Last month, I went for a final hike in the Lerderderg Gorge basically, at the end of summer. And unfortunately, most of the Lerderderg Gorge hiking trails will be closed over Autumn due to planned burning.

These are done, essentially, to keep us, and the surrounds safe here in Australia by minimising the damage a bush fire causes in the more dangerous and drier months.

So for now, Lerderderg will unfortunately not be on my list of locations for fungi photography until a little later in the year. Hopefully I will be able to find some sturdier species coming into winter though!

Where is Lerderderg?

The Lerderderg State park is just north of Bacchus Marsh in Victoria, Australia. It is a gorge that has been carved out of the rugged landscape by the Lerderderg River.

In early 1851, the area was reputed to be a hot spot for gold mining, and At its peak saw thousands of diggers arrive looking for the lucrative mineral.

If you are interested in hiking this beautiful location, you can check out the AllTrails entry here: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/australia/victoria/lerderderg-gorge-circuit

The Adventure

In this section of the log, I am going to go on and on about my last hike around the Lerderderg Circuit Track. But, if you want to see and hear it first hand instead of read, you can do so by watching this 3.5 hour video of my hike below.

The Beginning

I set off early in the morning, but due to the weather known to be cooler, I didn’t start my hike in the cool or the darkness of the night.

It was early morning and I strapped my DJI Action onto my chest to get some Point of View (POV) footage of the entire hike to make a video out of it for those interested. That should be embedded for you above for you to watch. If it doesn’t work, let me know in the comments and I will embed from an alternative source!

I brought a R0DE VideoMic Pro Microphone as well, linked up with Rode Wireless Pro’s to capture any sounds with some more detail, as that’s something I would also like to increase my skills in, and then I set off down the beautiful trail.

At this time of the year, there’s usually no flowing water along the river, so the river crossings are easier and you can keep your feet dry, but I will say that having flowing water along a majority of the hike sets a beautiful sound and scenery to enjoy alongside you - so I will be returning here with flowing water with this new equipment. My first attempt at recording this location was using my mobile phone which while the quality was high, it doesn’t leave enough room for editing the colours just right to my own liking.

Here are a few sound recordings that I took along the hike. I hope that you enjoy listening to them as much as I enjoyed the recording of them.

Difficulties

This time around, I felt much fitter than my first attempt. Yes, it was cooler, and that would have helped some, but I also felt my cardiovascular and my fitness in general was up to standard for this hike.

There are a couple scrambles which actually require you to use your hands to hold onto the rocks to help yourself up, but nothing too difficult. You just need to be a little careful if you are like me and like to ruck your pack. Basically, I enjoy having a 15kg or more backpack on. Not only due to my requirement for photography equipment, but rucking is also a form of exercise and increases my strength needs when hiking, especially when going up and really getting into those leg muscles.

Going down means I have to go slower, and trekking poles are really a necessity, as falls are more likely with a heavier backpack when not careful of the extra weight.

Even climbing sometimes, it requires you to activate your core muscles more and take notice of your centre of gravity point, as leaning back a little too much, you’ll find that you struggle to keep a balance!

I wish I already had a heart rate monitor and my handheld GPS tracker, as I would like to wear a strap heart rate monitor that tracks my heart rate along the hike, that I can then overlay across the whole video of the hike. That way, you can get a feel of how easy or how difficult a portion of what I am doing might be, based on my own fitness levels - but I am no athlete!

A smart watch with built in heart rate wont do it for me. New ones aren’t what they use to be, in my opinion, and their privacy policies are all as bad as each other, require proprietary software to read data from which these companies data mine you for. I will give what data I want to publish thanks.

The Top

At the top of the mountain, I was approximately 440 or 450m above sea level. I wouldn’t be grading the difficulty of a hike or climb based on how high up a mountain is though. The difficulty is determined by the incline, or, steepness of the hike up, whether it requires a lot of scrambling and how long the steep inclinations go for.

You could have a 2,000m mountain with a slight slope that you walk for an hour easily, vs a 100m mountain that has a 50 degree incline that will give you more of a challenge. It’s like a slow jog vs HIIT training.

At the top of the mountain, I took the opportunity to enjoy a small break - re-energised myself with some food and prepared myself for the downward section of the mountain.

The Easy Part

The walk down was enjoyable. Heart rate back to normal, the sweat on my back cooling me down as the sun rose higher into the skies.

I made it back in time to get home, have a shower and pick up the girls from school.

The next fun part of the whole hike was to edit all the footage I took of my video and audio and upload it to my ko-fi account for subscribers to download for free if they wish it (or pay what they like).

I’d love to hear about your adventures!