Mt Donaldson - Caution

Followed shawnhardie's Mt Donaldson Circuit (https://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=4636411). Completely bush bashed or way through overgrown bushland. If you're into it then sure... but wasn't what we expected. Beautiful landscapes along the way, yes - water for a good 5km as you walk along the beautiful main river, yes. Times where you feel unsafe as you take the slippery scree/gravel track around otherwise unscalable waterfalls - yes. Would not recommend doing this trail without being prepared for heavy bush bashing. Bring Gaiters and strong boots as you will be scaling scree waterfalls, stomping down head high scrubs and spending a long time 'off trail'.

Mt Donaldson trail is about following rivers, ravines and contours. In short, the trail is about following a river until you reach a ravine, ascending a waterfall, turning off down a small, steep and dry ravine, bushbashing through scrubland along the top of the mountain and then descending along one ravine, past 3 waterfalls and back to the main river and campsite. The hike is beautiful but very difficult for someone who hasn't done a hike like this before. Throughout the hike you must scale 1 waterfall and descend 3 waterfalls by taking the steep and slippery routes around them. In each case - you must be cautious of loose rock and brittle boulders. They type of rock found in Sundown national park is like this.

Camping can be done in a lot of places but you will find it difficult to camp on top of the mountain due to the density of the forest (depending on the tent you use - recommend hammock as it was more of a search to put up our Venus II tents). You will find a lot of places to camp along the ravines as flat grassy campsites pop up very frequently.

I broke and dislocated my ankle on this trail descending some Scree as we navigated around a steep, 15m waterfall. I had to be airlifted out after spending the night in excruciating pain on side of the mountain with my girlfriend and good mate. The point where I broke my leg is not shown on this trail as this was only day 1. I urge you to be very prepared for the overgrown, unmaintained and rugged trail.