Week 32 – Mackenzie revisited

What – Mackenzie River, Haven and Vectis areas

Where – park at the Mackenzie River Bridge on Three Bridges Road and walk along the tracks.

How long – If you walk all the way back to Weir Park it is about 9km.

10 words – peaceful, lush, mushrooms, moss, happy singing birds, just add water.

Lockdown is playing hell with all our lives but is also a good time to let necessity be the mother of all sorts of invention.- making the most of what we have in our own back yard.

After some lovely winter rains, it seemed fitting to revisit the first walk we did this year in the heat of summer – this time in the dead of winter – the lower reaches of the Mackenzie River. We start at the bridge over this river on Three Bridges Road.

The track near Three Bridges Road, heading towards the Wimmera River.

I am not going to say too much – I will let the Pictures tell the story.

In short – there were plenty of mushrooms and fungi…

Lots of puddles, flowing water, and patches of icky sticky Wimmera grey clay mud…….

and healthy beds of bright green moss and lichen.

It was just as silent and peaceful along this magical walk – apart from a few mountain bike riders who also decided to get out and exercise close to home.

And of course the birds – heaps of them all singing their hearts out in perfect, natural harmony. Obviously happy to see the water back too.

I had to make some delicate detours around huge puddles on the track but it was just so great to see some water in this often empty stream.

The confluence of Mackenzie and Wimmera rivers was also way more impressive than the empty drain of summer.

Flows from the fast-flowing Wimmera had backed up the Mackenzie and it was a different place to that of the summer visit.

The tree which had likely been a metre from the bank was now standing in the water.

The ford near the gun club was not even worth thinking of crossing, nor the one about 1.5km past it but I could use the boardwalk at the end on Curran Road. You can see how much the river has risen by the reeds sitting in water well away from the bank.

So, when you are walking along the Wimmera River near the Weir do consider following the track a bit further west and visiting the magical spot where it meets Mackenzie.

The other exploring to be done this close to town, is to head upstream at the Mackenzie River bridge on Three Bridges Road.

There is a track on the south side of the river travelling east that did have its fair share of puddles but takes you past an old channel and through a lunette filled with banksias.

It is quite different to the other end of the river and well worth an explore, with the track that I am pretty sure will take you all the way to the Henty Highway and not that far from where Bungalally Creek meets the Mackenzie.