Week 47 – Mitre had a nice walk today

What – Mitre Lake, large salt lake in Douglas Depression

Where – west of Horsham

How far – Mitre Rock to Vinegar Hill via Mitre Lake 5km

10 words – Vast, salty, sandy, mud, snails, shells, no waves or gulls.

We started the year with Mitre Rock so seems fitting to walk a lake of the same name as we near the end of our 52 weeks.

We’ll follow part of this big lake’s southern shore along Arapiles Big Sky Trail.

Mitre looms large in the landscape, especially when looking from the summit of Arapiles- Dyurrite or Mitre Rock.

I often visit Vinegar Hill, perched above Mitre Lake, to watch the sun set over the lake but today is my first official visit to the water’s edge.

At the start we take in some nice views of Dyuritte – the former island that 420million years ago, had waves from an inland sea, lapping at its edge.

Not that there is a lot of water today. It is November, things are drying, and the shallow remnants of salty water lie far from the lake’s edge.

From Mitre Rock, a bitumen bike track takes us down the slope, through a gate and onto the old railway line from Natimuk to Goroke which shut down in 1986, 92 years after it opened.

You can see a silo ahead that was probably a stopping point for the trains that moved people, mail, food and farm produce in the days before cars and giant grain trucks.

It is all quiet today, whistles, rattling wheels, steel rail and red gum sleepers a forgotten memory.

We follow the track to Mitre Dam Lake Reserve. More crumbling signs from the 1980s and another long skinny lake, which is probably fresh water but virtually dry apart from a puddle in the middle. The 720-hectare park allows camping so probably worth a look in wet year.

One tree has a big scar, and you wonder who else camped here and enjoyed the fresh water long before the trains arrived.

I skirt around the dam and follow the track to Mitre Lake’s shore.

Trees along the track provide good shelter for some wildflowers and, of course, the salt lake classic – glasswort.

There are great views back to Dyurrite and I notice the row of bare hills to the southeast which would provide some run-off into the lake.

Big sky Bike Trail is aptly named.  Even on a dull day, you get a powerful panorama, with Dyurrite looming large and dark beneath.

I pick my way through salty, crusty grey lake edge, watching water shimmer in the distance. It feels and smells like a beach, there are even shells on some plants, but I am 42 million years late for waves or seagulls.

From shore level you can’t really appreciate the distant water or the sheer size of Mitre. I look down instead to the plants that burst from the desolation.

That anything grows and lives here seems a miracle – and they are so bright and colorful.

There are also signs of birds, bikes and kangaroos – the latter leaving big tracks, especially in wetter patches.

I see Vinegar Hill and leave the lake to head up a track to its lookout.

The hill provides a new perspective with Mitre now a big stretch of water, complete with reflections.

A patchwork of lines, colors and textures that reminds me how the Wimmera unique landscape has grown on me over the past 20 years.

And this is on a dull day. Vinegar Hill views at sunrise and sunset is even better.

I was ended my walk at Vinegar Hill but if you and return to Mitre by continuing along the track till you meet Arapiles Grass Flat Road.

Turn right and follow this road back to three Chain Road, which takes you back to the bike trail. Head through the gate near Mitre and back to your car.

Watch out in Winter – this place gets wet and always watch out for snakes too.