Fortunately, the flexibility of being a regional Vicco enabled a recent solo overnighter, the first in a long while. Opted for a mid-afternoon walk inbound on the Golton South Track. This area is on the eastern side of the Grampians, about 12km south of Mt Zero / Stapylton / Hollow Mountain. Not far from Mt Difficult area which is approx 10km further south. From the highway drop off its approx 6kms from highway to Golton Gorge Picnic Ground. Was looking forward to pushing up the gorge to the clearing up near the top and spending the night there, then back-tracking down the next morning. Had been up there several times on day walks although at least 10 years ago and prior to the significant 2011 floods.
I was aware that the floods had taken out the bridge over the Golton Creek at the base of the gorge, and had not been replaced. Therefore, the track up the RHS of the gorge wouldn't be readily accessible. However, I'd heard that there was a new pad up the LHS, so anticipated taking this, then crossing over further up, to get to the top.
This plan worked fine, although the fun started when I reached the upper part of the gorge, with about 90 min of daylight remaining. The cross-over the gorge was fine, however, the lack of traffic on the RHS since 2011 meant that the old track was non existent. Plus some serious scrambling up rocks and through vegetation was necessary to reach the area of the old track.
I managed to cover that off ok, however upon reaching the flats up top was confronted with some serious wattle infestation that occurred after the bushfires around 2014. Double-head-height, dense wattle was an interesting experience and prompted some serious reliance on technology to stay heading in the direction of the Coppermine Track. The coppermine clearing that used to exist (and my intended destination) seemed to be now a dense wattle forestation. And not much daylight left...
Fortunately, I dropped out onto the Coppermine Track and just a couple of hundred metres along was the (new) Coppermine Camping Ground. With some fading light left, I set up and enjoyed some food. Spent a restful night there, then opted for the long way home the next morning as back-tracking the way up wasn't really an option. Walked down to Roses Gap along the Coppermine Track, some spectacular views along the way. Then some zig-zagging back to the Golton Track and back to starting point.
A brilliant part of the world, but I do need to work on lightening the load (approx 17kg pack wasnt great) and blister prevention would have helped