack off and haul it after me.

Eventually the rain ended and the track decided it had had enough as well and headed down. I had to take care as there were several steep rocky walls I had to scramble down on my butt, and as the trail grew slowly less steep, I came to the bottom, a place known as the wind cave.

It was only 500m to the road and it I don’t get a ride, 6km along a bitumen to my van.

At the bottom I met up with the German couple, who were sitting around a fire. They’d seen only one car on the road and had walked back – although they didn’t have full packs to walk with. They graciously offered me a lift to the Pointy Brick which I accepted. I arrived back at the caravan park exhausted and sore. I’m glad I decided not to camp on the range as violent electrical storms wracked the Grampians that night with plentiful rain.

After a couple of rest days, I’m heading off to the Brisbane Ranges near Melbourne to walk the Burchell Trail – a three day hike.

The Lone Trail Wanderer

The Grampians in West Victoria are a chain of mountains at the end of the Great Dividing Range which starts in Northern Queensland. It includes the Main Range National Park where I have enjoyed walking in South East Queensland and have documented elsewhere on this site.

The Major Mitchell Plateau is one of the handful of overnight hikes in the National Park and like the other two, is only an overnight hike. The Plateau is not a linear hike, meaning the beginning is not the end. I’m hoping to hitch a ride back to the beginning once I’m done. If I can’t, I’ll walk the 12km along the road back.

Day 1

The Major Mitchell Plateau begins at the Grampians Tourist road – the main road heading through the Grampians. The car park is about 10km south of Hall’s Gap. After a brief downhill, the trail begins its slow steady climb along a dirt track towards the Mount Williams car park with plentiful wild flowers along its length.

There are several creeks near the bottom where floods have destroyed the footbridges.

As you climb, you can see the jagged ridge line of the Serra Range across the valley.

I passed Cathedral Rock and continued on the steady climb, walking around the edge of a steep incline and passing many a rocky formation until I arrived at the car park. It was a warm day, so I took a break for lunch.

The climb to the summit is along a bitumen road at a brutally steep grade. The first couple of hundred metres are the worst and it evens out a little above that, but only a little. They describe the climb as relentless. I agree. I eventually made it to the summit with 360 degree views of the Grampians…

…and inland Victoria.

It was early in the afternoon, so I decided to ‘boots off and relax’ for a bit.

I eventually followed the trail to a radio tower then downhill towards a series of four knolls and finally down a very steep rocky path that sunk below the tree line…

…which bottomed out at a small forest at the base of the plateau cliffs called Boundary Gap. I rested for a moment to prepare for the coming steep climb. And it was steep. I climbed through the forest until I broke the tree line and continued up a rocky path to the base of the rocky cliff faces, pausing frequently to catch my breath. The trail lead me scrambling through rocks up through the cliff face, ledge to ledge until I finally struggled over the edge.

The top of the plateau has a lot of flat cascading rocks and plentiful hardy plants. As I walked the final kilometre to the camp, I came across an echidna with its head buried in an ant nest.

Just before sun went down and I retired to sleep, I noted the sky was red. Red at night shepherd’s delight.

Day 2

It was warm this morning when I awakened. I poked my head out of the tent and the sky was red. Red in the morning, shepherd’s warning. Now that’s confusing. Red at night AND in the morning?? I dunno. A delightful warning? Oh ho ho ho, it’s gonna rain!

After breakfast it started to spit. I don’t mind hiking in the rain, I just prefer to break camp first. The sky allowed me to pack and in short order I was ready to go. The trail headed further along the plateau’s undulating top, moving through rocky areas and skirting the often spiny plants that lived up here.

The path meandered along the top of the eastern cliff line and I stopped from time to time to stare out across the plains of Western Victoria spread hundreds of metres below. I had to brace myself as I stood there. While the wind was not strong enough to push me off the edge, I didn’t want to be party to a freak gust.

Across the top of the plateau, there are plentiful flat stony areas and it could be rather confusing to navigate. However, apart from the occasional yellow arrow pointing the way, there were cairns that helped me navigate my way. The rain did not stay away for long, but it was slight and eventually stopped.

At the end of the plateau there were a pair of cairns. I had been told that the descent was rather steep, but when I approached the edge it appeared fairly sedate. I descended to a ridge line that lead me to an unnamed peak where I stopped for a break and stared down the length of the Serra Range in all its glory. The sun finally poked its head out of the clouds and would cause the most annoyance; the day was forecast to be 33 degrees today.

The descent from unnamed peak, however, was a lot steeper and I had to take care as I climbed down, not only for the potentially slippery roots and stones, but also the gusting winds. I made my way down as the temperatures soared and the cool breeze became a hot wind.

At the base of the peak the trail met a 4WD track and a brief area of open grassy land. The trail soon converged with a track known as the Stockyard Track which continued on up a knoll to a former helipad site.

The rough track continued and I headed down the steep other side of the knoll towards a steep peak that stood out from the trail.

In the heat, I hoped that the trail didn’t want me to climb it and as I followed it went around and between a pair of peaks before heading towards the road. I picked my way along the trail for another couple of kilometres until it finally ended at the road. I changed my sweat drenched shirt and began the 12km trip back to the The Pointy Brick. After only 2 minutes I was picked up by an older couple. He had hiked the plateau on numerous occasions and others had picked him up when walking to the end. The Code of the Hiker. I was thankful.

Next, I’m doing an overnight hike around Mt Gar, still in the Grampians. It is also known as Mt Difficult. I hope it doesn’t live up to its name.

The Lone Trail Wanderer