A walk with a little bit of climbing adventure along the way, of course that means this walk was our little adventurers choice. He had been wanting to go here for weeks having looked at some of the amazing photos online showcasing some pretty fun looking rock scrambles. Werribee Gorge Circuit Track was 10km of fun for all of us. It was quite steep and hard at times, but well worth the trip to Bacchus Marsh. It may be called Werribee Gorge but it’s actually around an hour on from Werribee, I can only assume it’s called Werribee Gorge as the Werribee river runs through the Gorge itself.
There are several car parks you can start the 10km circuit track from, we started at the Quarry Picnic area, had a picnic and headed off. It was steep from the start up, up and up we went. I was quickly feeling quite warm on a 12 degree day. As you can see in the photo above there are some fantastic views (they only get better) at the times when you are up high. The hills are steep, and much of The start and the end of the walk are gruellingly steep hills that take you up and down.
No sooner have you gone up, caught your breath and enjoyed the views you then begin to go down. Going down was a great deal steeper than the photo above portrays, watch your step it’s loose rocks which I am extremely happy to say I managed to navigate without ending up on my bottom for the whole walk (a first for me).
Once we were right down the bottom we followed Werribee Creek for some time. The path starts out quite wide, but quickly narrows meaning it’s single file time and a little bit of an awkward situation when people came towards us. There were small sections we could pull over and let walkers heading the opposite direction to us get through.
Last time we visited, the section with water was dry and made the walk a little more spacious.
The scenery along this section of the walk is picturesque to say the least and flat. I could however hear a little voice saying “when are we getting to the bit I want to do” and with that said we arrived at the excitement section.
And we are off, with the help of what used to be a metal cable handrail, which now has a rubber hose covering it, last time we were here it was the bare metal. I was pleased it was here as there were a few sections I used it more than I thought I would need to.
We made it to the other side pleased none of us slipped in. Making it to the other side also came with disappointment that it was over and a continuing request to ‘go again’. It was quite busy and I was glad we had made it across once without anyone coming towards us.
It was not long before we realised the climbing sections had only just begun, this was definitely a favourite section to all of us. Now, when I say we were ‘climbing’ I don’t mean actual hook yourself up to ropes and climb up a rock face and abseil yourself back down kind of climbing. I simply mean climbing that is at low elevation and just good fun. In my ‘safety first’ mind this is perfectly safe, just be careful. There were so many people there it was hard to get a photo without people in it and every single one of them (a variety of ages and fitness levels) made it through dry (no one fell in). It’s just common sense if you get to this section and feel like no, no I just can’t do it that’s fine you don’t have to nor do you have to turn around and go all the way back to the start. Simply turn yourself around head back a short way and turn up the track on your left, that is the Short Circuit Track which we did on our last visit here. The Short Circuit Track is as the name suggests a shorter version of the full Werribee Gorge Circuit and is around 5km. Now, if ‘proper’ climbing and abseiling is your thing and this is just too flim flam for you, you can still come to the Werribee Gorge just go straight to Falcons Lookout. This is the only area within the park that you are able rock climb.
Yes, this narrow ledge is the only way through this section. Do not let this put you off! It was a lot of fun, easier than I thought it would be and not very high.
And we are heading back up again, quite steep this time straight up, you go from walking/climbing along the river to suddenly looking down at it. Just when you think you are at the top, you are wrong it just keeps going. I found some steep uphill sections exhausting but they obviously were not so bad, as we made it to the top stopped for a minute and were fine to go on.
The walk back down and around to the carpark was really enjoyable. The 10km walk took us approximately 2.5 hours to complete, the advisory sign had suggested it would take 4.5 hours. I guess the time taken to complete this walk depends on how many times you like to stop and take in the view, however as you can see from my photos we certainly did plenty of that.
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