You Yangs and Flinders Peak Circuit, You Yangs Regional Park - 13.8 Km

 U3A Hike No. 207

Hike Report by Joan
As we gathered together Gordon gave us a brief outline of what was in store for us on our adventure to the You Yangs including the East West Walk, The Northern Range Walk, the Branding Yard Trail with the highlights being the Flinders Peak Walk and walking among the stone Geoglyph of Bunjil the Eagle, the traditional Creator spirit of the local Aboriginal people. The You Yangs were created some 350 million years ago when a huge mass of magna pushed through sedimentary rock and cooled slowly below the surface. The Yawangi clan lived in and around those area and named this range You Yangs which means “big mountain in the middle of the plains”.

With the sun in our faces and the wind at our backs we started our upward climb meandering between among huge rock formations which were saying to me “climb me, climb me” though I restrained myself under the watchful eye of Gordon. As we went higher the amazing views along the East West Walk track out toward farmland, Corio Bay and the city of Geelong became more apparent. It is along this track that we had a first glimpse of the Bunjil Geoglyph. What was a real bonus was as we were looking at this, a Wedged Trail Eagle flew over us out towards the sun and over the Bunjil Geoglyph! 

We continued our climb and then descended in a bit of a valley where we had morning tea and got revived to start another ascent but this time on the Northern Range Walk. It was good to look back from where we had come and again be awed by the striking and varied cliff faces. From here we again descended down a steep loose sandy gravelled path and walked along the Branding Yard Trail that eventually lead to the Bunjil Geoglyph. Well, what can one say but WOW!! Bunjil was the vision and work of Andrew Rogers and presented at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. To see all these huge boulders that have been placed so perfectly to form the outline of Bunjil is just such of feat of might and vision to be admired!! This was our lunch stop which was great for me as I enjoyed getting a chance to hop from boulder to boulder and complete the outline of Bunjil!

From here we continued along the Branding Yard Trail again meandering among some eye-catching rock formations until we arrived to complete our final leg of our days outing, the Flinders Peak Walk. The peak is named after Matthew Flinders who climbed this peak in 1802. Well...if you like stairs this is definitely the walk for you! It was a lovely walk with views to the surrounding landscapes which took our minds off the constant sets of stairs around each corner. Alas... we reached the top and were rewarded with the views that made the effort well worth the hard yakka...Right Rick??

Thanks, Gordon, for again leading us on another breath-taking (not only for the views but the effort!) hike and to the rest of the group for sharing the journey.

Photos by Gordon, Joan, Mark H and Theresa



























Comments

  1. Anonymous7 August 2022 at 20:56

    Thanks Joan. It was a great day. Rick

    ReplyDelete
  2. Janet8 August 2022 at 10:33

    Looks incredible, well done all of you and thank you for your evocative and descriptive blog Joan, loved reading it.

    ReplyDelete

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