Tyers Regional Park Hike

 Friday 20^th February

5:51pm Tom, Angus, Max, Kyle, Lilly, Aaron Marriott and myself started hiking from the Wirilda pumping station heading back the way we came in, but turned off onto the Pipeline access track.

6:09pm Had a break at the Pipeline Access Road and Blairs Road intersection.  We looked at the great view of Tyers Gorge which the river lays in.

6:21pm We passed the first gate along the Pipeline Access Track where we saw a car parked but we saw no one along the track.

6:27pm We had a break to catch our breath after we reached the top of a large hill. By now most people had opened up their “scroggin” and had started eating.

6:42pm We had a short break to allow people to catch up. Tom’s leg had started to cause him some difficulties with hiking.

7:16pm We had a 10min break to find way at the second Pipeline Access Road and Blairs Road intersection. There was a track that wasn’t marked on my map which had a small slipway on the side of it. This tracked confused us but we found out it joins onto the Pipeline Access Track again.

8:20pm We arrived at Connon Park where we were camping the night. We saw that 1^st Morwell Scouts were having a camp there over the weekend.

8:50pm We started having tea and many people were feeling rather tired. Everyone just wanted to have tea and go to bed.

9:40pm Everyone was in their tents with lights out ready for a big day of hiking ahead.

Saturday 21^st February      

6:30am We were all awake. We started having breakfast and packed up.

8:07am We left the camp after a delayed start. Most of us had left our washing up for the morning because it was dark Friday night.

8:13am We passed the walking track back to the pumping station and continued along the track.

8:41am We reached the old limestone quarry where we looked around.  We were fascinated by a concrete structure.

8:47am We reached a walking track to the ford which was marked by a metal pole.

8:56am We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink.

9:13am We had a break so Tom could rest his leg which had started to hurt.

9:22am We stopped to strap Tom’s foot up whole while most people snacked.

9:50am We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink.

10:24am            We reached a ford where we met Colin and filled up our water supplies. Some patrol members looked around the river while we rested.

11:00am            We started walking again on the walking track to Moondarra Reservoir. The start to the track was hard to find but it was marked by an arrow on a big tree stump.

11:11    am        We had a rest at the top of a hill where Tom’s leg was hurting again.

12:23pm            We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink.

1:09pm We reached a point in the track where we where heading in the wrong direction. This was about 2km from where we thought the proper track was and we turned around to find the track again.

1:44pm We found the track again and started walking along the real track. The track started to go through some small hills which caused the track to go up and down a bit.

2:14pm We had a break get a bit of energy back. The track was very overgrown and the track was also uphill a bit.

2:48pm We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink.

3:49pm We finished the walking along the walking track. We all had scratches on our legs from sticks and blackberry bushes.

4:08pm We reached Moondarra Reservoir and had lunch. Tom pulled out because his foot was causing too much pain to continue walking. Tom went home with Colin.  At the Reservoir there was a big spillway which was a fascinating sight as well as the view of Tyers Gorge. 

4:41pm We started walking along the Pipeline access track back to Connon Park to set up camp. The sun had come out now and it had warmed up a bit.

5:49pm We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink just before a big hill which lead up to a main intersection.

6:06pm Came to a main intersection where Colin was waiting. He had only just got there because the track we walked 

along was for maintenance vehicles only so he had to go right round.  

6:43pm We arrived at Connon Park and started setting up. The camp looked slightly different because some branches had fallen down. Those of us who had towels used the showers that were there. We didn’t really look around the camp much because we were all tired.

9:43pm Everyone was in their tents with lights out.

Sunday 22^nd February

 6:15am Everyone was awake and we started having breakfast and packing up so we could leave as fast as possible.

8:30am Angus was sick so waited outside Connon Park for Sylvia to come and pick him up because he was unable to hike.

9:07am When Sylvia arrived Angus was picked up and the remaining patrol members started hiking to the walking track.

9:30am We started walking on the walking track to the pumping station. We could see the track was very narrow and that we had to cross the river. The temperature of the water was okay. It was warm but it was a bit cloudy.

10:00am            We stopped to catch our breath and have a drink. This was our only rest for the day aside from when we tighten our straps.

11:10am            We arrived at the pumping station and waited to be picked up where we ate the remainder of our food. I think that the hike was rather good but the track was very overgrown at points that you couldn’t even see the track. The hike is for experience hikers because of the distance and the terrain but it has great views along the way. The only thing bad was that the map wasn’t very accurate but the hike was still great.   

 

  Gareth