Abbotts/Marriotts access

[biggbird]

Hi all,

Looking at potentially doing Marriotts/Abbotts lookouts this weekend, but wanting to know whether anybody has had to walk the road up, as I understand the key is now kept by PWS. We have asked them about borrowing it, but essentially got a flat out no, and were told to just walk up the road instead. Sounds like it's ~5 scrubby hours between the two, but wondering if anyone has a rough time for the road walk up and down. Not the most appealing mountains, but it would be two more Abels off the list...

Cheers,

Alex

[doogs]

I don't know about times but a friend did it with a bike last year which made the descent rather quick!

[frenchy_84]

I understand the key is now kept by PWS. We have asked them about borrowing it, but essentially got a flat out no, and were told to just walk up the road instead.

What was their reasoning? Thats something you would expect from FT not PWS. If they are worried about vandalism to the White Elephant they just need to get your proper details when you pick up the key, who would vandalize something when you have to show your drivers license to get there?
Considering it is a tax paper funded organisation in charge of a tax paper funded road to a tax paper funded "visitor centre" they should get their heads out of their *&^%$#@! and allow use of the key.

[Azza]

Hi all,

Looking at potentially doing Marriotts/Abbotts lookouts this weekend, but wanting to know whether anybody has had to walk the road up, as I understand the key is now kept by PWS. We have asked them about borrowing it, but essentially got a flat out no, and were told to just walk up the road instead. Sounds like it's ~5 scrubby hours between the two, but wondering if anyone has a rough time for the road walk up and down. Not the most appealing mountains, but it would be two more Abels off the list...

Cheers,

Alex

From memory the actual 'scrubby' bit wasn't that scrubby and it didn't take very long. More like < 2 hrs return between them. I don't remember there being any real bashing.
Certainly wasn't one that stuck in my mind as being anything other than a short trot.
I'd second taking a mountain bike... you'll enjoy the getting back bit.

[Azza]

Although I can't be sure it was 2 hrs... but it wasn't 5 or anywhere near that.

[stu]

I have 3.25 hours return noted from our trip there Azz (from the towers on Abbotts).
Agree, it wasn't that scrubby from memory...the saddle between the 2 was pretty wet & marshy with scoparia which is a little slow / annoying.

[rohjoe]

The views from Marriotts are surprisingly good, almost the equal of Abbotts, so there are incentives to get there by whatever route is chosen. Nice and open on top. I led a club trip from Abbotts to Marriotts in 2010 and we took a bit longer than Stu and Azz, but it was a pretty big group. At that stage we were able to borrow a gate key from the Eagle's Erie bus depot in Maydena. I agree the scrub isn't too bad but I'd still pack the gardening gloves.

[north-north-west]

The road walk isn't that bad, but a MTB is definitely the way to go - although you may find yourself doing a bit of pushing on the ascent. There's vehicle access to within 10m of the Abbotts summit so you're really only scrub-bashing from the towers to Marriotts. The Marriotts plateau is open, as are its sides, and the saddle has plenty of pads through the scrub. Hardest bit is the bauera infested forest on the descent from/return to the towers.
Return time for that wouldn't be more than 4 hours even if, like me, you spend ages wandering around on the top trying to work out where the highest point is.

I really liked Marriotts. Good views and a very open feel to it. The Abels books doesn't do it justice, IMO.

[biggbird]

I understand the key is now kept by PWS. We have asked them about borrowing it, but essentially got a flat out no, and were told to just walk up the road instead.

What was their reasoning? Thats something you would expect from FT not PWS. If they are worried about vandalism to the White Elephant they just need to get your proper details when you pick up the key, who would vandalize something when you have to show your drivers license to get there?
Considering it is a tax paper funded organisation in charge of a tax paper funded road to a tax paper funded "visitor centre" they should get their heads out of their *&^%$#@! and allow use of the key.

I didn't quite get it really, they said they wouldn't lend me the key, but encourage me to walk the road up there... They're evidently not too worried about me vandalising it, which makes it strange to me that they won't lend the key, but ah well.

Thanks all for the info, good to know that the return trip between the two is quicker than expected. I had been going off a time I found on a blog, but then that was a club walk I guess, so bound to be a bit slower. As we don't have bikes, any idea of roughly how long one could expect the road walk itself to take? looks like a few ks and a fair bit of up.

[Azza]

I didn't quite get it really, they said they wouldn't lend me the key, but encourage me to walk the road up there... They're evidently not too worried about me vandalising it, which makes it strange to me that they won't lend the key, but ah well.

Thanks all for the info, good to know that the return trip between the two is quicker than expected. I had been going off a time I found on a blog, but then that was a club walk I guess, so bound to be a bit slower. As we don't have bikes, any idea of roughly how long one could expect the road walk itself to take? looks like a few ks and a fair bit of up.

Most likely wear and tear on the road... arguable that limiting access in theory could save on maintenance costs.
As for time, add up the number of km's assume you walk ~ 4 km/h, add a bit extra for uphill.

I reckon its roughly 6km to Abbots.. say maybe around 2hrs. But don't hold me to that.