The Cathedral Ranges

The Cathedral Ranges are a narrow range of mountains just northeast of Melbourne and offer some very "interesting" and challenging walks. This particular area seems to be sheltered from rain by the adjacent mountain ranges and the forest is typically very dry. Because of it's proximity to Melbourne the camping grounds can be very busy during holiday periods and the area is also popular with rock climbers.

A walking track guide can be picked up at the park entrance, along with camping permits ($7.50 per day for a group of up to 6). Being a relatively narrow park there are only a few options for walking. They are:

1. a walk along the Little River following a combination of road and walking track (easy),
2. a walk to the top of the ridge (steep and sometimes difficult)
3. and/ or a walk along the ridge (often steep, rocky and rough)

Perhaps the most striking thing about this park though is the number of warnings on the Walking Track Guide, the topographic Leisure Map and even at the bottom of some of the walks. Essentially it all boils down to this... The Cathedral Range is steep and often rocky. Any walk up the mountain should be taken with a degree of caution and common sense should be exercised at all time when deciding whether to continue with a walk. Unfortunately this is not always the case and once, while walking up to the Stockyard at night, we met a couple crawling down the mountain in the dark, without food or water, having set out on a 2 hour walk from Ned's Gully in the early afternoon. I walked them down to the carpark with my headlamp and then went back up to where Peter was waiting with my pack. If they were lucky they would have got a lift back to their campsite at Cook's Mill.

There are many great walks in the Cathedral Ranges and they provide a quick and easy escape from the madness of the city. The next page is an account of one of the most interesting walks around Melbourne.