Travelling Worm<p><strong>Billy Goat Bluff Track, VIC</strong></p><p><strong>In this post: </strong>Billy Goat Bluff Track near Dargo in Victoria, Australia, plus some lovely country and a river to camp beside.</p><p>This is the blog of Mark Wordsworm, the travelling worm. I’m a 40-year-old bookmark (give or take a few years) and I proudly boast my own Hallmark serial number, 95 HBM 80-1. You’ll probably want to read <strong><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" href="https://travellingworm.wordpress.com/about-me/" target="_blank">all about me</a></strong> and my Travelling Companion (the TC).</p><p><strong>Today’s travel notes</strong></p><p>Me and the TC recently spent a week and a half in the Victorian High Country, a landscape of mountains and valleys in the state of Victoria, Australia. On 22 February, we tackled a well-known four-wheel driving track in the area: Billy Goat Bluff Track.</p><p><strong>The book I’m in</strong></p><p><em>Jericho’s Dead</em> by William Hussey. This is the second in a series about Scott Jericho, an ex police detective and member of a fairground family who seems to attract serial killers and other nasties. Highly recommended.</p><p><strong>Recommended accommodation</strong></p><p>Black Snake Creek campground on the banks of Wonangatta River.</p><p><strong>Travel tips</strong></p><p>Although Billy Goat Bluff track has been graded and is relatively easy driving, many of the tracks in the Dargo area are challenging. Pick your route to and from Billy Goat Bluff with care.</p><p><strong>The photos</strong></p><p>Crawling the tracks is what yours truly does best. So, let’s start with a video of part of Billy Goat Bluff Track, to give you and idea of what it’s like. The track was graded in late 2024. When we were there in February 2025, the driving was easy. But beware the steep drop-offs on both sides!</p><p><a href="https://youtu.be/8AISROQ62bk" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/8AISROQ62bk</a></p><p>The TC, bless her cotton socks, talks about the <em>Billy Goat Gruff</em> track in the video. It’s actually <em>Billy Goat Bluff</em>. Rumour has it that the track got its name because to drive it, you need to be as agile as a goat.</p><p>The track features a steep gradient of 27%, climbing 1,200 metres over a distance of 7 kilometres.</p><a href="https://travellingworm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/pxl_20250221_232620178-small.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><p>The TC’s water bottle compressed as if it had been in a jet plane:</p><a href="https://travellingworm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/pxl_20250221_231658300-small.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><p><strong>How long does it take?</strong> It took us less than two hours to drive the track. We started the track itself at soon after 9am and finished before 11am, with plenty of stops for photographs. </p><p>Here’s our convoy on the infamous ridge. Those edges give little margin for error or for passing an oncoming vehicle:</p><a href="https://travellingworm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/img_0763-small.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><p>All round us, the peaks and valleys of the high country conspired to make us feel like insignificant worms on the face of the universe (oh wait,<strong> I am</strong> a worm, and decidedly not insignificant!):</p><a href="https://travellingworm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/view-pxl_20250221_232759116-small.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><p><strong>Getting there:</strong> On the night before the trail, we camped at Black Snake Creek campground on the banks of the Wonangatta River:</p><a href="https://travellingworm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/pxl_20250221_082020547-small.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><p>We left the campground at around 8.30am and followed Wonangatta Road northwards for half an hour or so, winding along the banks of the Wonangatta River until we joined Billy Goat Bluff Track.</p><p>The lovely Kingwill Bridge on Wonangatta Road:</p><a href="https://travellingworm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/pxl_20250221_215609125-small.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><p>In case your appetite for Billy Goat Bluff isn’t yet satiated:</p><a href="https://travellingworm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/pxl_20250221_232558552-small.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><p>After finishing Billy Goat Bluff, we took a short detour to visit <a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/hQXtGcZSbGdeiFML9" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pinnacles Lookout</a> in the Miowera region:</p><p><a href="https://youtu.be/gZRIUXVfHtg" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/gZRIUXVfHtg</a></p><p>There I met my cousin Dilly the Butterfly:</p><a href="https://travellingworm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/butterfly-img_0778-small.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><p>We then explored some of the tracks around Dargo, which turned out to be much more of an adventure than planned. We helped some folks out of trouble, which meant that we were still on the tracks late at night:</p><a href="https://travellingworm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/night-pxl_20250222_092339632-small.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><a href="https://travellingworm.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/night-original_847af0e0-03a3-45c8-8821-6c0874443f0c_pxl_20250222_110548202-small.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><p>We found our way safely to Castleburn Creek campground at midnight, rounding off another day of happy travelling.</p><p>Speaking to the locals in Dargo the next day, we heard that many people find themselves in trouble on these tracks. The maps are not up to date, and as a result people don’t know what’s in store for them. Take care out there on the tracks, make sure you’re in a capable vehicle, and travel with some mates to help if you do run into a tricky situation.</p><p><strong><em>That’s all for today, folks</em></strong></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://travellingworm.com/tag/4wd/" target="_blank">#4wd</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://travellingworm.com/tag/adventure/" target="_blank">#adventure</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://travellingworm.com/tag/australia/" target="_blank">#australia</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://travellingworm.com/tag/billy-goat-bluff-track/" target="_blank">#BillyGoatBluffTrack</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://travellingworm.com/tag/bookmark/" target="_blank">#bookmark</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://travellingworm.com/tag/bookworm/" target="_blank">#bookworm</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://travellingworm.com/tag/nature/" target="_blank">#nature</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://travellingworm.com/tag/pinnacles-lookout/" target="_blank">#PinnaclesLookout</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://travellingworm.com/tag/travel/" target="_blank">#travel</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://travellingworm.com/tag/travelling-worm/" target="_blank">#travellingWorm</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://travellingworm.com/tag/travelog/" target="_blank">#travelog</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://travellingworm.com/tag/travelogue/" target="_blank">#travelogue</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://travellingworm.com/tag/victoria/" target="_blank">#Victoria</a></p>