22-23 April 2017
Written by Caroline
Jens, Julia and I set off on a last minute trip to the Beeripmo Walk, which we’d never heard of until about a week ago, but turns out some of our friends have done it. This one scores big points for being not too far from the city (2 hours), not a massive distance (approx 21km round trip) and beautiful forests with some good views too. Another bonus is the drive to the walk takes you through Beaufort, which has two excellent op shops.
Day 1
Try as we might, we couldn’t find even a basic map online to show the route. We weren’t too worried as most descriptions say that it’s well marked with a well-defined trail. Here’s a photo of the map that’s at Richards Campground, where the walk begins, which we photographed so we could refer back to it later (along with a description of each section of the walk).
We planned to start at Richards Campground, hike via Ditchfields Campground and camp at Beeripmo Camp, though also were open to camping at Mugwamp.
The walk starts with a steep-ish climb along a creek, through a beautiful forest, up to Raglans Falls. We definitely missed the falls though – it was more or less a trickle – and didn’t realise that was it until we got to the top, where there were some barriers stopping us falling off the edge while looking at the view back down.
We left the track to have lunch at the Ditchfields campground which provided the luxury of picnic tables, toilets and a shelter. Fancier than what we’re used to, that’s for sure!
Back on the trail we climbed up towards Cave Hill where we were rewarded with views across towards Langi Ghiran and the Grampians.
This also coincided with the slowly building sound of… doof doof music. Unlucky for us – there seemed to be a massive electronic festival taking plus straight down from the mountain, so we had to experience this for the next several hours.
Around the top of Cave Hill we ran into some other hikers, and decided to join forces and take a treacherous side trip out to Bukkertillible Cave – 800m but 30 minutes. This puzzled us somewhat – why would it take 30 minutes to walk 800m? Why all these signs about hazards?
Surely it couldn’t be that crazy. Anyway it started out well, but then quickly turned pretty steep and slippery, so we started to understand the signs we were mocking earlier.
After hiking for more than 30 minutes, we started questioning why we were walking this far out of the way to a non-existent cave, steeply down in the direction of the bush doof, which we were becoming increasingly frustrated with (so much for escaping the city for some peace and quiet!). Optimistic, I said I’d continue a little further, still hoping to find a cave.. only to turn back a few minutes later when the track basically disappeared. Failed side trip #1!
Back at Cave Hill, we continued to enjoy the views of Langi Ghiran, the Grampians, lots of wind farms, and the aforementioned bush doof. Eventually we climbed up and over Mt Sugarloaf and got some relief from the noise as we went over the other side of the ridge and arrived much earlier than expected at Beeripmo Campground. I thought it was too early to set up camp and that we should collect water and continue on to Mugwamp, the next campsite, where water would not be available. Jens thought we should stay at Beeripmo and set up camp, including a fire, and Julia was Switzerland and didn’t mind either way. Jens eventually convinced me so we set about collecting wood and making a very impressive fire.
The campsite was set in a beautiful forest, with plenty of private nooks, which turned out well as it really started to fill up after we arrived.
There were probably about 30 people all up, but everyone kept the noise down and thankfully the ridge provided a bit of a noise block from the now distant doof doof, then when the fog rolled in it was even better (99% humidity but no rain!). I know I sound like a nanna, but I do love a good quiet campground!
We had risotto for dinner which was as excellent as we’d hoped.
Day 2
There was a brief period the next morning of sunshine and blue sky, and then the beautiful mist surrounded us again.
We had a relaxed morning and late start, and loved walking through the forest again, as the mist appeared and disappeared over and over. Once we reached Mugwump camp, Julia and I set off for a side trip to Mt Buangor, and left Jens reading at Mugwump. The track thwarted us once again, however, as an initially clear, well-marked track suddenly became confusing and unmarked. When the track started heading down, we doubted it was really taking us to Mt Buangor, and headed back to Mugwump again, confused and annoyed. How had this easy hike managed to defeat us twice?!
The rest of the hike was relatively easy as it took us downhill back through Long Gully and towering eucalypts. After a quick wash in the stream at Richards campground we headed back to Melbourne… which was going really well until the car started overheating when we were almost back to Julia’s place. After a long wait for the RACV we were on our way again.
We’ll definitely be back to do this hike again – it’ll be a great one to take our novice hiker friends to as an introductory hike.