We completed this circuit clockwise over the first two days of the Cup Weekend (Oct 29/30) 2022. Given the floods in Victoria at the time, there was no shortage of water.
Some pics from the trip annotated to reflect the notes below:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/62993514@N06/1T7v482Fx0We used the GPX track from Trail Hiking Australia. For the most part, it is still pretty accurate
https://www.trailhiking.com.au/hikes/mount-ligar-and-mount-tamboritha/Notes as follows:
Day 1- We drove up Friday night and camped at the site adjacent to the MGS buildings near Breakfast Creek
- We departed at 8:00m from the track sign
- The track up the Crinoline was in good condition. It is a steep climb and certainly got the heart pumping-
- The Long Hill Creek Falls were quite spectacular even from a distance due to the recent rain
- Getting up onto the Crinoline was relatively straightforward. There was a single bench that required a bit of a scramble
- We followed the cairns off the top. There was a bench on the way down that we took our packs off and lowered them down, but nothing too difficult
- Heading down, we found a stone arrow that pointed us to the right, this sets you up for a descent down the scree slope. It is steep but did not require any rock scrambling
-The rocky ridge that leads to the climb up to the falls was very slippery due to the rain as it is covered in lichen and moss.
- Once past the falls, the track climbs up and levels off. There is a large cairn that marks the track into the camps near Long Hill Creek. Someone has also cut a "W" into the tree where the track starts. It was around 1:30 pm when we arrived
- It was raining, so we set up the fly and went down to the creek to get water for a cooked lunch. There was kind of a track down to the creek, but it wasn't very distinct.
- We departed for the rock shelter around 4:00 pm. The track was generally pretty good. We passed lots of good campsites. There was plenty of pink tape to mark the way in some of the thickly wooded sections. Some of the tape looked very new.
- We arrived at the Rock Shelter around 6:00 pm. You need to backtrack 30-40 m from the cairn above the rock shelter and head down. There may be a better way, not sure. There was one guy who had set up a small tent and was camped there.
- From the rock shelter, the track becomes quite rocky, and the vegetation is a bit more scraggly. Quite different to the approach to the Rock Shelter. We were happy to arrive at the camp at the start of the vehicle track up to Mt Tamboritha at around 7 pm. We figured we were done for the day, so set up the tents. Quite rocky so used some large rocks for deadman anchors where we couldn't get pegs in
Day 2- The next day, we set off at around 8 am, the route climbs from the camp and follows the vehicle track but is quite fast. We passed the next decent campsite ater about 50 minutes and arrived at the Mt Tamboritha turn-off at around 9:30. Reached the summit around 10:00am
- Easy hiking across the top. The only mildly challenging bit in terms of navigation was after the final climb (Knolls 1202 1196 1195). You come to a reasonably open alpine meadow. We followed this down but didn't see a lot of markers. There is a steep drop off to the left, and we ended up traversing around to the right staying at the same elevation, in the open, and avoiding the temptation to bush bash. This route leads us back onto the ridge, and we found a marker at the top of the trail. We started the main descent around 12:15 pm The trail was open and quite clear and well-defined.
- The descent is a thigh burner and a little slower than I expected. We were back at the car around 2:30 pm
Cheers
Nigel