High Yellow Bluff

Saturday 14th December 2013

High Yellow Bluff

I had heard that the walk to High Yellow Bluff was not that spectacular and with limited views, but I chose to do it anyway. To make it a little more different I opted to make a circuit walk out of it, thus making it a little more interesting, although I could be stretching the truth somewhat in saying that. Really, it was not too bad.
To reach the start, I drove down to Murdunna and turned off onto Hylands Road and followed this until turning onto Richardsons Road and travelling along this for about 2.7 kms. to a bit of a car park. I chose to park here as I was doing the circuit walk, but if one wanted to walk up to High Yellow Bluff and back the same way, then continue driving down Richardsons Road towards the coast for another 2.5 kms. and park here if in a 2WD car or continue on to almost the end of the road if in 4WD. I say this because there are large water filled holes to negotiate and an ordinary car would not make it.

Cape Surville from end of road

I headed off at 0750 and the 3 kilometre walk along the road to the coast was nothing startling and there had been a fire through the area so it was not too impressive. Just before reaching the end of the road a locked gate was encountered and just after this used to be a sign indicating the track to Cape Surville and also High Yellow Bluff. It had been burnt and was now in pieces on the ground and totally unreadable. I continued on to the end of the road and a small roundabout where the track began.
The first section of track was becoming overgrown from lack of use and required a bit of pushing to get through. It was mainly very tall bracken fern, so it was not too bad. The track had the occasionally tape, but generally, it was not too hard to pick up in the scrub. After a time I crossed Chasm Creek which was only a trickle and then start climbing.

Nice Cabin Cruiser

About halfway up the climb was a good lookout with great views of the sea and Cape Surville. There was a good looking boat cruising around and the sea was quite flat as the photo indicates.
I had a stop here to take in the views as I knew there were no more to be had on the walk. The track climbed steadily from here and fairly soon became very rocky. There were so many logs down across the track that progress was quite slow but after about 2.5 hours from the start I finally reached the ridge that runs along the top of High Yellow Bluff. From here I just made my own track along the ridge. There was the occasionally tape or cairn but not enough to be really useful.

The "Walking Track"

After reaching what I determined was the summit I walked in a north westerly direction down from the top through some scrub(not too bad) and came out into an area that had been burnt which made progress somewhat easier. My aim was to reach an old vehicle track which was shown on the map and fairly soon I came across it. The track had been abandoned but was easy to follow while crossing over the occasional downed tree. Soon the track met a better road and I kept following this down. I came across 3 4WDS that had obviously been mud bashing but they were quite friendly so I carried on and reached the car at 1235.
Overall not a bad walk, even though a lot of it is on road or vehicle track and the views are limited.
Distance: 11.8 kms.
Time: 4'45"
Ascent: 550 metres
Click here to download GPX track.

High Yellow Bluff

Cape Surville

Sisters Rocks

High Yellow Bluff from Cape Surville 2011