Major Mitchell Plateau – The Grampians

Over the June long weekend I went for a leisurely stroll through the Grampians in Victoria with a school mate Josh and his brother. Neither Josh or I had hiked there before, so in the end we picked the hike with the toughest description that formed a loop – and man we picked well!

The Major Mitchell Plateau walk climbs from the bottom of a valley up a long but gentle track that follow the side of a ridge line right up on to the Plateau. We picked the weather window perfectly, with rain for a few days before hand the area was lush and the creeks were all running. Plus we started the walk in dense cloud and fog (which would come and go the whole weekend) so that until we were well up the side of the plateau we genuinely didn’t know what we were getting into.

The views when the clouds did seperate were spectacular!

On that first night the campsite was absolutely packed, to the point where a group of older club bushwalkers went around and hassled everyone to make sure that everyone had permits! Being jammed in did have the advantage that we met our neighbours and had some great chats – we got along particularly well with a group of outdoor ED people from Melbourne. They were telling us all about how they had a car at the end of the second day and were going to drive into town to get indian and beers for dinner. We of course put in an order, half jokingly.

The second day of our walk has a heap of hills, often quite steep so I am glad we had dry weather otherwise I imagine parts of the track could have been treacherous. However the track is in the process of being massively upgraded for the future Grampians Peaks Trail which I can’t wait to do once it all connects up. One section consisted of beautifully made stairs on the way up, and then sketchy(ish) narrow footpads on the way down, so it will be really interesting to see what the final track is like.

We were treated to a lot more views on the second day as well which was a treat.

When we arrived at camp we were in for a treat. Our friends from the previous night had beers and snacks for us! They even brought us home some indian! Thank you so much crew!