Hills and lakes and wombats

The biggest festival in the town where I live is the annual truck show. The main street is filled with shiny trucks, country and western music fills the air and the Bundy flows like rum. It runs for one day only and, for someone who finds trucks less than exciting, it is a good day NOT to be in town. This year with a friend who feels much the same about trucks, I headed out to the Lake Eildon National Park for a walk. I've been meaning to hike some of the tracks in this park for quite some time but never managed to get around to it.

We started from Devil Cove with a climb up to Blowhard Spur. Disappearing off the road to start the climb I stumbled across a lazing kangaroo - wildlife in the first ten minutes. The camera was still in my pack so we just looked at each other and then he bounced off.

The way heads up an old vehicle track to the top of Blowhard Spur. I remember driving down this track many years ago as part of a four wheel driving course for firefighting. It is steep, slippery and I was amazed that I managed to drive down it and live. Walking up was hard work and the track disappeared under the scrub occasionally - it has been a long time since anyone has driven down here.
We made Blowhard Spur after an hour or so and the view across the lake to the snow-dusted Mt Buller (and what we thought might be the Baw Baw Plateau - should have packed a map) was magnificent. Blowhard Spur has a vehicle track running its length and we headed to the next peak, known as High Camp. This required dropping down into a saddle and again climbing. High Camp is the highest point of the walk and took just on an hour to manage the two kilometres from our start.

From High Camp we headed down a long spur to the lake through pleasant open forest with changing views over the lake. The birdlife was wonderful from eagles to robins. We reached the lake and made our way to School Point for lunch. As we neared the point the presence of boaters became more obvious - a lakeside bag of rubbish and at the point a number of trees that someone had taken to with an axe, a couple walking their dogs and the sound of a generator. It still made a pleasant lunch spot.
So far the walk had been along vehicle tracks, closed to the public so there was no worry about a Toyota sneaking up on you, and feeling more like a walking track than a road. From here the hike was along a walking track meandering above the lake. There were a couple of interesting sections where a sign was erected saying "Track continues on other side of inlet" and you were left to your own devices to make your way around the inlet and locate the continuation of the track.

Wedge-tailed Eagles over the lake

Lunch spot by the lake

Female Scarlet Robin

Next stop was Cooks Point, which the sign said was 160 metres away, amended by a previous walker to say 160 metres plus. We started along the 160+m to the point, across a grassy knoll to another grassy knoll and then a third grassy knoll, all three like a bowling green, apart from being unflat. On knoll number three was a wombat doing her best to keep the grass trimmed.

Vombatis usrinus, or Common Wombat, or Naked-nosed Wombat (to differentiate it from the Hairy-nosed Wombats) or Forest Wombat is also known as the Bush Bulldozer for the way they can just dig and burrow. For those who have never seen one, they are about the size of a good footstool, although prehistoric wombats were three times that size (about the size of a good sofa). Ursinus means bear in Latin so I took a photo of her trying to make her look as fierce and bear-like as possible. Didn't quite work out that way.

Trying to look ferocious

From Cooks Point it was an easy stroll back to the car with more birds, and a few day walkers heading the other way.

We made it home in time to hear the truck horns blowing, signalling the end of another truck show. We successfully managed to miss the entire thing.