Friday, 8 May 2026
Temp:
Distance 6.92km
Up 273m Down 328m
Time 2:24 hrs Moving time 1:53 hrs
Rainy
Shelter – Open air wind shelter only

What a great idea to bail on the trail on Monday. We have enjoyed 3 full days in comfort at the Halls Gap NRMA Holiday Park in a cabin. The warmth, comfort and shelter from the gloomy, rainy days was welcomed with open arms. Then after a drive day yesterday to Ballarat to buy a connection for the good camera to David’s backpack strap, we checked in to what was to be our after hike accommodation at Dunkeld. A little suite in the Old Dunkeld Bakery. A quaint little room and living room in the old style building. It was lovely!

Although we woke this morning to another drizzling day, we are still thinking positively that it will improve, as we continue to prepare for our 12pm pickup. So we crossed our fingers and did our last minute pack. I was tossing up on taking another pair of thermals but decided on an extra pair of socks instead. I hope I don’t regret it. The aim is to not get too wet or too cold before you go to bed. We enjoyed an early lunch (11am) at the new Artisan Bakery in town owned by our accommodation last night. They are very clever, they give you a complimentary coffee and then you spend $20 on their fresh pastries and goodies. They were very yummy, I had a lamb and rosemary pie and David had a ham and cheese croissant for an early lunch. Very yummy. We then found out that the toilets near the information centre had hot showers open 24 hours, which is a great find for when we finish the trail. Then at midday we headed around the corner to Peter’s home from Peaks Trail Rest Dunkeld, where we were leaving our car and getting transported back to Yarram Gap Rd Crossing ($130 per car load) to restart the last 3.5 sections of the trail over the next 4 days. He was a very friendly man and I think he had always lived in Dunkeld.

It was a 30 minute drive to the trailhead and an extra 15 mins chatting at either end of the drive. We got started on the trail about 1pm, which was plenty of time, as we only had about 6km to hike and that would take about 2-3 hours. We walked through intermittent rain and sunshine for the entire walk. Raincoat on, then off, umbrella up, then down, raincoat back on. The trail was pretty good as the majority of it was dirt trail with the occasional rock hop. We enjoyed a lovely view to the east of the farmland and plains 95% of the time and then to the west looking out to the Serra Range, we saw it in low cloud and misty rain for about 80% of the time but it was beautiful all the same. We saw a couple of scrub wallabies (I think) and heard a few birds.

I wasn’t sure how I would go on the trail again as we had rested for 3 full days but the pack was a great weight and I felt strong. We walked up and down comfortably for the 2.5 hours to the camp at Wannon. In the last 15 minutes we met our camp buddies who were having a snack. They were Catherine and Marcus with their 13 year old son Fitzy.

We then continued down to camp and setup in mostly dry weather. By then it was about 4.30pm and I decided as the weather was good i was going to eat early. David wasn’t keen, so I went and met our new camp mates at the table and wind shelter to make a start. David joined me about 15 mins later after getting us some more water. We enjoyed a lovely early evening chatting. Marcus has done the whole trail from Mt Zero trailhead and their daughter did section 7 and 8 with him. Then Fitzy joined him at Jimmy’s Creek and Catherine joined them today. Catherine and their daughter did the first four or five sections last month. Marcus had had a couple of ordinary days (Wednesday and Thursday), which confirmed we had made a good decision on Monday. It started raining a little more consistently at about 6.15pm, so we packed up and headed to bed. It is now 7.44pm and David is breathing heavily beside me and I am off to sleep now too. Fingers crossed the weather forecast is right as we should have improved weather each day. Night night. Xx