This was a 7.5km walk through a beautiful ironbark forest, and our group of eight set off from the junction of Depot Road/Rutherglen Road, just to the north of Chiltern township.
Tuan Track is named after a local species of marsupial, and from the start it was about 350m to the camping area, and then about 1.5km to the Babbler Track turn-off, via Tuan Track.
Ignoring this turn-off, we continued through to Bartley Track; the Bartley Family were early pioneers in this area, and their former homestead site would be encountered later in the walk.
We followed Bartley Track through to the environs of the Chiltern-Howlong Road, and just prior to meeting up with this stretch of bitumen, there is an irregular series of orange triangles (pointing to the left – north) which guided us northwards to the return portion of Bartley Track (via a short section on the gravel of Mount Pleasant Road).
There is an information board in this area, giving the history of the Bartley Family; some of their fruit trees are also nearby, and we enjoyed morning tea in this area.
Following Bartley Track, the return portion of Tuan Track was encountered at the top of a ridge, and the camping area was then reached at about 7km.
It was now time for a much talked about lunch, and we took advantage of some of the seating at the camping area.
From here it was a further 350m back to our vehicles.
It was a great walk, on a lovely sunny day, with many points of interest.
[Chris M]