Accepting the challenge of organising and implementing a 3 day / 2 night Adventurer Level Hike excited me. I had seen and participated in a few Adventurer Level Hikes with my friends in Wilsons Prom, Brisbane Ranges, the Otways and on the Glenelg River. All different locations. All providing different experiences. All challenging us in a variety of different ways. All resulting in a lot of fun and learning throughout each journey.
However, this expedition would be different. No longer was I a supporting participant ... I was the leader ... and I chose to explore, discover and lead my team in the Little Desert National Park.
On the afternoon before my hike started, everyone met at Horsham Riverside Caravan Park where we distributed tents, food and Trangia’s and spend the night in Horsham before the hike began. We had pizza for dinner and got a good night sleep for the next day.
Day 1:- Denlenburgs Mill Track to Mallee Walkers Camp
Distance:- 13.5km
On the first day of the hike we met at 8:15am to make salad rolls and wraps for lunch at the barbeque in the Caravan Park, and packed the final things into our packs before leaving the Park at 8:45am in 3 cars to our start point in Little Desert National Park, where the Desert Discovery Walking Track crossed over the Dahlenburgs Mill Track. We had a little bit of trouble getting into the start point due to a vehicle getting stuck on the soft sandy road. Leaving the car bogged in the sand, we continued to our starting point with 2 cars.
Despite the slow start we began walking at 10:30am along the Desert Discovery Track and turned onto Wallaby Track shortly after. We walked along Wallaby Track for most of the day before turning back onto the Desert Discovery Track 5km out of Mallee Walkers Camp where we spent our first night. We arrived at 3:45pm and set up out tents before eating ration packs for dinner and heading to our tents to layer up for the cold night by 6:30pm. We talked for a while before going to sleep. We walked a total of 14 km.
Day 2:- Mallee Walkers Camp to Horseshoe Bend Camp
Distance:- 13km
Implementing our Knot Tying Skills
TEAMWORK - Supporting each other to tie our shoe laces without removing our Backpacks!!!
In the morning of day 2 we woke up to frozen tents, so we had a sleep in to stay warm as long as possible. We were all awake by 8:30am and out of bed by 9:15am. We had cereal for breakfast while one of the Leaders read us his beautiful poems that were based on the song Waltzing Matilda and began walking by 11am. We walked along the Desert Discovery Walk for the whole day and had Vitaweets with Vegemite for lunch at 2pm. After lots of rows of trees and a really long lunch break, we finally made it too Horseshoe Bend Campground at 4pm where we met our water and firewood. We had ration packs again for dinner and had S'mores before again going to bed early to keep warm. Today we walked 13km.
Day 3:- Horseshoe Bend Camp to Eagle Swamp
Distance:- 9km
We woke up at 8:00am and got out of bed between 8:30am and 9am. We had cereal for breakfast again and packed up our gear before leaving at 10:15am with a couple of parents who walked the first 5km with us. We missed the first turn off onto the walking track so we walked along River Track until the next sign directed us onto the walking track at the end of the road. From there we walked another 4km to our end point at Eagle Swamp. We arrived at 1:30am where we were picked up, jumped into vehicles and driven to a spot in the Little Desert National Park where we had a sausage sizzle for lunch. From there we drove home. We walked 9km on day 3 and a total of 35.5km.
Images of the Wimmera River
Images of the Wimmera River
Eagle Swamp ... THE END.
We walked at a really good pace of 3-4km an hour throughout the hike, however we could’ve taken less breaks. Thank you to everyone who came on my hike and to the leaders for helping me plan and also for joining us. Thanks to the parents who bought us water and drove us around and to and from Horsham.
