The Grampians National Park, Victoria

The Fortress 3 day walk - Grampians National Park, Victoria

The Fortress is a 3 day walk in the lesser known area of the Victoria Range within the Grampians.

The Grampians ranges are a series of exposed sandstone ridges separated by valleys. Water erosion has increased the cracks and weaknesses leaving the spires behind, of which the Fortress is an example.

The Grampians were originally named Geriwerd by the aboriginals. The caves which are a feature of the area, and the many shelters throughout the ranges show evidence of their occupation of 5000 years. With colonization the area was used for mining gold, cattle grazing and logging. In 1964 the national park was created and many of the old overgrown logging roads today form part of the 3 day walk.

Day 1 – 6.1 km, 3.5 hours

Waking today straight up into the ranges themselves. With our packs filled with camping gear and food for 3 days it was a fairly challenging few hours.

After one hour we reached Manja shelter. It’s a cave known as the Cave of Hands because of the aboriginal art of hand stencils made from ochre. The next 2 hours was pretty much uphill, until we reached the steep descent into Western Cave, we we camped in a small cave for the night. The cave was a great spot, well sheltered, and in the book I was following the walk on, there was a photo of a tent in the cave. But the problem was that it was down slanting which didn’t make for such a comfortable sleep. As we came into the area we could hear people who turned out to be 2 teachers and 7 kids on a school excursion! Luckily it was a big camp area and they were on the other side of the creek, so they didn’t bother us at all. There was dead wood in the cave so we were able to cook on a fire and keep warm. It got to about 5 degrees.

Day 2 – 8.1km, 4.5 hours

It’s almost unfair to have to set up the campspot just for 12 hours when you have to pitch the tent, blow up the air mat, zip the sleeping bags together, and then pack it all away again to keep walking! Today wasn’t as difficult going, although still a gentle ascent. Atleast some of the weight in my pack was gone due to eating some of the food. We left late- about 10.30am, but what’s the rush? Today we began to see some really good view of the Fortress and other rock formations. We made it to Mt Thackery campground about 3pm to setup. After the setup we took the side trip up to Mt Thackery 940 metres. Amazing view from up the top and very windy.

Mt Thackery camp ground was a great spot, but because of the rain we couldn’t have a fire. By about 9pm it got really dark so we headed inside.

Day 3 – 13.5km, 5 hours

We awoke in a cloud of fog. The whole campground was foggy, but it quickly cleared to a nice day. Today the track used some of the old logging roads. They were easy to follow, but very rocky and steep at times, but mostly downhill. There was a part of the track where we had to cross a creek 3 times. On the 2^nd time we got completely lost. What had happened was a huge tree fell over the track, so people had diverted around the tree, but in the process had made a track which leads to the creek. We followed that track, crossed the creek, then tried to follow an imaginary track to somewhere. Busting through branches, spiderwebs, ferns and shrubs we got very lost. After 20 minutes we decided to go back and when we did we realised our mistake. As there were some many flowers in bloom we sneezed the rest of the walk back to the van. We were very tired when we got back and drove to Halls Gap to have a coffee. It was a great walk, and being 3 days is a run up to the 6 day Overland Track we’ll be doing in December in Tasmania.