Tunnel walk and then some…

With just over 12 weeks to go before we head overseas to do the Coast to Coast walk we thought we should start doing a bit more training, well I did, I think Frank could do it easily without any training! So as today was a rostered day off and we still had Sean’s car to do one more car shuffle we parked the Prado at the end of Tunnel Road in Pomonal and took Sean’s car around to the end of Tandara Road and set off on the 9.7km walk to retrieve the Prado from the other side of the range.

Most of the walk (well abut 6.2km of it) goes along the Terraces Fireline to the east of Lake Bellfield, but although you’re walking on a fireline the surroundings are very pleasant, (much nicer than the Ingleton fireline and obviously popular with mountain bike riders) with glimpses of rocky outcrops, the water in Bellfield (what there is of it) and the Wonderland and Serra Ranges to the east. The following two photos were taken from the same spot. The first looking back towards the Wonderland Range and Lakeview lookout and the second looking south across Lake Bellfield towards the Serra Range.

The Tunnel entrance is pretty small on the western side of the range and it appears the water is now piped across the range. Frank asked me to check if there was a breeze coming out of the tunnel which was half-filled with silt. Looks a bit more like I have injured my back!

We had done a fair bit of uphill and down dale to this point but then we started the rather steeper climb to the saddle above. We climbed around 250m over 1.7km and I was puffing like a steam train when we got to the top. (According to the GPS and Everytrail we went up 655m and down 500m during the course of the walk.) This is the view from the track on the way up on one of the not quite so steep sections.

Frank got there just a minute ahead of me (or so he says) in order to take a most unflattering photo which I quickly deleted – ah the benefits of digital photography :-) Here is a slightly improved photo, I said slightly…

You get quite a good view looking out towards Lake Fyans but it was a bit hazy. Probably all those dreadful Parkies burning off everywhere and spoiling the views :-)

The entrance to the tunnel is much larger on the eastern side of the range and you can see the remains of an old hut, which is presumably something to do with the water authority. Hopefully one day they will get around to putting some historical information on the as yet blank information board.

Tunnel Walk (one way from Tandarra Rd)