Werribee Gorge State Park - The Year End Walk

Werribee Gorge State Park is situated near Bacchus Marsh, on the other side of the Western Freeway from Lerderderg State Park (where we went for our Wild Wombat Fat Ass 30 run). After a long drive from Melbourne, it was pretty deserted by the time we arrived at the car park of Quarry picnic area at 2pm on Tuesday, 31st December 2013.

The activities you can do there include walking, picnicking and rock climbing. We opted to take the Circuit Walk (10KM) which would take an estimated 4.5 hours to complete.

A glimpse of Werribee River below.

Photo credit: The hubby.

 We went straight ahead just to be sure we weren't missing any awesome views before we returned onto the track.

Spotted a sleepy looking grasshopper camouflaged along the ground.

Not many clouds in the sky.

After about 2 hours of walking along the gorge rim and looking down at the river, we soon found ourselves walking along the river bank.

We scrambled over rocky sections, occasionally looking around with hopes of bumping into some wildlife creatures.

Found a grape instead.

Soon we came across the river walking section.

Which looked simply awesome, and exciting!

 It was so cool!

We arrived at Needles Beach, which we had earlier spotted from the top. It's a nice quiet stretch of sand for a picnic, but the water isn't clear and clean enough for a dip.

  

Obligatory couple pic. :)

Hiking/trekking was one of the things we have always enjoyed doing before we ventured into trail running. 

Tea was sweetcorn and hard boiled eggs. The eggs had their own photo shoot, and was photo bombed by pesky flies.

We are contemplating bringing along a bug zapper on our next walk - the flies are just so annoying. Ugh!

 We continued walking along the river.

 Anybody knows what these little fruits are? They're definitely not cherry tomatoes! 

 Poky looking plant.

We came across Lions Head Beach, which wasn't as nice as Needles Beach. It was named so because you'd be able to see a lion's face on the rocks. I stared hard, but still couldn't see it. Can you?

Oooh, maybe just a little!

 

We came across a part which required you to hold on to the cable as you walked along the river. That's the way out, peeps, because you wouldn't want to retrace your steps and climb all the way up again.

There was a little cave along the rocks, which looked like a cool place to hang out in. Spot the rubbish left there!

 

Rubbish left by irresponsible and inconsiderate people. We picked them up.

Someone's sandwich dropped out of their bag, intentionally or unintentionally, who knows. 

He picked up the plastic.

These flowers remind me of cherry blossoms!

Found ourselves along an aqueduct track.

Was hoping to spot a koala in between manna gum tree branches or an echidna, but no such luck. Not even a platypus in the deep river holes - guess I'll have to keep coming back and wait patiently to spot one!

No koalas in sight.

We soon reached Meikles Point picnic area and that meant about another 800m to 1KM walk to Quarry picnic area.

 

Hmmm. A mini climb to end an enjoyable river walk just doesn't gel! :D

We took less than 4 hours to complete our walk (I swear we didn't do any running) despite stopping for plenty of photography opportunities and our tea break at Needles Beach.

For a shorter walk with all the exciting bits thrown in, I'd suggest starting from Meikles Point picnic area and head out along the river towards Needles Beach and then back.

Note: We recommend Lerderderg State Park and Werribee Gorge State Park a 'must visit' if you love the outdoors!