Daylesford to Sailors Falls Circuit Walk

Cap off your long weekend at ChillOut Festival with this scenic walk in the goldfields/mineral springs region, or alternatively, do part or all of it as a day walk. 
GRADE | LENGTH | TYPE: Easy 5 or 9 km point-to-point walk or moderate 19 km circuit walk. This walk will be done in three stages and, by arrangement with the leader, you will be able to join or leave it at any of Lake Daylesford, Jubilee Lake or Sailors Falls.
MEETING TIME | LOCATION:

• 10am beside the Bookbarn Cafe at the Lake Daylesford car park, 2 Leggatt St, Daylesford.
• 11.30am approximately at the cafe of the Jubilee Lake Holiday Park.
• 1pm approximately at the visitor shelter of the Sailors Falls Mineral Springs, Ballan-Daylesford Rd, Sailors Falls.

MAP REFERENCE: Melway map X909 grid C9 | Google map - see MEETING TIME | LOCATION above.  
DISTANCE | TIME FROM GPO: Via Western Fwy 118 km, 1 hour 25 minutes | via Calder Fwy 117 km, 1 hour 30 minutes.
FOOD: Carry lunch, snacks and at least 1 litre of water. You will be able to sample natural spring water in the second and third walk stages.
APPAREL | FOOTWEAR: Comfortable walking boots/shoes and dress according to the weather forecast. Depending on recent rainfall, you may get wet feet in some creek crossings. Some sections contain sharp rocks. 
ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION: This very scenic walk "has it all", passing by lakes and a small waterfall, through many forests, some farmlands and goldfield remnants. Virtually all of the walk is on well formed, signed trails, though in places the surface is a little rough. There are some short climbs, steep at times, but for the most part the route is relatively flat. There are several creek crossings where you can normally step across, but if rain has fallen in the lead up to the walk, you could get wet feet.

The walk consists of three separate components – it's your choice whether you do one, two or all three of them (though you should notify the leader if you don't expect to do all three stages so that appropriate transport can be organised):

• STAGE ONE: 5 km – Lake Daylesford to Jubilee Lake: after walking around the lake we follow a couple of short streets to join the Great Dividing Trail which takes us around Cornish Hill and along a former railroad track to the Jubilee Lake Holiday Park, where some of us will have camped for the ChillOut Festival Weekend. We'll rest there for refreshments at the excellent cafe. 
• STAGE TWO: 5.2 km – Jubilee Lake to Sailors Falls: after refreshments at the Jubilee Lake Cafe, we'll head off through some heavily wooded areas. We'll be mostly heading due south, first along the Great Dividing Trail, then the Three Lost Children Trail, Star Track and west along "Manna Gum Road" (though the first part of that "road" is little more than a goat track)! The end of the road pops out directly opposite the Sailors Falls picnic area, a perfect lunch location, where you can taste some "lemonade like" natural spring water. Anybody who plans to only do the third stage of the walk could arrive early and do some of the walks to and around the falls, though we will visit the falls at the start of the third stage.
• STAGE THREE: 9 km – Sailors Falls to Daylesford: from the visitor shelter we'll take the steel stairs down to Sailors Falls. Afterwards, we'll follow the Wallaby Track and Goldfields Track back to Daylesford. On reaching the outskirts of Daylesford we'll divert along a narrow track to follow the pretty Wombat Creek, which eventually takes us back to Lake Daylesford via a couple of operational mineral springs.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

• Bushwalking Victoria: Daylesford Forests, Lakes and Falls.
• This walk, along with the Nomads ChillOut Morning Bushwalk and the Nomads Pants Off, Mixed Nude Bushwalk and Swim on Saturday 9th March, forms part of the ChillOut Festival Weekend, where you can camp at the Jubilee Lake Holiday Park and participate in some of the ChillOut Festival activities, including the Pride Parade and Carnival on Sunday 10th March.
• Carnival ticket prices: Pre-sales online: $30 full, $20 concession, $15 under 21 | Gate sales: $35 full, $25 concession, $15 under 21 | Under 12 free. 

LEADER | BOOKING: Alan D. | by Friday 8th March. Email the Leader if you have any questions. Members can access leader contact details under Members->Leader Contacts when logged in to the website.