Hiking Olinda Falls – Dandenong Mountains

As of today our favourite area in the Dandenong Mountains is the area around the Olinda Falls. Hiking the famous 1000 steps was beautiful, but a very crowded route, the hike from the Grants pick-nick ground is nice, but a bit tame. The area around Olinda Falls feels more remote and authentic, which is something that we all prefer. There were hardly any people and the tracks are narrow and adventurous.

After a nice Sunday morning breakfast including pancakes, bacon, orange juice and muffins, Luka suggested to go hiking. We were pleasantly surprised by this, as she is normally the one who complaints most when we even mentioned anything that involves walking. Is she now becoming the most driven one?

After a short stop at the tourist office, where we went for advise and picked up a map, we drove to the Olinda Falls pick-nick ground. Which was an adventure by itself. Since the other places that we visited could be reached by a paved road this is also what we expected at Olinda. So when we ended up on a gravel road we started to wonder if our navigation was off. With the many potholes in the road we felt like we were back in South Africa, on our way to a national Park.

Hiking to Olinda Falls

To get to the falls is not very difficult. The track down is very wide, but we loved the feeling of it. It felt like we walked in the middle of a scene of a fairy tail, with dimensions being completely out of proportion:

The last part of the route gives you a choice:

Video impression of the falls

Note the last part of the 1.27 min. video, it reveales why Luka said the men were like a prince today (how to make a girl feel like a princess).

Continuing our hike

From the falls you can continue to hike in two directions. Today we choose the short route, but we will definitely go back here again!

To be continued

Today we only hiked the first route, the 1.3 km to the Olinda Falls and continued on the Mechanics track. But did you see hike number three: the Valley walk for the adventurous? Hmm, that sounds apealing. We will have to get back here!