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Mt Sturgeon (Wurgarri) Circuit Walk |
We decided that doing the Mt. Sturgeon walk was a good idea to try to break the Lockdown mentality that we had developed. We started, not at the usual start but at the Piccaninny car park instead as there was no way we could park our car and caravan at the usual Mt Sturgeon car park. A good idea I thought as this would cut 2 km off the length of the walk, but I was wrong. This walk now forms part of the Grampians Peak Trail; this trail starts at Mt. Zero and finishes at Dunkeld, with Mt. Sturgeon being the last peak on the trail. The initial track is quite easy going on a narrow sandy path which after a couple of hundred metres joins the main track from the Mt Sturgeon car park and brings you to a boot cleaning station, which although quite new was out of order already. From here the path gets a bit rocky and starts to climb up the mountain slope. Steps are slotted in where needed and the bush opens up in various places to give wonderful views of the Piccaninny and Mt. Abrupt and stretching out into the Victoria Valley and mountain range beyond. The path reaches a high point and then drops down slightly as you cross a saddle before rising steeply to the summit. The summit gives great views of Dunkeld and surrounding countryside and Mt. Abrupt as well. This is where I came undone as the walk is now a round trip if you want it to be. It was some 2 km from the Piccaninny car park to the top of Mt. Sturgeon and if we chose to do a circuit walk it would be another 4 km to the Mt. Sturgeon car park and a further 1 km on top of that to our car. Do we do it? Of course we do. The path down is initially fairly steep on rocky ground which lead to some wonderful bridges that take you down and across a cliff face where you continue down on a rocky track until you're off the mountain and walking on sandy paths and 4x4 tracks to the car park and and easy sandy path, 1km on to our car. Not the time to spot orchids in January but we did see a couple of Echidnas, a Wallaby and a Blue Tongue Lizard along the way, which was quite rewarding. |
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| Walk start - Piccaninny car park. | Just people on foot allowed past - watch out for cliffs etc. | Track-wise you can't go wrong |
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| Nice sandy track at the start | Joining the main walk track | Cleaning station - bushed my boots off. |
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| Path get rocky | First view of Mt. Abrupt. | |
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| Our goal - a long way away! | ||
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| Rough but well made steps | ||
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| View - Victoria Valley | ||
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| Rocks turn to sand tracks | View - Mt. Abrupt. | and back again to rocky tracks |
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| View - Mt. Abrupt. | ||
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| View - Mt. Abrupt. | View - Mt. Abrupt. | |
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| View - Mt. Abrupt. and the Piccaninny | A pile of rocks! Why? Don't know. Unlikely a cairn! | |
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| Echidna - digging in for security | There are 2 of them trying to hide | |
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| Looking about - is it safe now. Always was! | Great steps! | |
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| View - Victoria Valley | View looking back - Mt. Abrupt. | |
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| Our Goal | Looks like a lot of steps ahead. | |
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| Across the saddle to the top | ||
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| Yes, correct! lots of steps coming up | ||
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| Wallaby, feeding and watching | View - Mt. Abrupt. | |
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| View - Mt. Abrupt. | ||
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| View - Victoria Valley | View - Mt. Abrupt. | Almost there! 10m to the summit. |
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| View from the top - Dunkeld in the distance | ||
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| View from the top - Mt Abrupt to the left. | Decision time! Around or back? | |
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| Heading down, view back to the summit. | View - Summit and Mt. Abrupt behind. | Rocky track starting down |
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| View - Victoria Valley | ||
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| Great rock steps | ||
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| Mt. Sturgeon Homestead | ||
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| The bridges - help traverse the cliff face | ||
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| Looking up at the cliff face | ||
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| Looking back | ||
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| Past the cliff face and contouring around the base | ||
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| Track junction - we head to the right | ||
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| The summit! | ||
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| Blue tongue playing dead - as they often do! | ||
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| Mt. Sturgeon car park - 1km to go. | Nice and easy - sandy track to our car. | |
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| Turn right to get to our car - walk almost over. | Back at our starting point. Love the new round trip - well done Parks Victoria! |