Too Hard or doable? Victoria Falls -> BGF -> LPylon

[Webguy]

Doing some reading and considering...

Would a car to car from Victoria Falls to Blue Gum Forest and then out via Lockley Pylon be doable in a day or not a chance?

Some notes I have read make it borderline not a chance?

[wildwalks]

Big Day - especially at this time to year with less daylight hours.

I make it out to be 17.3km
I would expect about 7.5hr walking time
There are some very big hills
I have not been down there this year, but I have heard reports of the area been overgrown, so walking could be even slower.

Anyone else been down there this year??

Matt

[kanangra]

If you're fit and experienced then no probs. Last year I walked from Mt Vic station to Blackheath Stn via Blue Gum Forest pretty comfortably in a day.

K.

[Webguy]

Thanks guys. The distance should not be an issue, a very early start at Mt Vic Falls should see us right. Not saying it is going to be easy, but then, good stuff hardly ever is eh?

[ninjapuppet]

its a very nice walk, especially around the pylon. We did it over this past summer with 2 very unfit friends and still managed.

[anotherwalker]

Make sure you take the mosquitoe repellant/Aeroguard. The Mossies were in plague propertions down near BGF/Acacia Flat when I was there about a month ago.

[Webguy]

Well, I have slotted it in for a walk in the next few weekends, looking forward to it. Thanks all.

[Webguy]

Well, Sat we went. Dropped my car at the Lockley Pylon track car park and got a lift around to Mt Vic Falls carpark.

Got walking a tad after 7am, beautiful day for it.

Burra Korrain was pretty full. Enjoyed the walk from there to Blue Gum Forest, no leaches, but the track was sure boggy in many places. Plenty of lawyer vine across the track in places to keep you watching the ground, lest the ground rise up fast to meet your face.

Noticed 4 good looking small campsites along the way. Had lunch near Acacia Flat, while we gazed up at our departure point.

Walked back to the 4 ways and turned right towards the river to cross over the tree, then left onto the Lockley Pylong pass track. That sure is a long drawn out skirt climb, the actual pass up the cliffline was thankfully quick and we were soon on top.

A break, some photos, and it was onwards to the base of Lockley Pylon itself, been there many times, no need to climb it again today. Sun was soon going to dip below the horizon, we got about halfway back when it just got too dangerous to walk in the gloom, so out came the head torches.

Around 11 hours later, after many stops throughout the day, and exactly 20'kms of walking, we arrived back at the car in the scary dark.

Perfect day for a walk, a really nice walk, some spectacular scenery, great company, accompanied by my son and a good friend.

So, yes, we did it, was not that hard, bit stiff this morning, but sitting in a chair all day is not going to help that really. You could do it quicker, I'm real slow on hills LOL.

Cheers

The route

Last edited by Webguy on Thu 24 May, 2012 8:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Dale]

G'day Webguy - may have seen you on the track. I did L Pylon to the Grose river return - camped at a nice spot on the river near Pierces Pass. Have to say it was pretty well trafficked ! Ran into around 30 bushwalkers - many doing overnights and almost all camping at Acacia Flat. Must have been standing room only there

Took 4 hours to get to my destination, so imagine you could crank out the walk in a day.

[Webguy]

Hi Dale.

We saw 20-30 people at Burra Korrain, then nobody til the 4 ways where I met an older couple, we had 2 lots of two walk past us as we had lunch just before Acacia flat, then saw not a soul til we were walking away from Lockley Pylon and there was a guy and a girl going to camp at Lockley for the night then head down. Oh, did surprise one guy laying next to the river not far from where you cross to head up to Lockley.

We could hear the noise at Acacia flats from up on top of the Lockley Cliffs, buggered if I would want to camp there with that many people.

[wildwalks]

Good one webguy
Sounds like a grand day out.

[Webguy]

I will be writing the walk up on my website soon, then I'll be looking for my next adventure LOL

[flatfoot]

The plod up Du Faurs buttress from BGF is a favourite of mine. The views down the Grose from Du Faur head and then Lockley Pylon are magic (arguably the best in the blueys).

A favourite fitness training walk of mine is Perrys Lookdown - BGF - Lockley head (return). The climb back up Perrys at the end of a double traverse of the valley is nasty

[Webguy]

While I was playing around with Google Earth last night, I noticed why there were the weird anomaly "Humps" on the original elevation profiles I posted, GE obviously does not have accurate elevation data for the area, below is the true profile, NOT clamped to the ground...

The complete walk elevation profile

[Webguy]

Flatfoot, um, dunno what to say about subjecting yourself to that LOL

[Webguy]

If you are interested: http://www.roaming-oz.com/index.php/hiking-adventures/83-mt-victoria-falls-carpark-to-lockley-pylon-carpark

[John Sheridan]

Could you actually walk in and out,not really worried about the time, would do it on an RDO so would have three days to finish the walk, 3 nights of camping is what I like

If it is possible to walk in and out how is the none parts of the official walk like on the way in and out, nice visuals. I know probably someone would take pity on me and offer me a lift :p


Cheers.

[Webguy]

Hi John, could walk from Mt Vic station and camp at one of the smaller campsites away from Burra Korain, then Near Acacia Flat and then on top the third night, but the walk along Mt Hay rd would be a long boring slog.

[flatfoot]

I went for a return walk from Pierces Pass to Little Blue Gum yesterday. As I was returning to cross the river and head back to the car, there was a rescue operation in the valley below Hanging Rock. A bushwalker broke his ankle and he was choppered out. This was at about 4:30pm.

I briefly encountered a group after crossing the Grose below Pierces Pass on the way down (about 3:15pm). They were heading up the valley, so I'm guessing it was someone in this group that had the mishap.